For my case, it has been worth it all the time. Usually hotel branded credit cards gives out free night awards certificate yearly that can be worth beyond the annual fee. So, I just think of the card as no annual fee card.
Also, the points you earn during sign up and using the card can give you nice vacation without worrying the high hotel room cost. For example, Marriott Bonvoy, if you use points for 4night you get 5th night free which I love the most about the program.

Yesterday, I made the hard call to drop from the Amex Bonvoy Brilliance card to the Bevy card. (The $650 card to the $250 level.) I had been at the $450 level since the card was introduced.

When the card was $450 and included a $300 property credit plus a free night, it was a clear cut "better-than-free" card. At $650 with the credit flipped to a trickle of dining credits, even with the free night rising to a higher category, it's at best an approximately "free" card, but one where I have to front the $650 to get benefits.

The Bevy card, a straightforward $250 for a 50k cert, makes more sense for me.

Some other factors:
- I'm already LT Titanium so any comped statuses or elite-qualifying nights are meaningless to me.
- My redemption sweet spot tends to be the 40-50k hotels. I don't have a lot of one-night super-high-end stays where the 85k cert would be worth a lot to me. I'd be looking for Ritzes and such to use it at, which could be fun, but I have enough regular points to do that if I choose.
- I have the Hilton Aspire card, so the other premium Amex perks come with that, including whatever is left of Priority Pass lounge membership (which I no longer place much value on).
- The Bevy card has a couple of interesting smaller throw-ins, such as a 1k point bonus on every Marriott stay and bonus points on supermarket spend. If those add up to 20-30k a year, then it's almost like having the higher-category free night cert.
- I probably wouldn't chase the Brilliance threshold for the 2nd free night. I don't stay at $60k worth of Marriotts and even if I threw all of my restaurant and travel spend at the card I don't think I'd get there.

With Hilton Honors you pick the room you want regardless of how you are paying for it. For me, yes it has been worth getting the Hilton Honors Amer. Exp.

Yeah. Typically, you can find an OTA which is cheaper almost instantly. So you pay more for the points (and, potentially, the benefits).

Just as an example, often times major ITA's like hotels.com offer 10-15% cashback (e.g., 13% for hotels.com was available the day before yesterday). Sometimes, OTA like booking.com offer nonpublic rates that are ~15% cheaper than the direct rate (using Genius rebates and such).

Neither cash-back opportunities nor nonpublic rates are things you can leverage for a BRG. (I think BRG is mostly dead, anyhow. YMMV.) Heavily discounted rates from OTA like Ctrip which sometimes try to get rid of excess room inventory they bought can, potentially, be leveraged for a BRG claim. But, again, BRG claims have become a waste of time for the most part.

Besides, I think the most important issue in practice is that people which are invested in loyalty are less price-sensitive and much less likely to price-compare/shop around for the best offer. Lots of evidence to that effect. Instead, people invested in loyalty become more engaged within the context of the program (e.g., respond to program promos or engage with co-brands/loyalty program partners).

As others have said, generally the experience doesn't seem to be that award rooms are the worst rooms. Just because the room is free to you doesn't mean that the hotel is giving it away. You pay $0 for a "free" room, but the individual property gets paid cash from the central loyalty program (which is where the money from the credit cards goes). I'm sure the details vary by program, but we got insight here as to how the SPG program worked prior to the Marriott acquisition: if the hotel was < 90% occupied that night, then the hotel got a base amount for free rooms which at least covered their expenses (housekeeping, utilities, etc). In that case, the hotel isn't out anything, as the room would have been empty anyway, and the guest might buy something while there. If the hotel was > 90% occupancy that night, then the hotel got paid the average room rate for that night. Either way, there's no reason for the hotel to have an attitude about "free" room redemptions.

BRG, which ffgap mentioned several times times above, means Best Rate Guarantee. This site explains it a bit more:

https://www.xotels.com/en/glossary/b...rate-guarantee

I just asked for it to be added to the FlyerTalk glossary.

We have gotten numerous upgrades on reward rooms from IHG. In our experiences as travelers
having reward cards that elevate our status are the best moves we have made.

70k Best Western points for a room night with a published price approximating $2900? Good deal when all major brand hotels across the city were showing as sold out or having crazy high prices.

10k Choice points for a room night going for the equivalent of $300+? Good deal.

2k Hyatt points per room night when the nightly rate was the equivalent of $180+ and the cheapest same quality hotel in the same area is going for $80 per room night? Good deal.

I wish that I could say that airline miles provide as consistently accessible good value for me as hotel points. But the likes of Marriott and Hilton are putting a squeeze on the value of hotel points too, and this devaluation disease seems to be getting worse and is spreading.

About award nights at hotels landing in the worst rooms? That happens at times, as some of my worst rooms have been on award nights. But my best upgrades have been on award nights. I don’t find award nights to mean consistently ending up in the worst rooms consistently. If anything, for me the award nights seem to come with a lower chance of ending up in the proverbial janitor’s closet for a room. Could be a function in part of those with some hotel elite status more likely to stay on more aware nights than those without hotel elite status.

Price increases are not a disease, they are the best way that markets adjust demand to match the supply of unsold room nights.

That’s in an open, free market economy — regardless of the thoughts about inflation levels in such economy — using openly exchangeable fiat money.

Airline and hotel program miles/points, however, are funny money “currencies” whose use takes place in a corporate-controlled environment under the rules which suit airline/hotel loyalty program owners/operators and their shareholders. They are incentivized to propel ahead the miles/points devaluation disease as part of revenue and earnings management.

The "disease" part, to me, is how the hotel chains are addicted to marketing these programs as a utopia for travelers, never any warnings that the points may devalue or that some elite benefits may not always be available. The Marriott Bonvoy page often shows hotels that aren't actually available for a reasonable number of points, or shows suites that aren't regularly given as upgrades. The most savvy FTers realize it's all marketing nonsense and doesn't constitute a real promise. We're jaded, we expect bait & switch - especially from big hotel chains, some of the more ethically dubious businesses I ever interact with.

But I can see why so many travelers are annoyed. They respond to the marketing, maybe even do enough stays to reach an elite tier. But what they think they've been promised - slivers of future free nights and suite upgrades once the 50th/75th/whatever night is complete - was never actually there to begin with. Their "funny money" is vaporware and could disappear at any time, at capital's discretion.

If the hotels were honest, the rewards programs would be a very minor element of the hotel's value proposition, as they are with smaller boutique brands where far fewer implied promises are made.

I am not annoyed at all. We buy points at discount, leverage the two IHG cards so we get 10% back and/or four nights for the price of three. We get an anniversary night that is worth more than the annual fee, room upgrades, better treatment, welcome points or drinks, late checkout and sometimes other random perks.

I know hotel points combined with co-branded credit cards totally rock if you are savvy about using them.

Good point. Hotel points are no less manipulated than fiat currency is, as anyone that witnessed the great COVID-19 USD devaluation can attest to.

Well, yeah, Flyertalkers who pay close attention to the programs and know how to extract value from ideal acquisition and redemption of points can still make out well.

But to millions of others, the marketing of these programs is a little sneaky at best, intentionally deceptive at worst. They make a lot of implied promises to someone who isn't already super experienced in being disappointed by these brands.

I understand what you are saying but many things in life are like that. Some people understand how to make these things work for them and are aggressive about it. Other people aren’t aggressive. I don’t think I have ever read an outright lie about one of these programs or credit cards or anything else like that.

Now I do believe in educating my fellow man and that is the best I feel we can do about it.