Ripley62

I think first and foremost Marriott and the hotel owner will need cash, So I think cash rate will make for some very terrible points per dollar redemptions.

The St Regis, regardless of which St. Regis is actually a very bad example because a lot of the 85K, 100K peak, per night St. Regis were 30-35k SPG points, thus 90k-115k Marriott points. If you could get a points booking. RC's former top Tier was 70K points. In less than a year after the official merger date those top level properties were temporarily reduced to the new category system max of 60K. Now of course an additional top category was added.

As an example the Gritti Place under Starwood was 130K SPG points for 5 nights before the merger was completed. The St Regis NY was 30K- 35K SPG points per night, 90K-105K per night Marriott, Thus the top level St Regis are still cheaper today than pre merger.

I think of those month you could reserve those top St. Regis properties for 60k/night/ 5 nights for 240K as a sale part of the early merger transition.