Calculating Points Value

I am knee deep in planning our 11 day trip to Morocco. I had all the intentions to book my lodging on points where possible, but I am running into some points value issues. Now I’m not someone who obsesses over cent per point value, but I know the value of my points, and am not willing to squander them willy nilly.

A quick reminder on how to calculate cent per point (CCP) value: Take the total cash value and divide it by total points used. Then multiply by 100. So for the Park Hyatt below we are looking at $704/30,000=0.-234 X 100=2.34 CCP. That’s great for Hyatt. I always shoot for 2 CCP or higher. (More on the other hotels later)

So for fun, I booked the ​Park Hyatt, Marrakech​ for 2 nights because it looks amazing and I’ve yet to stay in a Park Hyatt. But I also need 2 rooms for 2 nights plus would need to apply a suite upgrade to sleep 3 in one room. I would be spending 120,000 MVP Hyatt points this way and we know these points are getting harder and harder to get.

I also called the hotel and they will honor the Hyatt Family Plan and charge me less in cash for the second room. But it was still around $500 each night. So 60,000 points and $1,000. Not a bad deal, but I don’t want to drop $1,000 right away on this trip. Plus, it’s too nice and I know it would make me want to stay at the hotel, but I want to experience Morocco and life outside of hotels. Sometimes you treat yourself and sometimes you gotta know when to say no.

I started toying with the idea of a Marriott hotel with a waterpark. I just know the kids would love it. But again, we will probably be busy touring the medina. Still I decided to look more into this as one room could sleep my whole family of 5. I would need 114,000 points and the cost is $842, so my CCP value is .07. Could be better, and the hotel decor is kind of ugly to me in the pics, but I’m keeping it in the running because it’s including meals-which I fully expect to be mediocre as all-inclusives tend to be, and it would be easy to keep the kids happy and fed there.

My next option was to look at a Riad via Airbnb. There are so many cute options, right in the city unlike the other hotels, and really well priced. I’m a sucker for good design and some of these have so much character. I’m also finding great apartments for $160 for the 2 nights with 2 bedrooms so really not bad if you aren’t going to use your points here. The Airbnb’s I like are more like $400-$500 for the 2 nights because I want a Riad, not an apartment building. Look at this picture below and tell me you don’t understand the dilemma.

All of this to say, TBD on what we do but I am leaning towards a Riad in the city. So this Morocco trip may end up with more cash out of pocket, but sometimes that is part of the experience when you are choosing the charm of a riad vs a hotel chain.

We will be on a desert tour and staying in tents and hotels for 3 nights set up by the tour group.

Then in Fez we will also do another riad as the hotel options with the main 4 are limited. Same with Chefchaouen.

Then onto Tangier, where we will do one night in a Hilton before heading home. I was going to use Hilton points here but I have 3 credit cards with Hilton cash credits that I need to use, so I will be paying with those cards at the hotel.

I’ll update this post as decisions become more concrete, but hopefully, if you like to overthink your trip plans, you see that you are in good company.