Hilton just devalued its Honors points in May 2025 and in December 2024. And they’re done it again. And since they no longer publish an award chart, they didn’t tell members their points no longer go as far with the prices of many hotels increasing significantly.
Standard rooms can now be as expensive as 250,000 Honors points per night. That’s a 5x increase in 12 years or a quintupling in top award price. That’s approaching Nigerian levels of inflation – and outpacing Russia, despite massive world sanctions against that economy as it prosecutes a war on Ukraine.
Here are some of the changes that have been identified so far:
| Hotel | Old Price | New Price | % Change | |||
| Waldorf Astoria Park City | 95,000 | 130,000 | 36.80% | |||
| Conrad Bora Bora Nui | 150,000 | 200,000 | 33.30% | |||
| Waldorf Astoria Grand Wailea | 120,000 | 160,000 | 33.30% | |||
| Eritro | 150,000 | 200,000 | 33.30% | |||
| Sitzmark Vail | 90,000 | 120,000 | 33.30% | |||
| Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal | 190,000 | 250,000 | 31.60% | |||
| Waldorf Astoria Maldives | 190,000 | 250,000 | 31.60% | |||
| Conrad Tokyo | 100,000 | 130,000 | 30.00% | |||
| Conrad Maldives | 140,000 | 180,000 | 28.60% | |||
| Umana Bali LXR | 95,000 | 120,000 | 26.30% | |||
| Waldorf Astoria Dubai | 80,000 | 100,000 | 25.00% | |||
| Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam | 120,000 | 150,000 | 25.00% | |||
| Conrad Hong Kong | 70,000 | 85,000 | 21.40% | |||
| Waldorf Astoria Costa Rica | 120,000 | 140,000 | 16.70% | |||
| Roku Kyoto | 120,000 | 140,000 | 16.70% | |||
| Sowaka (SLH, Kyoto) | 130,000 | 150,000 | 15.40% | |||
| Nimb Hotel (Copenhagen) | 130,000 | 150,000 | 15.40% | |||
| RiverView Ranch Retreat (Montana) | 200,000 | 220,000 | 10.00% | |||
| Lanson Place Hong Kong (SLH) | 80,000 | 85,000 | 6.30% | |||
| Conrad Osaka | 105,000 | 110,000 | 4.80% |
Conrad Bora Bora
As you can see, there are individual properties facing increases of 36% here in one shot. I’ve valued Hilton points at $0.004 apiece and probably should adjust that down slightly.
Bear in mind that fifth-night-free still applies for Honors elites (even silvers) so a five-night stay at a 250,000 point per night hotel prices at 200,000 per night. And free night certificates still work.
When loyalty programs eliminate their award charts, they devalue much more frequently and much more significantly. It doesn’t have to be that way, but it always is.
Conrad Bangkok
The sine qua non of loyalty is trust – and transparency. These programs are inherently intertemporal. A program member is expected to behave in a certain way on the promise and expectation that they’ll be rewarded in the future. Like Lucy, Charlie Brown and the football, it’s just too tempting to the program to renege on past commitments when they don’t even have to tell anyone that they’re doing it. They just look at their books, and what their future expense liability looks like, and it’s too tempting to say “let’s reduce that.” W
When they’re numbers on a spreadsheet, and part of the process doesn’t involve going out to members and talking to them about the change, it’s easy to think in the aggregate – and not about trustworthiness, honesty, or even future business.
Hilton is already a laggard in hotel loyalty. Its elite program does not promise available suites or even guarantee late checkout. Their food and beverage credit in the U.S. frequently doesn’t cover the cost of breakfast. And base points-earning offers a lower rebate than other chains – they only make it up via promotions but their recent promotions are the weakest we’ve seen in years. Now their points are worth even less.
What are they thinking, heading into a period of likely weak demand for hotels, since the program will be even less effective at putting heads in beds?
The easier answer here is to shift to using AA’s hotel portal. Hilton elite benefits in the US are a joke anyway.
“What are they thinking, heading into a period of likely weak demand for hotels, since the program will be even less effective at putting heads in beds?”
That’s it, Gary – they’re not thinking at all. Every corporate move is reactionary, not proactive. I don’t know what it is with the so-called ‘suits” but they always seem to be driving while looking at the rear-view mirror.
