Studying the hotel rewards available for HHonors points in five U.S. cities of Boston, Charlotte, Minneapolis, New York and San Francisco revealed some trends and standard practices for HHonors based on my analysis of about 100 or so hotels.

Standard Rewards in the USA typically offer redemption value in the range of $4.00 to $6.00 per 1,000 points. This means 100,000 HHonors points will buy about $400 to $600 in Hilton-brand hotel room stays based on the Best Flexible Rate (BAR). Standard Reward value in the USA is more likely to fall below $4.00 per 1,000 points (e.g. 50,000 points for a $200 room rate) than above $6.00 rate (e.g. 50,000 points for a $300 room rate).

In my survey of Hilton-brand hotels I generally found 90% or more hotels offered Standard Rewards. Read More…

San Francisco is the second city in my five U.S. cities survey to show the redemption value of Hilton HHonors points following the March 28, 2013 award category changes.

I checked random dates over the next three months for Hilton brand hotels in five U.S. cities.

• Boston
• Charlotte
• Minneapolis
• New York
• San Francisco

My objective is to see what the typical redemption value is for HHonors points. A decade ago I typically received about $1,200 to $1,500 in hotel stay savings for every 100,000 points I redeemed when I was able to book a category 5 hotel for a six night award stay. There were only six award categories and top hotels in Category 6 were a select group of VIP premium awards with high rates and even better redemption values.

Hilton HHonors has gone through three devaluations since then. $12 to $15 per 1,000 points is a rare value to find these days. Most of the category 5 hotels from 2003 are now category 7 or higher. 5th night free awards means a 5-night stay at a 50,000 points per night hotel will cost 200,000 points today.

Hotel category has less meaning now that there are also peak season rates. Read More…

Lucky wrote a series of posts this week on One Mile at a Time giving his take on What Airline Miles and Hotel Points are worth. I criticized his hotel points analysis without reading his ‘Introduction’ piece on the four part series where he gives this disclosure:

But my main point is simply that everyone’s valuation is going to be different, both in absolute terms and in relative terms. Disagree with my analysis? That’s great, and please let me know. This is just my opinion, and at the end of the day there’s no right or wrong answer.

Lucky travels all the time, earns and redeems millions of miles and points and he has a good background for evaluating the relative value of points and miles.

That being said, I think for the consumer collecting miles and points, the value of miles and points is so personalized, especially for hotel points, that there is little value in assigning a specific value for hotel points. The value of points or miles is not set until you actually redeem them for something tangible like a flight or hotel room.

And your elite status level is a major factor in the value of points and miles, especially when comparing value across different hotel or airline programs.

There is a value range for any specific type of hotel points.

For example, Hilton points are rarely going to be worth over $20 per 1,000 points, even if you do get a $1,000 per night hotel room for 50,000 points. Lucky says he values Hilton HHonors points at $4 per 1,000 points. He personally values 100,000 HHonors points to be worth about $400.

100,000 HHonors points buys two nights in a category 7 hotel redeeming for a standard room award. 100,000 HHonors points buys five nights in a category 3 hotel redeeming for a 5th night free award. 

Are both of these Hilton brand hotels going to be a $400 value? The answer not only depends on the hotel, but who you are in the hotel loyalty program.

Are you a general member with 100,000 HHonors points?

Or are you a Diamond member and repeat guest at the hotel where you are redeeming points?

Are you redeeming five nights at a Hilton Garden Inn where nearly all the rooms are identical?

Or are you redeeming points for the Fontainebleau Miami Beach where you can be placed in a high floor ocean view massive suite with complimentary breakfast or a standard low floor level basic hotel room.

The room you receive at a hotel and many of the services included in a hotel points award stay will depend on who you are in the hotel loyalty program and possibly your relationship with the specific hotel.

Suite Living or urban rear window dwelling?

This week I stayed at Hotel Kamp, a Starwood Luxury Collection Hotel in Helsinki, Finland. I redeemed points for a SPG Category 5 Cash & Points award. I applied a suite upgrade certificate. These are the certificates given to SPG Platinum members staying 50 nights or more in a calendar year.

I stayed in an $800 per night room in the historic section of Hotel Kamp with a two room suite, high ceilings and a corner facing view of the famous Esplanade, whereas, there was likely someone else at the hotel using the same type of SPG category Cash & Points award who received a standard room in the modern wing of the hotel with a view of the interior infrastructure of the hotel between two building wings.

