Hilton Honors secretly hiked the redemption price of free nights before Christmas. This was just five months ago, and I asked:
Hilton said their top redemption price would stay 95,000 points but before the pandemic bumped this to 120,000 points – promising it applied only to one special hotel. Now the top price is 150,000 points. When will it go higher still?
Crockfords Lobby
We’ve learned the answer: now. Because Hilton has jacked up the top redemption price of a room from 150,000 to 200,000 points. That’s a 4x increase in prices in 12 years which is a 300% cumulative increase or average Honors inflation rate of 41.4% – sitting between the current inflation facing Turkey and Argentina.
Standard rooms now can be as expensive as 200,000 Honors points per night, a 33% increase in one go without notice whatsoever.
Conrad Bora Bora Nui Main Pool
Some properties flagged as taking hits include:
- Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi 200K (+50k)
- Calala Island, Nicaragua 200K (+50k)
- RiverView Ranch Retreat, Montana 200K (+50k)
- Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal 190K (+50k)
- Hermitage Bay, Antigua 190K (+60k)
- Canaves Oia Suites, Santorini 190K (+60k)
- South Bank, Turks & Caicos 180K (+50k)
- Conrad Maldives Rangali Island 140K (+20k)
- Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island 150K (+20k)
As you can see, there are individual properties facing increases of 46% here. 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 200,000 point per night hotel prices at 160,000 per night. And free night certificates still work.
Conrad Bangkok
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 current promotion is 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?
Excellent article Gary, and right on the money. Their points of being constantly devalued and for mid-level hotels are often not worth more than 0.20 now. I checked a bunch of Hilton’s and Doubletree is recently in Europe and appalled to find how worthless they are.
I was a college student in 2012 when I applied for a Hilton Honors (then HHonors) Amex. I remember looking at “aspirational” hotels at the time. One was Conrad Maldives, 50k points per night. Or the DoubleTree Suites NYC Times Square on New Year’s Eve? $2,999 or 50k points.
Inflation sure as shit hasn’t been 4x in the last 13 years.
F*** Hilton Hotels.
Well then, in that case, IHG points are practically Zimbabwean dollars…
@Unintimidated — Oh, come now, Rangali Island (or even better, that Waldorf at Ithaafushi) is worth the visit. Hilton recently renovated the villas in the past couple years. So, there’s still time to make your college-era dreams become reality, Mr. Centimillionaire. Besides, any trip to the Maldives is usually time well-spent. It’s like St. Barths, but muuuch farther!
Went to go book Aruba hotel for holiday season and bam 150k a night vs any other time of year 100k this just happened this month.
Noticed others got jacked that shiny new aspire card not going to get the spend after hitting spend threshold for the free night vouchers
Generally, this is what happens (devaluations) when you allow corporate pseudo-currencies to proliferate without any meaningful regulation or enforcement of rules and standards. Still, I feel more ‘ahead’ than ‘behind’ over the years with sign-up bonuses and redemptions. But, maybe, I’m just coping. Don’t chase status. Don’t hoard points. Earn ’em and burn ’em, or else.
I find the high-end examples in Gary’s original post to be insightful. Grateful to have made it to several over the years. Not sure I’d go back to many, except those in the Maldives, because it’s truly magical over there, especially if you enjoy snorkeling.
Planning a visit to Platte Island, so I’m glad to have gotten the better rates.
Stayed at Hermitage Bay before the SLH merger (2022, somewhat ‘during’ the pandemic, like, they still had entry tests then). The villas on the hill with the pools are nice. A bit overpriced, so points would have been nice (but not at these rates, necessarily). Drinks were included, but it was lower-quality at the time. Not sure I’d return. There are better islands.
One other comment: After this especially, I’m resigned that Calala Island is never gonna happen for me. I’ve tried. Shoulda gone it when it was with Hyatt. The availability was seemingly ‘impossible,’ though. It’s hard to justify a trip to Nicaragua, but that place would do it. Oh well. Anyone been there? Seems cool. Maybe just hype.
I think soon to come is for the Aspire free annual night certificate will start having a cap on max number of points the standard room can be for redemption, where is always uncapped till now
Hilton seems to have drank the Marriott kool-aid on seeing loyal customers as adversaries rather than valued partners. It’s a shame, all they had to do to improve was not make things worse but they even failed at that.
Look, I get it, this is pretty bad.
However, not sure where you are getting your numbers from. 300% over 12 years, even with straight division, is only 25%, not 41.4%. And if calculated the way that inflation is (compound), it is actually only 12.25%. I get it, mathing is hard, but give it a try.
