In the summer of 2012, on our way up to Maine, we took a detour, for a night, to Providence, Rhode Island to see the amazing Waterfire. I highly recommend seeing this at least once. It is spectacular!
We crashed that night, for free of course, at the Hilton Providence. This Hilton is an HHonors Reward Category 5 hotel. Rooms in this category can be redeemed for between 30,000 to 40,000 Hilton HHonors points per night. Kind of high!
We actually used another redemption method for our stay. We booked our room with Points & Money Rewards. With Points & Money Rewards, you can book standard rooms using a combination of HHonors Points and money. We used 17,000 Hilton HHonors points plus $60. Sometimes, depending on the amounts required, this way makes more sense. It certainly did here than using 30-40k in points.
The room would have cost about $180. If we had paid for the room, we may have been better off economically instead of using the 17,000 Hilton HHonors points plus $60. However, for my family at that time, it was the only way we were going to make the side trip on our way to Maine. So for us it was worth it. The hotel, if not worth the points in dollars, was worth it for the experience and the memory of Waterfire!