Redemption Value Question
 

Hi All,

I think I am calculating this correctly but I'm not sure. If I'm looking at hotel rooms that are $440 a night, that have a 30K points award then I am looking at a RV of ~1.46 cents for point right? Is that a reasonable RV? I looked all across the area we are staying (Seattle) and the range is .88 to 1.46.
Trying to make sure I maximize value over just looking for least amount of points since they are all 25 or 30K.

Yes. That's a good value. Anything over .8 cpp is solid.

Yes, from a pure math standpoint, even more if the $440 doesn't include taxes.

That is a great RV assuming the hotel fits your needs and the $440 is a typical rate and not jacked up for an event or other reason. I ask myself would I think the $440 is reasonable to pay in cash if I had to. A good RV can quickly diminished if its in the opposite side of town, no breakfast, parking charges, etc so keep that in mind.

Hm, looks like the hotel goes anywhere from $151 to over $500 throughout the month. Apparently for the ONE Wed night I need everything is costing a lot. Nothing available for points on the night I need in the downtown area but this one is pretty close.

Looking at Hilton as well( completely sold out in the area the Marriott rooms are) but right down town I'm getting an RV of .64/.68 however its eating up 60K points... I think Im better off at Marriott for less points and a higher RV

Hilton's big devaluation earlier this year effectively locks their points into that .6-ish cent value with a few limited exceptions.

Midsummer Seattle hotel rates can be spiky...if you're seeing $400-ish all over town, I'd probably spend the Marriott points. That's what they're there for.

I've stayed in all of the downtown Seattle hotels except the CY Pioneer Square. I consider them all positive representations of their brands and would probably just pick the one most convenient for you. My personal fave was the Renaissance...I became a pretty regular guest there and got to know the FDC's and bartenders pretty well. :)

Stayed at the Hilton Seattle once. Felt it was an "average" Hilton, which is not as nice as the Marriott properties. The only case I'd make for redeeming there is (a) you don't see yourself otherwise exploiting better uses of HH points such as a 5-night award and (b) are holding your MR points for a Travel Package.

You can't compare programs just based on redemption "values". Earn rates and redeem rates are in arbitrary amounts. If Marriott devalued all points by a factor of 1000, and cut all redemption rates by a factor of 1000, that room would now be $440 for 35 points. $14 per point doesn't suddenly make it the best redemption in recorded history. It's just a number.

1.4 cents is a quite good rate for Marriott. It's lousy for SPG. It's great for Hilton. It's bad for AA. Etc., etc.

To do it correctly. you need to convert earning and redemption to dollars - how many dollars do you need to spend to redeem $x worth of free rooms. It's been a few years since I did that, but it's a valuable exercise.


TPG published a current "value" of points, which I find to be relatively accurate.

Agreed....1.4 is solid for Marriott, and I'm one who overvalues my Marriott points a bit since I usually earn enough to get into the higher-level Travel Packages.

Hilton is performing well for now on the reward-value-earned-per-dollar-spent metric by bonusing the hell out of Diamonds. They can't seem to get themselves off of the point-inflation train, and have gone through multiple hefty devaluations in the past decade. (Remember when 100,000 HH points = 6 nights in Hawaii?) So there's another reason to not sit on a gigantic pile of HH, although for this one-nighter I'd still use Marriott.

1.4 is solid for this night but if the next night goes for $150 (.5), I'd feel hosed. It's the same room, just overpriced. Tough dilemma and it would be my absolute last choice if I couldn't find cheaper. I'd burn off the Hilton points and be done with the program if at all possible.

That's summer in Seattle... Portland's similar, although there I can usually get my corporate rate downtown in the low/mid-$200's.

The Marriott Waterfront was probably the spikiest of them all, thanks to cruise traffic.

$150 would be an excellent rate in downtown Seattle for a weeknight. Even the Microsoft corp rates 10 years ago were higher than that.

Then there would be nights where the whole city was $350+...and then I'd find a really good Pan Pacific promo code that actually worked for far less. (PP is a great hotel - should ordinarily price above MR/SPG/HH.)

SF can be like that during conventions . . . Everything will be over $500 Monday through Thursday, then drop under $200 for Friday-Sunday.

If I need the room during the week, and can redeem at 1.4 cpp when the paid rates are at the high end, I don't really care what it drops to after I leave. Just not relevant to the decision whether to pay $500 or burn points at 1.4 cents per.