Originally Posted by escape4

Bill are you sure this is correct? Last year when we stayed at St.Regis we took a walk on the reef side one afternoon, and I assumed that the villas over there were the ones called room type "reefside" ie the points awards. Overlooking the concrete wall from where we were walking on the reef, you could see pools in all villas if I am not mistaken. I did not think these could be the beach villas since by definition there is no beach on that side, it was the reef.

If this is correct, my takeaway from this was that for points reservations, St.Regis is worlds apart from Conrad because not only you get a standalone villa, but you get a pool as well. At Conrad if booking on points you get a suite in a shared building and no pool. If I was to book with points and knew ahead of time I would not get an upgrade, St.Regis is where I want to be. If paying cash for an OWV, you can get a decent hard product at Conrad for much cheaper than at St.Regis so arguably Conrad OWVs are decent value for the money.