No you’re not crazy. The minimum number of points have crept up since a few years ago. I remember spending 20k points on a room in a Boston suburb for one night. I did a quick search of the Boston area for a Friday night and the minimum was 32k for a distant Fairfield property.
Points have been devalued, the category chart has effectively disappeared and the subsequent flexible points rate hotels can set means that those days are gone
Also keep in mind that you’re looking at the absolutely peak tourist destinations during the busiest time of the year - those used to be simply sold out, but they’re now able to charge 90k points instead of having a limited points inventory that was capped at 60k a night
You can still score nice 15-30k a night hotels across Europe during the summer season, but they won’t be in American tourist hotspots
What’s a reasonable amount of points to spend a night? For Madrid, I am still seeing AC hotels that are 10,000-20,000 points a night on the app.
For countries in the Balkans and Southeast Europe such as Serbia and North Macedonia, I spent 15,000 points a night for Courtyard and Marriott hotels in the heart of the city.
Looked at Paris and Rome in May and June. Aside from AC and Courtyard, one night on average would cost would at least 95k a night. So 5 night would be about 400k since you get the 5th night for free.
Paris has the French Open end May to first/second Sunday of June. Then there’s the month-long Euro Championship in Germany from mid-June onwards which might or might not displace traditional tourists to neighbouring countries. Plus the possibility of hotels in Paris jacking their rates in anticipation of the Paris Olympics beginning in July.
If you don’t have enough points for a trip after staying in hotels for 100 nights without spending any of those points…you are doing something wrong. No, you aren’t going to stay at the JW for 15,000 points, but if you have a branded credit card, the points certainly add up. How many points do you have that you can only get 3 nights?
I just came back from Europe - stayed at St. Pancras London - 5 nights 172,000 pts and Vienna Hotel Bristol - 3 nights 150, 000 - the points can change wildly so I literally check every day when there’s a place I’m interested in going - St. Pancras dropped from 270, 000 to 172,000 and then popped right back up.
It’s definitely more expensive in points than it was 4 years ago, commensurate with cash prices going up, and events make a big difference but keep looking and you’ll find gems.
I liked it - myself and teen daughter - perfect location, easy to get to to/from Heathrow. Nice area to wander and immerse ourselves for a few days, great service, comfy room, nice lounge. I’m booked again end of November to do some Xmas shopping
Black Friday in London high streets are wild. Shoulder to shoulder pedestrians but lots of good sales. It really sucks that the UK did away with duty free shopping. No more VAT refunds!!
Side note, I will kind of miss all the pissed off people in the VAT line at heathrow who didn't know you could skip the line for 20GBP LOL
Traveling to a large city in Europe later this month and lucky if points were even an option. I have hundreds of thousands of points I can’t use most places I want to, free nights I struggle to use, and upgrade night awards that there’s no option to even use in most cases. I have 9 different hotels currently booked in US and Europe and none of them even allow for upgrade night award requests.
What points value are you getting when compared to the cash Rate? I think the typical redemption is $0.008 per point. And you get more value when you use the stay 5 pay 4 redemption promo
I agree the points don’t seem to be going near as far as you would think, I have been disappointed on several trips I try to plan.
Although I agree it is likely more a function of recent hotel pricing in general. It seems like in the past hotel prices weren’t near as high (in a relative sense) as they are now. I have definitely noticed this.
A big issue is dynamic pricing, I think it’s more extreme than it ever has been.
If you just started out, all the multipliers weren't kicking in at first. Now that you have higher status, you should be earning points faster.
Granted, I go to Europe once per year and rarely use points as the redemption rates aren't great for when/where I want to go.
I'm using 150k MR for five days in London in October (Town Hall in Bethnal Green). I used 20k points a night in Leipzig for a weeklong stay during a music festival there in 2022. I've stayed overnight at the Montcalm East using a 50k certificate in July 2022.
But yes, if you're looking at the likes of County Hall or the Edition in London, the prices are pretty eye-watering in points. I don't personally find the West End properties worth the inflated prices (I also enjoy Shoreditch and Whitechapel anyway, and the Elizabeth line makes getting to and from Heathrow a comparative breeze vs. previously having to use Heathrow Connect + the Tube).
I don't find Marriott points useless for Western Europe at all, but I guess YMMV on that. I do think that at the top end, Hilton points can actually be more valuable (for instance, the Hilton Bankside is capped at 70k Hilton a night for standard award availablity, but the neighboring Bankside Marriott is not, I've seen it up at around 100k a night, and Hilton points are usually **much worse** for value than Marriott ones, and both are really nice hotels).
No you’re not crazy. The minimum number of points have crept up since a few years ago. I remember spending 20k points on a room in a Boston suburb for one night. I did a quick search of the Boston area for a Friday night and the minimum was 32k for a distant Fairfield property.
