I just booked the JW Desert Ridge in Phoenix for 100k points for 3 nights + $250 marriott check. The best rate I could find for the dates we're there was $320 + tax using a discount code. That puts the cash value somewhere around $1300 including tax for 100k points.
I think this is a fair deal, for a resort, Cat 6 hotel. We'll be there over the Thanksgiving holiday, I was sort of surprised they had rooms at standard reward rates....
This is the main reason (despite having over 1.5m points in my account) I really only use the points for travel rewards (the packages with airfare are good) and don't use them for merchandise... despite how nice that 42" plasma screen looks ... but not at 800k points!
Originally Posted by camachinist
In our case, as we redeem CAT 6 or 7 travel packages primarily, I wouldn't consider a hotel with less than a 300/nt USD BAR. Generally, the ones we've used and consider were/are closer to 400-500/nt. To put it in perspective, I rent our intervals out at rates in that range (300-400/nt).