What a way to do business.
Funny how inflation hasn’t hit their daily food and beverage credit since it was introduced!
Gary
We keep saying 5th night free with credit card or 15% discount on Delta with DL Amex.
All this becomes useless.
Can’t have a room at 250,000 points or a TATL business award for 450,000 miles with a 15 % discount.
They all can take it and shove it.
Is Amex the real culprit here?
Not sure why NIgeria’s being dragged into this…
With Las Vegas leading the way, many travel companies are doing everything they can to destroy loyalty and kill the pleasure of traveling.
The folks managing these firms have an extremely short term bias. In the long term, this industry is facing many challenges which start with the destruction of customer loyalty.
Paging @DCS…Who’s points earning is the best now?
In the past 2-3 years, I have liquidated almost all of my hotel points from Hilton, IHG, & Marriott, & Hyatt. Circumstances in my life left me with more time and opportunities to travel, including being away 2 months in 2023 on an aspirational trip to Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia, & Japan. My wife and I had a ton of hotel points we accumulated including over a million Hilton points . With our points now about run out, I sometimes wondered if we should have paced ourselves more. Not any more. With the horrible recent devaluations, I guess we made the right decision. Things have really changed in the last decade or so. Those days when we used Hyatt certificates at the Park Hyatt Tokyo while getting Diamond status by elite matching are over. I feel for those just now getting into the points game. They don’t know what they missed.
@ 1990 — We will be closing our Aspire cards at renewal. Buh, bye, Hilton. You sucked anyways.
Why the shock? It is supply and demand (more people chasing awards while cash prices go up) and currency expansion (you really didn’t think all those huge SUBs wouldn’t have an impact). They are doing what any smart business does – pricing their product based on what they think people will pay.
Contrary to your view and others these companies don’t owe you anything. They have to look out for their bottom line and shareholders
Way back when, it was 100K HH for a week in any Hilton in the world plus a rental car. Hahaha
As Gary Leff points out in his article, along with the newly inflated 130,000 Hilton Honors Points for a reservation at the Waldorf Astoria Park City, Utah, there is a $50 Daily Resort Charge. This charge includes the following amenities: WiFi, shuttle service, lobby refreshments, s’mores, gym access and wellness classes, two bottled waters daily, PressReader access, ski valet storage and boot room access (winter only), or bicycle and hiking equipment storage (spring to fall), Oshibori (a cold hand towel infused with essential oil), and a daily beverage.
For a reservation made today, September 9, 2025, the Hilton website specifies that cancellations must be made by September 2, 2025. Why would Hilton expect guests to cancel a reservation seven days in advance of their stay? Interestingly, once booked, cancellations at this Hilton property are not allowed. I wonder if front desk staff inform guests when trying to cancel a reservation with a dismissive remark, such as, “sucks to be you today.”
It’s important to note that Hilton Honors Diamond Elite members are not entitled to reserved parking. However, for an additional $48.00, they can use valet parking. Regarding pets, dogs are permitted on the property for a non-refundable fee of $100.00, though no other pets are allowed. Therefore, it’s advisable to leave your emotional support cat at home.
Suppose you’re looking for exceptional value at this Hilton. In that case, the $100.00 non-refundable dog fee covers more than one dog, meaning you can bring multiple dogs during your stay at the only luxury hotel with slope-side access to Park City Mountain. This is an excellent value if you are the musher entering the Iditarod Sled Dog Race with a team of 12 to 16 dogs.
@Will has the correct take, especially when paired with AA Exec Card. Insane value there, and it still blows the new Atmos program out of the water.
Every bank now wants you to use their portal for hotels anyway and, with the possible exception of the Hyatt Globalist gang, very few benefits of booking direct.
And if AA hotels is too expensive, can also easily use sites like Agoda paired with Rakuten. Rakuten often has 10x MR points with Agoda (if not higher – yesterday was 12x I believe) and paired with a travel bonus card (RIP CSR, hello Citi Strata Premier at 3x for ‘other hotels’ which includes travel agents), that’s 13+ points/$ that have actual value (MR/TY) versus earning some Hilton pesos.
