Originally Posted by
craigthemif
"Extremely high cash rates" sometimes, but not always, coincides with the standard rooms being sold out - therefore no points availability.
To be frank, some crappy Hyatt Place well located for an important college football game would also have "extremely high cash rates", but it would be a dumb place for you to chase Instagram likes. Just pick a hotel and a city that you would like to visit and ignore the "I got 50 cents per point" or whatever. Award categories 7 and 8 are a good place to start but you are more likely to find gems in Categories 5 or 6....
Not chasing likes or looking for the best redemptions. Yes, some lower cat hotels can hit ridiculous rates like $1,000+ but can also be booked other months for $100-200, which means it could easily be booked for less by changing around your travel dates. However, some hotels are never cheap and the cash prices START from an extremely high rate even during off-peak times. Those are the hotels I'm looking to take advantage of booking on points because I wouldn't have the opportunity to try otherwise. I don't churn, so my points are limited and I'd love to take advantage of them to try some hotels that I wouldn't be able to with cash. For example, I see Park Hyatt NYC for $1200-1500 a night sometimes, but can easily switch the dates and find rooms for $700 a night, which is still expensive but more realistic. You are right, there are a lot of gems that are in cat 5 or 6 but most hotels in this category can easily be booked for $200-300 a night.