Why buy hotels?

Well, I can see why buying a hotel in real life would be a very good idea.

But in Monopoly Hotels (the iOS game from Electronic Arts, I mean)?

a) It's just a game.

b) It doesn't give me any points - rather, it takes *away* a good chunk of change each time.

c) It doesn't seem to matter how much the hotel costs, the rooms still cost the same amount, and sometimes a cheaper hotel lets you put in as many rooms as a pricier one.

The only difference I see right now between cheap hotels and the multi-million-Monopoly-dollar ones? The fact that, the pricier they are, the longer they have that "Opening Soon" sign.

This past week, as you may know if you've been following along here, the hotels have all been on sale, at a 30% discount.

Which is fantastic, of course.

But I realise that I've been trying madly to up my savings in order to acquire either Kentucky Avenue:

or St. James Place:

But now, thinking about it, I realise that I could just as easily (easier, even) buy States Avenue:

True, I wouldn't get as much of a discount, but you know what? It'd be ready to use sooner than either of the others, and I could probably stuff in just as many Top Hat rooms into States as I could into St. James. Okay, maybe one row less of rooms, but is that really worth the extra cost in both time and money?

I don't know.

Of course, knowing me, I'll probably go for perceived value at the end of the day and buy the most expensive hotel I can afford, figuring that that is the best bang for my buck. But that doesn't necessarily make me smart ... in fact, I'm wondering if that's not the stupid choice.

Oh, well.

I've made stupid choices before ... I think I'll survive another one. :)