We both may have spent the same $90 and 4,800 points for the hotel stay, but my elite status with Starwood and perhaps my relationship with the hotel was a major factor in the type of room I received compared with the room some other SPG base member receives for the same award cost. Besides the room upgrade, there was a bottle of wine and a box of chocolates in the suite and I had complimentary internet and Platinum members on award stays receive breakfast.

Airline Business Class seats are the same regardless of status.

The value of frequent flyer miles has a much smaller range for airline travel. The United Mileage Plus 1K member is not going to get a better seat in First Class than the Mileage Plus general member redeeming miles for the same First Class award ticket. Regardless of elite status, both members are in the same First Class cabin on the same plane with the same access to meals and drink and the same access to the airport First Class lounge. The elite member may have an advantage with award change fees or cancellation privileges, but not with the type of product received for the miles.

Yet, elite status can also play a big difference in the value of airline miles.

Again, the example of  my personal travel award this week shows how elite status can greatly impact the value of miles.

I redeemed 30,000 AA miles for economy class award tickets to travel this week from Berlin to Oslo, Norway to Helsinki, Finland to London to Chicago to San Francisco with four overnight layovers. My American Airlines Platinum elite status allowed me to visit airport lounges as part of my international award travel.

On Monday I was in the British Airways lounge at Berlin Tegel eating and drinking for 90 minutes before my flight.

On Tuesday I was in the Oneworld lounge at Oslo Airport. Sitting in the lounge I was hit with a Finnair 90 minute flight delay. No problem. I consumed the equivalent of another $100 in food and beer, based on Oslo prices. Seriously! $100 in food and drink is like two smoked salmon sandwiches and three glasses of beer based on Oslo dining prices.

On Wednesday I had dinner and beer at the Finnair lounge in Helsinki and Thursday I had a multiple course Thai, Chinese and Indian dinner with beer at the Cathay Pacific lounge in London Heathrow before getting into my economy class American Airlines seat for the flight back to the US.

30,000 United miles for an economy class award flight from Berlin to San Francisco would not have given me access to any airport lounges. I do not have elite status with United Mileage Plus.

But I can status match to Premier Executive with United Mileage Plus and on the next award flight to Europe get Star Alliance airport lounge access even when flying economy class. The value of points and miles fluctuates and with elite status the value of points and miles in your account can go up.

The value of points and miles does not necessarily go down year to year.

Value of points and miles are truly personalized and elite status matters.

Elite status is probably the biggest single factor affecting the value of your miles and points. Elite status is a major factor in the value of points for hotel award nights. Elite status primarily plays a factor in the value of airline miles when you are traveling international on economy class awards.

Here are a couple of posts merged together. The first piece is an expanded version of my response to a FlyerTalk question on the relative value of 100,000 points in Hilton HHonors, Hyatt Gold Passport and IHG Priority Club. The second piece is about my plans for fulfilling several hotel promotions over the next three months to earn loads of free nights. This is the time to plan summer travel if you want to use hotel loyalty programs to pay low rates now and redeem for high rate hotels this summer.

Comparing the value of hotel program points

1. Hyatt and IHG do not have extended stay discounts. You pay the same nightly reward rate for a five night stay as a one night stay. 15,000 points a night will cost 75,000 points for five nights.

Hilton offers 15% off standard award rate for VIP 4-night stays, 20% off 5-night stays (same with Marriott and Starwood) and 25% off for 6 nights and longer stays. This makes a category 7 hotel reward for six nights drop from 300,000 to 225,000 points with HHonors. 

2. In terms of earn/burn the programs are comparable in that HHonors for a Points & Points earner takes $3,334 in spend to earn a top category 7 reward night at 50,000 points.  This amount is reduced by 15% to 25% for extended stay VIP rewards. HHonors elite status also reduces the hotel spend needed to earn 50,000 points. 

IHG takes $4,000 in hotel spend to earn a 40,000 points high-tier InterContinental Hotel reward or $3,000 for low tier hotels. $2,500 earns a free night at any Crowne Plaza which will likely be a comparable category 7 Hilton in many cities. Again, Priority Club Platinum elite status reduces the hotel spend needed. Priority Club has a lower earn rate of 5 points/$1 with extended stay brands Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites. InterContinental Hotels are limited to 2,000 points per stay which generally require more than $200 in hotel spend for this luxury hotel brand. 

Hyatt takes $4,400 for a category 6 hotel reward at 22,000 points or $3,600 for a category 5 hotel at 18,000 points. Gold Passport only gives a 30% bonus for Diamond elites compared to 50% bonus points for HHonors and Priority Club top elites. 

