I merged the threads here, in award booking help.
It's a big topic....
First thing to consider is that there's two things you need from a hotel, at a base level: Shelter Need and Pampering Need. The first relates to simply being clean and safe, and suitably located, the later is all the fancy things that we 'want' from a nice stay.
An interesting thing about hotel programs is that there are value spots in terms of point price to cash price, and also relative point price. This means that you can find some great hotels at 15,000 Hyatt points, and some average ones.
It also means that based upon where you stay, you can find great value, or not. For SPG, I couldn't justify 35K per night, never mind 120K... and would almost exclusively use the pts to transfer into airlines at 1.125 exchange rates. The exception (one exception) to this is using the SPG Luxury Collection in India, where we had some real gems at the 4000-10000 price points.
So... all that means that based upon where you elect to go (Bora Bora, Maldives, Bali) you will have relative cost and value from the points. Bali (I guess) gives you better value than Maldives across the board, because the region is a lot cheaper.
TOOL>> A tool that is essential to learning about the region you are staying in is awardmapper or hotel hustle.
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You also need to think about total cost of the trip, and the viability. When I booked our trip to the Maldives, it was because I simply couldn't get us to Bora Bora on flights that made sense to us. So Bora Bora might only work if you have the right miles, enough of them, and get lucky.
Additionally, you need to factor in the cost of the flights+hotels+incidentals. Maldives came with a Sea Plane flight costing about $450 pp. It's a substantial surcharge to the hotel.
The final consideration is miles/points cannibalism, or opportunity costs. For those who don't earn for free from work the following loose rules can apply, depending on your spending limit:
- Hyatt is generated by UR which eats into UA and other transfers
- SPG eats into airline mile transfers
- Marriott eats into Hyatt and UR
- Hilton eats into Cash back (grocery store)
If you find a destination that has hotels in the $200-300 range, it might be worth looking at cash payments via an Arrival/Spark/Venture card, you can get $500-$2000 of spend from those that can help.