Originally Posted by
SP03
I'm seeing 2.0 cpp redemptions across the board for Points Boosts. And it's actually pretty impressive.
For the dates I'm looking at, I can either spend 312k Bonvoy points on two nights at the Ritz Nomad, or 252k UR points. You even get free breakfast and $100 credit for less points. Now I'm sure you would never transfer UR points to Marriott at 1:1, but I'm sure many people do.
But for people who value a luxury hotel, the question then becomes why bother hotel chains, when you can just book the FS at even less.
This looks like a good deal until you compare it to a direct booking. Not sure if this books into an upgraded room or not (maybe it does) but the lowest regular rate (taxes and fees included) for the same dates at the Ritz is $4,302. So if you want to get to the "2 cents per point valuation" you have to value daily breakfast and dining credit at about $750.
I do see the Marriott Bonvoy Eligible - that's a nice little feature.. and brings the effective cost down a good bit (4X extra points at 1.2 cents per point means the cost of the breakfast and dining credit is now only $500).
I know this is different since it is about the point booster, but this is what I always ran into with FHR... the FHR rate was always substantially higher than the best available market rate, even for the same room. So then it became a question of how much I valued the dining credit + late checkout + free breakfast + FHR credit minus the loss of elite benefits (or qualification) and earnings at the hotel.
Edited to add: The Four Seasons one is a bit more compelling given that there is no loyalty program, the room cost is competitive with direct booking, and you get the 8X point boost (although on the flip side with no BRG, you can find OTA prices for ~$350 less so there is still an implicit "cost" of the benefits).