3. The distribution of hotels among hotel reward categories is an important consideration when comparing the value of points across hotel programs. 

Hilton is top heavy. Hilton has a higher percentage of hotels in its top two categories of 6 and 7 than any other major hotel program has in its top two tiers of hotel rewards. Hilton has a 7,500 points category 1 reward, but only about 40 hotels in that category or about 1% of Hilton brand hotels worldwide. 

Hyatt is bottom heavy, meaning your 100,000 points will go a long way in Hyatt if used at Category 1 (5,000 points) and Category 2 (8,000 points) hotels. Hyatt has over 60% of its hotels in category 1 and 2.

A category 5 or 6 hotel in Hyatt is generally something pretty special. A category 6 or 7 hotel in Hilton may be really nice or just a mediocre hotel in a popular location. My local Embassy Suites is a category 7 and in no way compares to the Hyatt Carmel Highlands Inn at category 6. The Highlands Inn typically commands summer rates in $600 range compared to Hilton in $200 range.

IHG is brand specific reward cost meaning there are some great deals and some not so great deals. Crowne Plaza is 25,000 points per night regardless if the hotel is an average of $100 per night or $300 per night. 

Bottom line for mid-tier to upper-tier hotel reward redemptions:

100,000 Hilton buys 2 to 4 nights. Pointstretchers increase this to 3 to 6 nights. VIP rewards require more points, but give big savings on high category rewards.

Assume 30 hotel nights at $100 per night and 100,000 Hilton points are likely to be earned with $3,000 to $4,000 in hotel spend.

100,000 Hyatt points buys 5 to 12 nights. Even up to 20 nights. Assume 30 nights and 100,000 Hyatt points are likely to be earned for about $3,000 to $4,000 in hotel spend with the current promotion, Diamond amenity points and base points. As a Diamond member I have received over 6,000 points on a $100 hotel night with 1,000 points Diamond amenity bonus; 2,500 points for closed Regency Club, 650 points for stay and 2,000 points for a property specific bonus (aka “G” bonus).

100,000 Priority Club buys 3 to 6 nights. Discount reward rates increase this to 6 to 12 nights. Priority Club members can earn 100,000 points for under $1,000 in hotel spend. Priority Club is an amazing program for cheap points. I earned over 10,000 points on my $100 hotel stay two weeks ago. And I bought 10,000 points for $60 on my recent reward night at The Palazzo Las Vegas.

Planning out loyalty promotion hotel stays

Looking at our tax return and thinking “vacation”.  So I am planning out hotel stays to fulfill a variety of promotions for earning free nights for summer vacation travel. My wife Kelley gets a full six weeks out of school before needing to set-up class for next school year.

Here are promotion offers I am looking to fulfill:

• Club Carlson – 2 stays by June 15 = 1 free night at any of 1,000+ hotels around the world.
• Priority Club – Crack the Case – I can’t believe I still need 3 more hotel nights to get my 91,000 Crack the Case Priority Club bonus points. I am reprimanding myself right now for not getting all the hotel stays between October and December 2010 when every two stays earned a free night. Too much time away from my working wife and too little money to spend on travel seems to be the primary obstacles to living an Intercontinental Priority Club life.
• Starwood Preferred Guest – every three stays earns a free night at a Starwood Resort. There are over 200 resorts around the world where $300 in hotel stays between May 1 and July 31 can earn a free night for a $300+ resort night.

In my economic reality this means 3 hotel nights are free for the next three months when I consider the actual daily rate of a luxury resort hotel. In other words, one guest pays $3,000 for a one week resort vacation, while another SPG guest like me pays zero dollars in room rate and tax for the same $3,000 one week resort hotel while spending $2,000 for 21 separate one-night hotel stays that earn 7 free Starwood Hotel nights. 

The loyalty traveler plans to be the type of guest who gets a week-long luxury resort vacation after three weeks in paid stays hotel travel. I have my spreadsheet I created showing Starwood Hotel rates over the next few months for the San Francisco Bay Area and other locations I plan to be and I check it daily.

Yesterday I filed three Starwood Best Rate Guarantee (BRG) claims for lower rates found on Hotels.com compared to the Starwood Hotels site. Since the Hotels.com rates still show a lower rate this morning I assume the BRG claims will be approved in the next few hours.

(Update May 2, 6:30pm – all three Starwood BRG claims approved. $228 for three Starwood Hotel stays will earn over 6,000 BRG bonus points and a free Starwood Resort night.)

