I find redemption values, at least at the lower and midrange properties (Hampton, Homewood, DoubleTree, etc.), to be much better in slightly more out of the way places. For me recently, places like North Dakota, Montana, San Antonio and Kansas City. I'm talking 30k-40k points for hotels with a cash rate of $150-250. Nothing crazy, but I was certainly doing better than 0.5 cpp. I found it a good use of my points, as someone that doesn't do much travel to high end or resort type properties.

On the other hand, in bigger cities like LA and Seattle, even when cash rates are low (like $150-200), the points rate is often still something like 50k, which is just a bad value. I just pay with cash for these. I have noticed sometimes the points rate drops down to something more reasonable a few weeks before the stay, though. A DoubleTree I had booked in Anaheim was 50k points for the longest time, and dropped down to 35k a few weeks before the stay. The cash rate was around $150 the whole time.