Another one of those travelers trying to vacation on points.

I have read the rather dreadful reviews of the Intercontinental Rue de Castiglione. Seems the only good thing about it was location.

I am wondering if that is still true or has it improved under Westin? Found a couple of reviews on other boards one of which mentioned improvements in progress. Any recent visitors?

I have enough points to stay here for my entire six night stay. If I go to the Prince de Galles I'll either have to move part way or cough up bigger big bucks than I want.

Any news is appreciated!

I don't know what reviews you're reading, but current reviews on tripadvisor look good.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...de_France.html

OK I did look at tripadvisor and now it seems as though I am a bit daft. I was attempting to determine which intercontinental had changed and reading reviews at the same time. For some reason by the time I figured out which hotel it was - I had rolled the bad out of the reviews of each into one and that was all I remembered. Goes to show I do not do my best work in the evening. I promise to only post in light of day from now on!

Hope you have a great time. You might want to read some more about the hotel and staying there on points at flyertalk.com--it's a website for points travel. Look under the Starwood section.

We spent 4 nights there earlier this month and it was lovely. Nice service. Brand new mattresses! Excellent views, be sure to ask for a room with view of the Eiffel Tower. But very expensive for food. Skip breakfast in the hotel and stroll down to Angelina's instead. Some nice restaurants right behind the hotel too including L'Ardoise and Le Souffle.

The Westin site is offering rooms +/- $300 until Feb. 26,while they've renovating under the Westin brand...

http://www.asiatraveltips.com/news05...tinParis.shtml

Has Angelina re-opened after being bought by the Flo Group?

Just dined with folks who were staying at the Westin. We didn't discuss their lodging that I can recall. They certainly weren't complaining about it.

Thanks to everyone for the info. I'm glad to hear about the new mattresses(never made that word plural before, not sure I did it right). After reading and reading and reading and developing a plan for what I would like to do during my time in Paris, I decided it was a very good location for me. I made a reservation fusing points but I am watching to see if the promo rates extend into March. Might cancel that reservation, save my points and pay to stay if the rate is low enough.

Which brings me to a question I've been pondering. Anyone else who travels on points/miles - how do you decide when to use your points and when to pay to stay? In other words how do you assign value to your points?