SPG Platinum membership with 25 stays in a calendar year means this Loyalty Traveler should requalify for SPG Platinum elite for 2012.

“Upgrades” whispering in my ear. 

Basically I am looking to earn around 12 free hotel nights through points and certificates at luxury hotels with average nightly rates in the $400 range for 25 paid nights in hotels at the $100 per night range. 

$2,500 in spend to earn $5,000 in free rooms means I will have 37 nights in hotels rooms with a fair market value room rate around $7,500 for $2,500 out of pocket. 

My travel plans calculate an average of $68 per night for 37 nights in hotels with at least 12 of those nights in luxury hotels. That is what loyalty travel and Loyalty traveler are all about. 

Also, I am checking daily for the results of Best Western’s 650,000 bonus points promotion for the first ten people who stayed at all three Best Western tiers beginning February 6, 2011. I completed those three stays on February 9. The winners were supposed to be chosen April 29 and I am hoping to be one of the lucky ten.

650,000 bonus points is sufficient for about 20 nights of free rooms at the high tiers of 32,000 and 36,000 points Best Western hotels. The points will go really far at low level properties in 12,000 to 16,000 points for 40 to 50 free room nights. Just depends on where I need hotel rooms. 

Loyalty Traveler shows you how to jumpstart your hotel travel on a budget.

Check-in,  turn on, and check out  – through a hotel lifestyle.

W Silicon Valley, Newark, California

The average point value for hotel loyalty points is shown on credit card sites like NerdWallet.com and PlasticIQ.com. Lucky estimated the value of a point for several airline and hotel programs in his August 2010 InsideFlyer – The Value of a Mile or Point.

Lucky states in his article that it is useful to have a relative value of points and miles when trading or exchanging currencies between programs or choosing whether to earn miles or points for hotel stays.

The last time I seriously delved into the question of the value of a hotel point was last January. I want to develop ideas from that post more fully here.

Three Rules Governing the Value of a Point or Mile

Over the past decade I have developed three rules as Loyalty Traveler I believe govern the value of points for the hotel loyalty program member.

Loyalty Traveler Rule #1: Points have no value until redeemed.

This applies to airline – hotel – credit card – other loyalty programs.

Every hotel loyalty program has the ability to terminate its loyalty program. Your points can be gone tomorrow.

Look at Mexicana Airlines. I may have just lost 100,000 miles. I valued those miles at $10,000 seven years ago when I could have flown Cathay Pacific First Class across the Indian Ocean from Hong Kong to Johannesburg on miles. But I never booked that trip.

I’ll call your ½ cent and raise

So what does it really mean to say a Hilton HHonors point has a value of one-half (0.5) cent or seven-tenths (0.7) of a cent?

I taught junior high math for a couple of years. I know that working in decimals gets confusing for many people so I try to work in whole numbers when talking about the value of points.

Saying a Hilton HHonors point is worth ½ cent is the same as saying 1,000 points are worth $5.00. Since redeeming points usually involves multiples of 1,000 points I use whole dollar values per 1,000 points in Loyalty Traveler data to get away from decimal abstractions and confusion.

Now back to the question.

What does it really  mean to say Hilton HHonors points have the value of $5 or $7 per 1,000 points?

There is a discrepancy between HHonors point values of 0.7 cents/point by Lucky and 0.5 cents/point by NerdWallet. A cardmember who earns 100,000 points has $700 in points by Lucky’s standard or $500 in points by Nerdwallet’s valuation. PlasticIQ drops the value down to $4.30 per 1,000 points or $430 for that HHonors member sitting on 100K in hotel currency.

Calculating Hotel Point Value

          Value of 1,000 points = Room Rate / Points needed to buy room

Hotel point value is set by redeeming points. Every individual loyalty program member will have his or her own estimate of the average point value based on actual points use and personal history of point redemptions. Lucky states this idea in his article too.

Hilton Amsterdam

Let’s say I want to go to Hilton Amsterdam on November 5-7. I can pay the going rate of 199 EUR per night or use 50,000 points per night.  

Best Available Rate is 199 EUR per night. After tax the rate is €417.90 = US$532 for two nights.

Hilton Amsterdam is a category 7 hotel for 50,000 points per reward night.

My effective points value is $5.32 per 1,000 points when I save $532 by spending 100,000 HHonors points for the hotel stay. (Ignore the points that would have been earned for a paid stay to keep math simpler.)

But should I even use the BAR value of $532 to calculate the value of my points?

I could book the Hilton Amsterdam using an advance purchase rate for 169€ per night. This is a more restrictive rate than using points since there is no ability to cancel or change the reservation, whereas a reservation booked with points can be canceled and points returned to the account.