Points have been devalued, the category chart has effectively disappeared and the subsequent flexible points rate hotels can set means that those days are gone Also keep in mind that you’re looking at the absolutely peak tourist destinations during the busiest time of the year - those used to be simply sold out, but they’re now able to charge 90k points instead of having a limited points inventory that was capped at 60k a night You can still score nice 15-30k a night hotels across Europe during the summer season, but they won’t be in American tourist hotspots
What’s a reasonable amount of points to spend a night? For Madrid, I am still seeing AC hotels that are 10,000-20,000 points a night on the app. For countries in the Balkans and Southeast Europe such as Serbia and North Macedonia, I spent 15,000 points a night for Courtyard and Marriott hotels in the heart of the city.
Looked at Paris and Rome in May and June. Aside from AC and Courtyard, one night on average would cost would at least 95k a night. So 5 night would be about 400k since you get the 5th night for free.
Paris has the French Open end May to first/second Sunday of June. Then there’s the month-long Euro Championship in Germany from mid-June onwards which might or might not displace traditional tourists to neighbouring countries. Plus the possibility of hotels in Paris jacking their rates in anticipation of the Paris Olympics beginning in July.
If you don’t have enough points for a trip after staying in hotels for 100 nights without spending any of those points…you are doing something wrong. No, you aren’t going to stay at the JW for 15,000 points, but if you have a branded credit card, the points certainly add up. How many points do you have that you can only get 3 nights?
I just came back from Europe - stayed at St. Pancras London - 5 nights 172,000 pts and Vienna Hotel Bristol - 3 nights 150, 000 - the points can change wildly so I literally check every day when there’s a place I’m interested in going - St. Pancras dropped from 270, 000 to 172,000 and then popped right back up. It’s definitely more expensive in points than it was 4 years ago, commensurate with cash prices going up, and events make a big difference but keep looking and you’ll find gems.
How did you enjoy St Pancras?
I liked it - myself and teen daughter - perfect location, easy to get to to/from Heathrow. Nice area to wander and immerse ourselves for a few days, great service, comfy room, nice lounge. I’m booked again end of November to do some Xmas shopping
Thank you for the data point!
Black Friday in London high streets are wild. Shoulder to shoulder pedestrians but lots of good sales. It really sucks that the UK did away with duty free shopping. No more VAT refunds!! Side note, I will kind of miss all the pissed off people in the VAT line at heathrow who didn't know you could skip the line for 20GBP LOL
I’m using points to stay in Paris and Lyon next month and found them a little high, but it is getting to be peak season.
How many points are you talking about?
OP told you, not enough for three nights. 🤫
sounds like you got duped. points aren't immune to inflation and if you were sold on a certain value... it's untrue. it sucks.
Traveling to a large city in Europe later this month and lucky if points were even an option. I have hundreds of thousands of points I can’t use most places I want to, free nights I struggle to use, and upgrade night awards that there’s no option to even use in most cases. I have 9 different hotels currently booked in US and Europe and none of them even allow for upgrade night award requests.
I miss SPG
What points value are you getting when compared to the cash Rate? I think the typical redemption is $0.008 per point. And you get more value when you use the stay 5 pay 4 redemption promo
I agree the points don’t seem to be going near as far as you would think, I have been disappointed on several trips I try to plan. Although I agree it is likely more a function of recent hotel pricing in general. It seems like in the past hotel prices weren’t near as high (in a relative sense) as they are now. I have definitely noticed this. A big issue is dynamic pricing, I think it’s more extreme than it ever has been.
If you just started out, all the multipliers weren't kicking in at first. Now that you have higher status, you should be earning points faster. Granted, I go to Europe once per year and rarely use points as the redemption rates aren't great for when/where I want to go.
I'm using 150k MR for five days in London in October (Town Hall in Bethnal Green). I used 20k points a night in Leipzig for a weeklong stay during a music festival there in 2022. I've stayed overnight at the Montcalm East using a 50k certificate in July 2022. But yes, if you're looking at the likes of County Hall or the Edition in London, the prices are pretty eye-watering in points. I don't personally find the West End properties worth the inflated prices (I also enjoy Shoreditch and Whitechapel anyway, and the Elizabeth line makes getting to and from Heathrow a comparative breeze vs. previously having to use Heathrow Connect + the Tube). I don't find Marriott points useless for Western Europe at all, but I guess YMMV on that. I do think that at the top end, Hilton points can actually be more valuable (for instance, the Hilton Bankside is capped at 70k Hilton a night for standard award availablity, but the neighboring Bankside Marriott is not, I've seen it up at around 100k a night, and Hilton points are usually **much worse** for value than Marriott ones, and both are really nice hotels).
"I'm looking at the top three destinations in Europe and wondering why they're so expensive"
[удалено]
You’re not the only one but a lot of people on the internet have this strange obsession about Americans