Hilton’s basic program is the least rewarding for spending at hotels and elite benefits are weak. They do not promise Diamonds upgrades to suites even if they’re empty, and they do not promise late check-out requests will be honored.
Where Hilton Honors is useful is for the occasional guest who can get status just by having a credit card. There’s some chance this could change since they’re testing a confirmed suite upgrade benefit with some Diamonds, my hunch is if they launch it that holding a credit card alone won’t be enough to have this benefit.
One of the most irritating things about Hilton Honors is its lack of transparency. They eliminated their award charts. Here’s what they published just a couple of years ago:
Five years ago they effectively killed charts when they introduced points ranges within categories, but then they even stopped publishing which hotels were in which category. That meant they also stopped informing members when hotels changed category during the year, a feature they had previously said was in effect to deliver ‘transparency’.
Hilton, though, offers Points Explorer which is a website that lets you search for individual hotels and will show:
- The maximum points price that the hotel can charge for a night (if it’s available)
- The lowest number of points the hotel has recently charged
Since each program has a maximum and a range, it’s unclear why they stopped publishing award charts and assignments of hotels to each category since that’s more or less still how things work. The only reason to remove this information was to obfuscate changes. This Points Explorer tool isn’t nearly as helpful, but it’s something — although saying that a hotel costs between 42,000 and 95,000 points per night doesn’t help much with planning.
It does explain, though, why it’s tough to get outsized value for Hilton points — the more a hotel costs in cash the more it’s going to cost in points.
In contrast the way you traditionally get value from a hotel program is by paying cash when rooms are cheap and redeeming points when they’re expensive.
(HT: Loyalty Lobby)
“Hilton’s basic program is the least rewarding for spending at hotels and elite benefits are weak. They do not promise Diamonds upgrades to suites even if they’re empty, and they do not promise late check-out requests will be honored.
Where Hilton Honors is useful is for the occasional guest who can get status just by having a credit card.”
It is super easy to accumulate Hilton points through credit card spend, stays, stay bonuses, etc. The average consumer holding both a Hilton and Marriott credit card will earn more points per stay via Hilton.
“In contrast the way you traditionally get value from a hotel program is by paying cash when rooms are cheap and redeeming points when they’re expensive.”
This seems like it still holds true with Hilton. I have a three day weekend reserved at the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills at 95,000 a night. I think the cash cost is $700 a night. Pretty good value.
Hilton is the most valuable program for travelers who are not able to meet status purely through stays, which is likely the majority of your readers. Many of us are limited to 2 or 3 weeks of vacation. In addition, Hilton points are super easy to earn with the multitude of Amex cards and their upgrade/downgrade offers, as well as their free points pooling.
It is the only program to provide meaningful top tier status, purely from a credit card. Diamond status has gotten me the following:
– Guaranteed lounge access
– Suite upgrades 50% of the time, just by emailing in advance
i have routinely gotten over 0.5 per point in value staying in Japan and Mexico, for example. I stayed in a brand new Hilton Garden Inn in Merida for 5000 poitns a night, 5th night free, and got a suite upgrade. A delicious breakfast buffet was included for free. In Tokyo during cherry blossom season, the Hilton Tokyo is often over $400 a night, but I can still book it for 60,000 points (48,000 with 5th night free).
Hilton has a great affiliate program also that pays affiliates “if i can recall” handsome affiliate commissions. I think they’re a great program to promote and give business to because they really go above & beyond in making you feel comfortable staying @ their hotels & adds credibility to sites that sponsor Hilton adverts. 🙂
I’ve been a diamond member of Hilton HHonors for 8 years – and I love Hilton’s. I’m a leisure traveler but stay at Hilton’s at least 20 nights a year. I’m always treated well and given a great room (suite or not). I like the fact that there is no fixed award chart – this was on slower nights I get a better rate and can still use points. They have great mattresses and wonderful soft sheets!
@Gary: ” the more a hotel costs in cash the more it’s going to cost in points”
They are using dynamic pricing, same as IHG or Southwest Airlines. Expect more (likely most) programs to move to it.
Not really good search engine! I tried Santa Monica and it couldn’t recognize the location even though Hilton.com shows Santa Monica, Marina Del rey, and the nearby LAX-area Hilton in such search.
I think if you’re the kind of person that picks your destination based on a hotel deal or something this would be frustrating. But I’m usually picking where I go based on other factors (actual activities in the area or family, etc.) and then picking the best value Hilton in the vicinity. So I don’t mind the dynamic pricing. I benefit because of a flexible work schedule I take a lot of family trips Sunday night – Tuesday night or something like that, and get lowest point redemption values.
Also I second what someone said above, at the low end the pts vs. $$ comparison is usually dead on at 0.4 cents per point, but when you get into the high end properties it quickly escalates to a “better deal”, if you’re into that sort of thing.
All I would like to see is this confirmed suite benefit rolled out to Diamonds, maybe people who meet 30 stays + 60 nights instead of either/or, since I do both 🙂 And I would like 5th night free on Premium rooms too. I know that’s a lot to ask but I’m not getting the top of the top rooms, but I usually want something with a separate bedroom or 2 bedrooms when travelilng with the kids.
Hilton Honors is better than Marriott for two things:
1. With elite status, getting free breakfast at mid-range hotels. Mid-range Hiltons already offer a value close to the “average” (0.4), and getting free breakfast boosts that. The fact that a $95 AF CC gets you that benefit ends up making Hilton a pretty damn good program for leisure travelers with 5-or-so to 19 nights/year. In comparison, Marriott’s valuations at Category 4-5 are crap (0.7-0.8 is common), and there ain’t no free breakfast until you reach the higher elite levels.
2. High-end properties have great redemption value. Unlike Marriott, where you might be jumping from 0.9 to 1.3 cents/point, with Hilton, you might be leaping from 0.4 to 1.0 or 1.2.
Of course, those of us closer to the bottom of the totem pole will prefer Marriott, because most of the properties we book come with free breakfast regardless (like their Hiltom counterparts) AND have better cash rates AND usually have above-average redemption values when the rates are a bit higher (frequently 1.2 cents/point at Cat 1-2). We’ll see what happens when they roll out Peak pricing, though.
(all of this applies mostly to domestic travel)