354.90 EUR = US$457.65 = 100,000 points.

My points value with this Hilton Amsterdam redemption is $4.58 per 1,000 points. This falls well below the $7/1,000 points value from Lucky and even below the $5.00 per 1,000 points used by NerdWallet.com.

The real points value in this example is somewhere between $4.58 and $5.32 per 1,000 points depending on which rate I use, prepaid or refundable rate,  for the cash saved on the hotel stay.

Loyalty Traveler Rule #2: The value of points is not a set value, but will objectively fall into a range of point value for the specific loyalty program.

Establishing the point value range for the different hotel loyalty programs is a challenge. This requires extensive data.

Lucky states Starpoints have a value of $25/1,000 points. NerdWallet states $23/1,000 points and Plastic IQ uses $21.50/1,000 points. These are considered average redemption values.

For example, some Starwood Hotels may only offer $10 per 1,000 points value when using points for a reward night. Other Starwood Hotels may offer $60 per 1,000 points value. The actual value of Starpoints may fall somewhere in this range from low to high reward values.

HHonors has a different range of point values for its program. You are highly unlikely to find a Hilton HHonors reward value in the $60/1,000 points range, whereas you can likely find a Starwood Hotel in that range. HHonors would require finding a reward for a hotel rate in the order of $2,175 per night with a category 7 hotel on an AXON7 four-night award at 145,000 points to have $60/1,000 points value. The upper limit of the value range for HHonors points will likely be somewhat below $60/1,000 points. But if you found any HHonors hotel reward with $60/1,000 points value, then the value of HHonors points objectively would have a range going up to $60/1,000 points.

Calculating the range is a matter of taking numerous hotel samples and analyzing the room rate divided by the cost in points for a reward night using points.

Value of 1,000 points = Room Rate / Points needed to buy room

Each hotel program will have a point value range specific to its hotels and loyalty program reward cost.

There are 1,000 Starwood Hotels. Rates fluctuate daily while the cost of a reward night is constant – as long as the hotel reward category does not change. Hotel categories shift over time moving the points cost up or down.

Special offers like Cash & Points, HHonors Pointstretchers, Marriott Rewards PointSavers and Priority Club PointBreaks also reduce the cost for reward nights during limited time discount offers.

Hilton HHonors – Show me the Money Value

What is the value of a HHonors point?

Lucky uses $7/1,000 points, NerdWallet.com $5/1,000 and Plastic IQ $4.30/1,000 points. While the average value of HHonors points may be in the $4 to $7 range for 1,000 HHonors points, loyalty travelers have the potential to get over $22/1,000 points.

Conrad Maldives

(HHonors category 7 hotel – 50,000 points per night)

Nov 5-9, 2010 = $3,276 after tax or 200,000 points

HHonors point value is $16.38/1,000 points (1.6 cents/point) for this redemption. 

HHonors elite members have access to VIP rewards. HHonors Silver elite membership requires just four stays in a calendar year. There is a 15% discount for HHonors VIP 4-night rewards reducing the 4-night rate for the Conrad Maldives to 170,000 points.

The HHonors VIP 4-night reward raises the point value to $19.27/1,000 points.

HHonors Silver elite is complimentary with any HHonors American Express card. As an HHonors American Express cardmember the hotel reward rate drops even more to only 145,000 points for an AXON7 award.

The AXON7 award raises the point value for this Conrad Maldives four-night stay to $22.59/1,000 points.

Conclusion: The average value of a HHonors point may be just $4 or $7 per 1,000 points. As a loyalty traveler you should not settle for average. There is potential to get over $20 per 1,000 points with HHonors. The range of HHonors point value has to go up to at least $22.59/1,000 points since I have found that potential value in a bookable HHonors reward.

And this leads us to rule #3.

Rule #3: You personally decide the value of your points when you redeem points.  

Do not settle for average value. You are the points redemption DECIDER.

The third rule of hotel loyalty program point value is you have the choice at what minimum value you are willing to redeem your earned points.

The objective of the loyalty traveler is to redeem in the upper end of point value range for your hotel (or airline) loyalty program.

Nerdwallet.com gives Marriott Rewards points the value of 1.0 cent/point or $10.00 per 1,000 points. Lucky states Marriott Rewards points are 0.8 cents/point or $8.00 per 1,000 points. PlasticIQ is in the middle with $8.80/1,000 points value.

So are 200,000 Marriott Rewards points worth $1,600 or $2,000?

