Yesterday we learned about Starwood’s first quarter promotion, double points starting with your second stay plus 500 bonus points for weekend stays. On the Marriott side of the house some people are offered 2000 points per stay starting with your second stay and an additional 1000 points per stay that includes a weekend.
Hilton’s first quarter 2018 promotion is out (registration required) and you can start earning with the first stay because the big push is ‘book direct’ even for infrequent guests and the loyalty program is a key differentiator in the value proposition for booking at Expedia or Hilton.com.
- 2000 bonus points per stay
- 10,000 additional bonus points every five stays
- Earning period is January 1 – April 30, 2018
I value Hilton points at 4/10ths of a cent apiece making 2000 points worth $8 which is ok on a one night stay, not so good on a long stay.
If you do stays in increments of 5 during the promotion period that doubles to an average of 4000 points or $16 per stay, again still good on a one night not as good on longer stays.
During the first quarter of last year they offered 2000 points per night not per stay. And they’ve otherwise fairly consistently offered double points often stackable with other bonuses for the past two years. This tends towards the less generous end of Hilton promotions, to be expected with hotel occupancy achieving record highs.
Conrad Bangkok
As I suggested for the Starwood offer, register for this and forget it, don’t make stay decisions based on this promotion, just earn if you happen to meet the terms. But you don’t want to have to remember to register later if you stumble upon a Hilton stay during the promotion period so it’s worth taking 10 seconds to sign up.
(HT: The Gate)
The upside to Hilton set number of points promotions (generally) versus double points is that you can earn the bonus on award stays and cash and points stays, which is not available for Marriott.
Also Kudos to Hilton for starting Q1 when Q1 begins, instead of two weeks later.
I don’t see anything in the terms about having to book after registering. Do I need to cancel and rebook existing reservations to be on the safe side?
T’s & C’s state (in part): “Hilton Honors members must first register at HiltonHonors.com/PointsUnlimited prior to completing a stay within the Promotion Period.” with no direct mention of you must sign up for the promotion BEFORE booking the stay.
Thank goodness I’m not the only one who thinks this promo sucks. Especially with a stay booked at the Conrad Maldives during Q1, I was hoping for a double or triple point promo.
I have been HH Diamond for 10 years + and have found that since Hilton re-arranged their stay categories it has become like the wild west with individual hotels charging whatever points they like and making it impossible to ascribe any true value to what has become a really dodgy scheme. Recently I was asked for something like 295,000 points for a very mediocre London hotel which usually sells for about £160 a night. I would feel less offended if they told me to XXXX XXX instead of insulting me like that. If they don’t want to redeem points just say no rooms available instead of being offensive. On average I find the value of points are now about 30% of what they were 2 years ago…..now that’s a great result….for Hilton!