In addition, it might be more helpful if you cited examples of individual hotels where the pricing has actually quadrupled. There may be some, I don’t know, but the examples you provided were never at 50,000 because they didn’t exist 12 years ago (at least not in the Hilton program). 12 years ago, I Iived in a 1200 square foot duplex worth $125,000, now I live in a 3800 square foot house worth a million. Does that mean housing inflation has been 800% over the last 12 years?
@Christian — I hear ya, but I doubt any of these companies literally ‘hate’ consumers, though, they probably have a variety of shareholders and stakeholders to consider. I’ll keep my Aspire, Brilliant, IHG Premier, and Hyatt cards, use Amex’s FHR credits with Platinum, and use the points, credits, free nights as best as I can each year, unless and until the value-exchange is against us. But, so far, I’m still doing better than breaking even. I feel for those on the corporate-travel-platforms who are more limited. But, then again, if you’re traveling for work, it’s more ‘work’ than ‘fun’ as it is anyway.
This move isn’t great but is understandable in my view. Most of these top properties are now so popular that booking them during the holidays is very difficult due to low standard room availability (the ratio of cash price to points bought price with 5th night free can be an extreme 5x during the week of Christmas at Waldorf Astoria Itaafushi). So long as this is just a price hike (and not also a shrink in standard room availability) I can reluctantly live with it. My absolute red line, however, is a change to the uncapped Free Night Certificate. This is the crown jewel of the Hilton Honors program. If Hilton ever does away with these certificates or puts a points cap on them then I will downgrade my Hilton cards and become a complete free agent.
A factor of 4x over 12 years is 12.25% annual inflation.
When a night at these resorts costs over $1000 and most people value Hilton points at .5 cent or less they should charge 200,000 points a night. Look I don’t like it either but the hotel chains are going to pay attention to price and point value then price their awards in like with the cost of a stay. Just like airlines do. Outside of Hyatt (which raises categories and plays around with dynamic pricing on some brands – coming across the board people) that is status quo.
Gary why are you so shocked. Simple business and they aren’t goi g to just give away rooms
Excellent Article and Update. I also feel the amount of points earned during a paid stay is not very much. And food and beverage value has gone down considerably. Hilton boasts about their growth but they don’t do a very good job of taking care of loyal Customers.
@1990 – I recently read the Memo Findings of Facts and Opinion for the 2023 case that Hyatt lost to the IRS and man…that judge did not held any punches. The more I read through the memo, the more I became convinced that these programs are just legal ponzi schemes. These loyalty programs are truly the Wild West of unregulated capitalism…and that was for stuff that happened 15 years ago!
Hyatt is trying to appeal that case but I put it at less than 1% that it will be overturned.
Lower end properties similarly have been rising a while now. I used to stay in a HGI near where I lived in NYC (outside of Manhattan) and the price used to be 50k max, then 60, then 70 now seen 80k and this is since late 2021! Meanwhile, when was the last time Hilton increased the F&B credit in the US? If ever? $10 at HGI barely covers anything in a cheap area let alone a major city, $18 at full service Hilton likewise. Food and restaurant prices have gone up massively in the last 5 years while the F&B credit which was already bad has not changed at all!
Spot on. With 1.5 million points, we could barely get 5 days at the nicest Hilton in Louisville Kentucky!! Mid week. After the Derby. Huuummm. Unsatisfactory!
@Lazaro — That is truly fascinating and a good example of how bad this can get. I just read the synopsis; the Tax Court ruled that Hyatt should have reported nearly $300 million in revenue from its rewards program fund as its own income, improper accounting, etc. Hyatt (like all these companies) clearly have control over their programs and benefit from these gaming tactics. It’s like a casino for them, and the house always wins.
Weinstein has murdered that program just like he has with most things at Hilton. It starts with leadership.
It’s 630’000 Hilton points per night for Waldorf Amsterdam.
It’s feeling.like the end of the hotel loyalty programs. Even if you’ve been successfully gaming them, there isn’t enough value left to play. Of the fancy hotel chains, only Hyatt offers enough value to even consider, and even many of their properties feel out of reach. I suspect most frequent travellers will turn to credit card loyalty programs, where you can still get value out of your points booking hotels. There is also still some value in the unsexy hotel programs like Wyndham and Choice.
Has Señor Leff’s love for Argentina’s Milei run its course now that he’s out in the open about being MAGA and the Argentine Peso has kept plummeting in value against the US Dollar while Argentina’s poverty level is not significantly better even after all Miles’s wannabe “shock therapy” approach?
