Hah, I did a very similar thing. Had the Tokyo Dome Hotel booked for 1/10 to 1/11 for one night (the last night of my trip, as I’m coming back from Osaka to go to a couple of events in Tokyo the night of 1/10 and morning of 1/11 before flying home at 7:45 pm on the 11th)- it’s a perfectly fine Japanese 4 star hotel that I’ve stayed at before, but also nothing to write home about. I think the price I was paying was $210 or something.

Once this $300 credit dropped, I booked the Palace Hotel, a beautiful looking 5 star with views of the Imperial Gardens, for $689. But that will soon become $389 after the credit. An extra $179 already feels more than worth it for the level of hotel upgrade I’m getting here (and the FHR rate is basically exactly the same as the direct rate for this night), then you add in the $100 property credit, the free breakfast and especially the guaranteed 4 pm checkout (great for me since again I don’t fly home until late evening) and it feels like I made out like a bandit here.