Completely agree. I haven't spent the time to try and figure out what drives the difference, but I have seen several instances where a room will cost say $400 and it only takes 31k points per night or something like that. It's not always that way but I've seen it often enough to know its possible. You also factor in that you can get the 5th night free of you book with points and that helps. Again, this isn't an every day thing, but I have the luxury of basically being able to go places year round as I get on average 5 -6 months off per year, so I can kind of book whatever whenever, so I may buy some points so I have enough to book q trip when I see a deal. Anyways, I understand this doesn't always work, but it can, which is why I posted it. This only really works for hikton though because bonvoys points per night are ridiculous.