As others have said, generally the experience doesn't seem to be that award rooms are the worst rooms. Just because the room is free to you doesn't mean that the hotel is giving it away. You pay $0 for a "free" room, but the individual property gets paid cash from the central loyalty program (which is where the money from the credit cards goes). I'm sure the details vary by program, but we got insight here as to how the SPG program worked prior to the Marriott acquisition: if the hotel was < 90% occupied that night, then the hotel got a base amount for free rooms which at least covered their expenses (housekeeping, utilities, etc). In that case, the hotel isn't out anything, as the room would have been empty anyway, and the guest might buy something while there. If the hotel was > 90% occupancy that night, then the hotel got paid the average room rate for that night. Either way, there's no reason for the hotel to have an attitude about "free" room redemptions.