It’s one of my pet peeves in the “Hobby”- the headlines that proclaim “$2,500 hotel room for FREE”. They drive me nuts for two reasons:
- Points and miles are not valueless- even if you spent only time to get them.
- No one on EARTH is paying $10,000 for a 4 night hotel stay. Right?
Well…that’s my dilemma. I just booked a room on points and cash that I feasibly see someone paying $2,500 a night to inhabit. Not ME, of course, and probably not YOU if you’re reading this post, but I do see it.
The $2,500 room in question is at the Grand Hyatt Martinez in Cannes, on the French Riviera, in August. When you google image the hotel many of the photos that surface are of celebrities on room balconies to give you an idea. (Go ahead, I’ll wait).
I’m not a celebrity stalker, but what I am is a tourism history nerd. The French Riviera is the original destination for the jet set so has been on my must see list for forever. The Martinez is an Art Deco wedding cake of a hotel smack dab in the middle of the action. In a perfect world I’d visit off-season when it is (comparatively speaking) affordable for those of us without trust funds.
However…as you may recall I get one “big” solo trip every other year while Deal Dad takes the kids on Camp Dad. The trip is always…the first two weeks of August. Prime time for the French Riviera, which is a blessing and a curse. A blessing because there’s a festival practically everyday (including a fireworks festival!). A curse because prices are peak of the peak.
The base level room at the Martinez starts at $680 on my dates but was also available (much to my surprise) on cash + points of 12,500 points and $150. It’s a splurge even on cash and points for me but the free breakfast and happy hour offered to Hyatt Diamond members will pretty much erase my food budget. Not to mention the free manicures.
My surprises didn’t stop there. I called the Diamond line on a lark thinking there wasn’t a chance one of my Diamond Suite Upgrades could be applied on such peak dates. My birthday isn’t till June but the presents came early! 4 nights confirmed into a Junior Suite for a grand total of $600 + 50,000 Hyatt Points or $1100 value. Just for fun I pulled up the actual room rate:
WHOA.
I usually dismiss such claims out of hand but I’m guessing Gwen Stefani paid at least $2,500/night for her room. I don’t see Eva Longoria or Julianne Moore staying on points. Granted, they probably also booked the larger suites, which are over $4,100/night. You never know, I might just get lucky and end up in a larger suite myself!
I could end up with an entire floor at the Hotel Martinez and still not feel like it’s a $2,500 hotel room. I’m struggling with a $275 hotel room! But I know a lot of you are better at Vendoming than I am so I’m curious: what do you think this room is really worth?
To keep my street cred I’m coming to the Martinez from the Holiday Inn Cannes, which is 20,000 IHG points a night. I have a late arrival into Cannes and didn’t want to waste the points. I think it will also make a fun comparison.
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I think it was a great redemption, and as a mom that works overtime for her kids year-round you deserve luxury on vacation. It makes you a better mom, wife, friend when you come back. It looks like a beautiful property! Now what’s that particular room worth? I think worth is determined by how much someone is willing to pay for something. If no one was paying that rate, the hotel would lower the price or discount it. I personally would probably pay up to $500 a night for a hotel, but it would severely limit the number of nights we could vacation. That being said, I might be vendoming luxury hotels in Bangkok! It’s your vacation and you can spend it how you want!
HI Brandi,
The good news for you is that Vendoming hotels in BKK won’t kill your budget!
It’s worth nothing to me. You’d have to pay me to be in a busy resort in Europe in August. Even if the room is free, everything else like food, drinks, laundry, etc.. will be crowded and a massive ripoff.
I’d rather be exploring some historic city, hiking mountains or scuba diving.
Hi Rick,
I hear you and I usually lean away from the skid rather than slide into it. It’s just the only time I can go to a place I really want to see so if I’m going to pay through the nose, I might as well get something from it.
Yes, I suppose that location is all about glitz so might as well participate in style. Unless you can think of more interesting alternatives to visit.
Croatia and Slovenia are very scenic and affordable, but very packed that time of year.
Fabulous! You picked the French Riviera!
And really, the value of anything is subjective, based on what any two people can agree is a price that one will pay the other for it.
Apparently, the price of a nice room at the Grand Hyatt Cannes is exceptionally high.
You see the same thing with real estate all over the world. The price of a decent starter home in my area is in the vicinity of $175K. In San Francisco, you can get a 3 bedroom for under $500K–but it’s a condo, and it’s tiny. In Paris, if you are willing to live in one of the less desirable arrondissements, you can get a box in a very old building for under $1M.
It’s all relative.
Hi MickiSue,
Maybe I should have posted the entire itinerary first😎 but this hotel just caught my attention. More details to come!
Good point, sitting here in DC it certainly is! Deal Dad and I are counting the days till the kids no longer need good schools so we can divest.
We brought our 15 month old there for the exact same booking alst summer. 4 nights in a suite. They have a number of suites. They are fantastic. While ours was a few rooms in from the front on the side, it had an enormous deck and a stellar sea view. The value as a diamond is the pink champagne and happy hour. Enjoy. We didn’t much care for Cannes. But the room was great.
Hi Jon,
Thanks for the 1st hand review. A couple of questions:
1. I’m thinking days exploring the region, nights in Cannes. Does Cannes work as a base or is Nice or Marseille better?
2. Did you rent a car? If so, how was parking?
Thanks so much!
Cannes was a good base. We did rent a car and we really enjoyed Nice. Parking was easy as there was plenty of non valet parking outside the hotel. We found the publi beaches a few miles up the road a bit better with the little guy
Perfect. Thanks!
I recently booked 3 nights in a suite @ Park Hyatt Vendome for my family. This is just under 150k UR for a 3 night stay. Is it a great value? For others no! For me, YES! That’s about $3000 in Chase points for only a 3 night stay. My cost on the points was only 3 signup bonuses. For a family of THREE staying in ONE room in Paris, the options are really limited. Almost everywhere enforces 2 people per room on entry level points award stays. Hyatt Diamond for us, so the free food should be a really nice boost in the value of this.
What matters is that it works for you. For future reference the Etoile suites will also sleep 3 or more. We got lucky and ended up in the Ambassador suite over Bastille Day…bug that’s another story!
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