But starwood is upfront on the changes. They represent average cash room rate for the trailing 12 months dollarized. Row points should get cheaper in 2016/17 on that basis.Over time Starpoints increase in upfront cost: lowest I have seen it was 1.9 cents per point in offer from Starwood. But the other factor to consider is the point values at hotels. These have increased over time as well. A hotel in Venice in 2010 was 10 K per night. Now it is 16K. Our favorite Aloft at PDX was 4K, and now 7K.
Anything in Brazil should be dropping a couple of catagores.
Some go up in category, some go down. They don't all go up every year.
I agree with your general observation, though. I won't return to some of my favorites since I can't justify the current category valuation.