@ Retired Gambler — They are certainy doing that, but they are hyper-focused on the short-term, which may hurt them in the long-term. Screwing loyalty account holders has consequences.
I can beat anything on the list.
Oceana in Santa Monica from 105K to 200K.
90%. Read it and weep……
@Jason is right; not sure why Gary felt the need to drag Nigeria into this (someone in Lagos is probably eating their jollof rice scratching their head…) If he was trying to draw the analogy to ‘hyperinflation,’ he could’ve said Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Weimar Germany, post-war Hungary, etc. Or, maybe he conflated this with the ‘Nigerian prince’ email scam meme. Perhaps, mixing metaphors was an attempt at rage-bait. Oof. So mad! Haha.
@Gene — I’ll keep the Aspire until I can no longer redeem those free night awards (which, as far as I can tell still ‘work’ for whatever the ‘standard’ award is, even if it’s starting 250K.)
This makes me sad. I blame Marriott!
@Ken A — Solid imagery as always.
@1990 @Gene — Yeah, wouldn’t this make the free night reward even more valuable?
@1990 – I was trying to hew to actual inflation rates and not be hyperbolic in my examples. Hilton’s actual annualized points inflation is close to what Nigeria currently experiences.
@Gary Leff — Niiiice. I’m all about hyperbole. Go big, or go home.
@L737 — Like I said, I’m keeping the card until I cannot use the FNC. Besides, with the addition of all the SLH properties, it sometimes saves thousands on a night.
This will devalue Amex points as well. They’d better increase the transfer rate to Hilton Honors to 3:1 or 4:1 to offset this.
The Conrad Bora Bora increase was a higher percentage. There was lots of availability a few days ago at 120k a night. Now it is 200k/ night. That’s over a 60% increase! I just booked it 2 days ago for 5 nights (5th night free) for 480K total for 8/24-8/29/2026.
Multiple aspires is the only way to go now. I still get decent value from that card as I stay at the Crockfords every 6 months for work.
I cancelled my Aspire card for to this inflation, plus the stupid changes to their card fees and benefits.
Unfortunately sitting on 500k points and everything looks insanely high in points.
Plus with the elite benefits almost pointless… Hilton just lost a 20 year loyal customer.
@ 1990 — You should get a job pushing credit cards. The free night is now worth MORE THAN EVER!!!, making the Aspire card a MUST-HAVE for all of the incredible value it provides! 😉
@Gene — Nah, I’ll do it for free; and at least Gary is honorable enough to host our discussions on here, unlike those corporate shills over at TPG who disabled comments years ago because they couldn’t handle the heat! They still do those laughable pitches, like, this card’s worth $10,000 according to our valuations… psh.
You do have to wonder what Hilton is thinking. There is basically no benefit to being loyal to Hilton now, and no reason to put spend on an AMEX Hilton card. So what’s even the point of having a loyalty program? Do they think the public is this stupid? This is obviously bad for frequent travellers. Aside from perhaps the Aspire card, the program feels dead. But it’s also bad for hotel owners. If I owned a Hilton, I would question what Hilton is doing to attract customers to my property. They seem to be sending them away.
What hotel ‘brand’ is the best?
Brand is a promise of quality and certainty. I’ll limit my shopping to a specific Brand because I know there is a quality guarantee, and this promise will remain true for the next few years.
What Hotel entity best fits that description?
This has occurred at Hilton’s much more pedestrian properties as well, where the drop in value has been cliff like. Basic Doubletree and Hampton Inns that used to be 25-40k are now 50-70k/night, a change that happened in the last 5 years. These are NOT high end properties… they are older hotels that needed better maintenance but we tolerated. Not acceptable at the elevated pricing.
As a Hilton Amex Business card holder, this will be our final year in the program. We’ll use the points and then cancel the card. We’ll shift our business to Hyatt and cash back cards, a change I thought I would never make. Hilton has to do what is best for them. We will do the same.
Well, folks, if anyone was planning to stay at the Hilton in Kathmandu… uh, Kathman-don’t, because it just got burned down. Yikes.
The Hilton in Kathmandu is no longer a 5 star experience. Gen Z has shown their future.