My love for Hilton’s loyalty program ran its course long ago when it basically killed off the great-value GLON (for 100k Hilton points) and the GLONP (for 175 point) awards for six-night award stays.
I remember in the beginning 100k would get you a week in any Hilton worldwide AND a rental car for the stay.
@AC. Those hotels aren’t really worth $1000/night. You’re basing valuation on a delusional cash price. I’ve stayed at the waldorf Astoria los cabos on free night certificates. Would not pay more than $400 per night to stay there.
@Staradmiral – I’m not saying the hotels are “worth” $1000 or more a night. I’m simply saying that is what you would pay if you want to stay there. If you cap your price at $400 a night it would cut you out of thousands of hotels worldwide.
I used a Hilton free night certificate at the Waldorf Beverly Hills. I checked their website for the exact room category I got on the same night and it was around $1100 plus tax. Now the hotel is wonderful and I really enjoyed my stay but I would never pay that for any night in a hotel. However, many people would or the hotels wouldn’t be able to charge those rates.
With credit card inflation and rising prices of rooms no one should be shocked with any hotel chain re baselines their points to match the cash price. There are a few places you can get “value” but not many. Personally, I always compare the cash price to the price per point when looking at hotels and will either pick one (I have points and high end status with Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt and IHG so don’t really care which one I stay in ) that at least gives me the per point value I assign. If none do I simply pay cash for the room. However, in these cases since I am not inclined to pay $1000 or more a night (except maybe at Maldives, Bora Bora, etc) I likewise wouldn’t pay 200,000 points (same as $1000 a night). However, others will so you can’t blame a hotel (or any airline) for matching their points/miles to the cash price and plugging holes (like alliance partner pricing with airlines) that undermine their price model.
Again, you may not like it and feel somehow you “deserve” a cheap price for the room but that simply isn’t reality. Of course many people in the points and miles game have no sense of business, economics or reality.
I wouldn’t mind the devaluation if the sign up bonuses were higher and amex dropped the anti churning rules. A surpass for $550 but ONLY 150k points? Garbage.
It’s the same with every enshittification process. Cost of living goes up, wages stay the same. Point redemption prices goes up (+annual fees), sign up bonus (basically) stays the same
What is the most FNCs you have earned in one HH year?
Nothing new here, and escalation is understated. Some London Hilton properties….Mayfair Biltmore… went to 360,000-0ver 400,000 points per night…every night of the year… back in 2022. Usurious. Obscene. When I called and somehow got through to Hilton CEO’s office, his assistant thought I had to be wrong. Could not believe it was per night. Later apologized after checking. Just a disgrace.
As long as people keep paying higher and higher annual fees for premium cards even as benefits decrease, the devaluation will continue. Hit them where it hurts. I will be canceling my Hilton Amex Aspire card this year
Gary, you are spot on. HH has deteriorated beyond belief. I’ve switched almost all stays to Hyatt. And I’m a lifetime diamond. Also, there seems to be no way to give Hilton feedback on their HH program. Is there a secret feedback channel? Someone at the HH senior exec level doesn’t understand how badly 750,000 points a night goes over with loyalty program members.
I strongly promote a free market but points devaluation is fraud. Changing the price for points earned in the future is a free market matter but changing the value of points that have already been earned is theft. Hilton, and all companies who cheat their clients, should be prosecuted. I am cancelling my Aspire card.
@farnorthtrader
How embarrassing, outing publicly that you have absolutely no idea how inflation/interest works. Yes, it’s roughly 41% (41.4214%). You cannot just evenly divide the ending value by the initial value to calculate the growth percentage.
To go from 50,000 points cost to 200,000 in 4 years, at ~41% interest:
50,000 x 1.414214= 70710.7
70710.7 x 1.414214= 100000.0618898
100000.0618898 x 1.414214= 141421.4875254216172
141421.4875254216172 x 1.414214=
200000.24
@Jim Worrall — We ‘mustn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.’ While it’s fun to think of us all as ‘rugged individualists’ who ‘don’t need no government in our Medicare,’ we simply have never lived in a pure ‘free’ market in our lifetimes, so what we actually need (and should want) here is meaningful regulation that protects the relative value of these points, so that the owners in control of these programs cannot change the game on the players (the consumers), because currently, as you and others noted, there’s a power imbalance, and it’s most certainly not in our favor. Voting with our feet in the aggregate may help eventually but actually enforcing rules would be best. We deserve better.
I saw Hilton doing this devaluation cr@p many years ago..
The cheapening of the breakfast benefit was the last straw.
Hilton and Marriott are racing to the bottom when it comes to hotel loyalty.