Marriott Monterey

November 3, 2010

$279/night or $308.06 after tax. The Marriott Monterey is a category 6 hotel for 30,000 points per night. The value of points is $10.27/1,000 points.

But change the stay to November 19 and the AAA rate drops to $170/night or $188.16 after tax.

Marriott Monterey points value = $188.16/30,000 = $6.27/1,000 points.

If points are used at the $188 rate, then 200,000 points are worth just $1,254, far less than Nerdwallet’s estimated point value ($2,000) or Lucky’s estimate of 200,000 Marriott reward points ($1,600).

So which value, $10/1,000 or $6/1,000 is the more accurate point value for Marriott Rewards points?

Is the actual value somewhere between $6.27 and $10.27 per 1,000 points?

How many hotels, rates and dates need to be surveyed to get the full range of point values and an accurate and precise estimate of the average point value for any specific hotel loyalty program?

Loyalty Traveler has not determined the upper value for hotel points. I just know that it is much higher than the point values used by Lucky, NerdWallet and Plastic IQ.

Conclusion to the Value of a Hotel Point – The main takeaway idea from this post is your points need to be redeemed selectively to maximize value.

Loyalty travelers do not want to settle for average. All your redemptions should be in the top 20% to 30% of high value redemptions. If there is a range of $2 to $10 for 1,000 points giving an average of $6 per 1,000 points, then be the member who redeems only for $8 to $10 value and get better than average value for your points.

Loyalty travelers can get better than average value from hotel points.

There are 35,000 or so hotels in the top 10 hotel loyalty programs. Establishing a point value range requires much more data analysis than I have the ability to access. I do not know what the upper range of hotel point value is for different programs.

I do have an idea of where hotel rates are high and low and the hotel reward categories for hotels in the major hotel loyalty programs.

I was able to quickly find a number of high value redemption opportunities with just a few searches in each program. Each of the examples below had reward availability for the nights searched.

A loyalty traveler can get a much higher value for hotel points than the set values used by Lucky, NerdWallet and Plastic IQ.

Moscow Marriott Grand Hotel (Marriott Rewards category 5 = 25,000 points/night)

• October 18-23, 2010 (5-night stay)
• $2,698 after tax
• 100,000 points reward (5^th night free)

Marriott Rewards Point Value = $26.98/1,000 points (Lucky $8; PlasticIQ $8.80; Nerdwallet $10)

InterContinental Geneva (Priority Club = 40,000 points/night)

• Monday, Feb 14, 2011 – Friday, Feb 18, 2011 (4-night stay)
• US$10,078 after tax (advance purchase prepaid rate)
• $10,078/160,000 points =

Priority Club Points Value = $62.98/1,000 points (Lucky $6; Nerdwallet $6)

Hyatt Regency Pittsburgh International Airport (Gold Passport category 2 = 8,000 points/night)

• Monday, October 18, 2010 – Tuesday, October 19, 2010
• $227.09 after tax (BAR)
• $227.09/8,000 points =

Hyatt Gold Passport points value = $28.38/1,000 points (Lucky $15; Nerdwallet $15) 

Grand Hyatt Sao Paulo (Gold Passport category 2 = 8,000 points/night)

• Monday, October 18, 2010 – Friday, October 22, 2010
• 2,964 BRL after tax (BAR)
• US$1,715.58/32,000 points =

Hyatt Gold Passport points value = $53.59/1,000 points (Lucky $15; Nerdwallet $15)

xe.com Brazil Reals to US Dollars Currency Conversion

Starwood Le Parker Meridien New York (SPG category 5 = 12,000 points/night)

• Sunday, October 17, 2010 – Friday, October 22, 2010 (5-night stay)
• $553.15/night or $2,765.75 after tax for five nights
• $2,765.75/48,000 points (5^th night free reward) =

Starwood Preferred Guest points value = $57.60/1,000 points (Lucky $25; PlasticIQ $21.50; Nerdwallet $23)

I found all these examples in random searches on random dates in about 45 minutes. There must be hundreds of hotels with similar reward night value. 

Having an idea of the value of a point is useful information. Lucky did a good job at pointing out relative value of points and miles in his article. These values are a benchmark you can use for trades, exchanges, and promotion analysis. Just keep in mind that points and miles have no set value.

Remember the three rules governing the value of points and miles:

1. Points and miles have no value until redeemed.
2. The actual value of points and miles is a range and not a set value.
3. You decide the value of your points with your redemptions.

Loyalty travelers can get better than average value from hotel points.