@jns — Not sure why corporate media is pushing this as a ‘Gen Z’ narrative, when it’s clearly an anti-corruption revolution in a poor country; I suppose those in the status quo globally would hope to distract from what could be an uprising by the lower classes elsewhere, too. People are pissed. It’s a tinder box out there. *spark*
I got away from Hilton years ago. Sadly still have 25,000 points and good luck finding somewhere to use them.
IHG’s program is inflating but remains much better. Interesting, Choice is great in Europe although really marginal in the USA. 20,000 Choice points get you blah in North Carolina but amazing properties in Norway
@Peter What’s the deal with AA and hotel bookings? Haven’t heard about this.
@Sue – take a look at aadvantage hotels which is a hotel booking portal powered by rocket travel/agoda. They can often have good base mile/LP earnings a) if you have any status with AA and/or b) any AA credit card (even a free one). Plus if you have the AA Executive Card you get an additional 10x miles on AA hotels bookings (1x base/LP; 9x bonus/no LP). As with booking through any portal versus booking direct, you don’t get points with the hotel/status benefits. Not always a winner, and you have to comparison shop rates, but it can be a great way to earn AA miles and status.
Isn’t this interesting? Hit lifetime Diamond HHonors in 2018 and have stayed at Hilton properties 5 times since. I thought the redemptions were bad before 2024. Too many Diamonds and no differentiation. Not enough luxury properties in areas I travel in Europe. Too many Hilton, Embassy Suites and Doubetrees that are poorly maintained.
Hilton lost its way years ago and continues to tank. For those of you that stay, good luck.
@KenA: Unlimited dogs? Little do they know I had my dog cloned twice, and the first time produced 10 copies, but the recent cloning only 2. If one had not died I could fit a full dozen into the room at 8.25 each (nonrefundable).
Best part of clones is when one bites someone, you can make them prove which dog it was….and can always muddle the case because the dna is identical!
“like Nigeria” ? I think the comparison brings up more about the author than the content.
Boy, this shoots holes in my plans! I’ve accumulated over 400,000 points and they are now worth…NADA…BUPKIS.
Makes sense. These properties need cash – the program doesn’t work when everyone and their mother are using their points in Hawaii, the Maldives and whatever destination of the month is popular on tiktok. So they raise the price for the aspirational properties to a level that will flush out most of the non-revs.
Nobody accumulates points to use them at HGI Bakersfield or Reno, which is why you don’t see this type of inflation at 90% of the properties.
We’ve had a good run for the better part of three decades, and the pandemic even brought a temporary respite from the point inflation. But the days when you can steal nights at St. Regis and Waldorf and Park Hyatts in Japan are gone.
So, I think an interesting exercise – between programs – would be to compare “How much spend is needed to get a free night at [premium property].
Having said that, I really don’t “do” aspirational properties. I recall that when Hyatt introduced Cat 8 for some of the SLH properties, I found myself wishing they’d just throw the SLH properties out of the program rather than introducing a new category – the SLHs were just pointless additions from my POV.
There’s a Marriott by my office that I’ll occasionally use (it’s a /really/ weird “government expense account” entity, but the club is /very/ well-run and they effectively serve a full dinner during the week), I love the HP or the Delta at Lake Buena Vista (immediately off-property at Disney, but with a favorite restaurant around the corner), etc. I think the only times I end up at a Cat 5+ at Hyatt are either the MCO Hyatt Regency (which went from 3 to 5 over the last few years) or in NYC (where I don’t think I’ve ever used points – all too often when I pop through, the cash prices are just too low not to just spend cash). To a very real extent I /am/ trying to use points more often at Hyatts…I just can’t justify overdone properties in my mind unless I’m burning an FNA and the net cost is close to zero.
(Related: I’m musing about where I might burn the two Cat 1-7 certs and the Unlimited cert when that lands in my account…)
IHG points now get free nights for less than comparable hilton chain properties.
Hilton has abused loyal, elite customers for years. I remain amazed that people are still willing to do business with them.
On top of this, sadly the promotions have been really lackluster recently (ie 1000 bonus pts per stay). Just saw the double nights promotion for your next stay — not very useful for most people I imagine.
@L737 — Yup, practically worthless. On the nights towards status, if you can buy your way into top tier with a credit card annual fee, none of that matters. And, as far as 1,000 points, that’s probably worth $4.