Hilton Honors seems to have just increased award costs for stays at some of its top properties (thanks to Phl06 on FlyerTalk for flagging this). I can’t say that I’m that surprised, but this is definitely a negative development.
In this post:
Hilton Honors raises points cap for top properties
For several years now, Hilton Honors hasn’t published award charts. While the program has dynamic award pricing, the reality is that the most expensive award rates at a particular hotel have been pretty consistent. That’s to say that if a standard room is available, you can redeem points for it at a cost that’s not above some (typically reasonable) maximum.
Up until now, Hilton Honors free night redemptions for standard rooms have topped out at 150,000 points per night, but that’s no longer the case. It seems that standard room free night redemptions now top out at 200,000 points per night, representing a 33% increase. For what it’s worth, it was only in 2021 that the cap was increased from 120,000 points to 150,000 points.
For example, you’ll find that the Waldorf Astoria Maldives now charges up to 200,000 points per night…
…while the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal now charges up to 190,000 points per night.
As before, Hilton Honors elite members can receive a fifth night free on award redemptions, meaning that a property costing up to 200,000 points per night could cost as little as 160,000 points per night.
I’m sure some people will jump in and point out that some Hilton Honors rooms cost over a million points per night. Just to clarify, when you see a rate beyond the maximum cap, that’s for premium room redemptions, when standard rooms aren’t available.
The bad news is that even beyond the properties that now cost more than 150,000 points per night, we’ve also seen a lot of other hotels increase award costs, compared to their previous maximum cost.
This is an unfortunate Hilton Honors change
Of course nobody is happy to see their points be worth less, so these changes aren’t good for anyone. Furthermore, we see Hilton increase points redemption rates at properties quite frequently, so this is also far from the first devaluation that we’ve seen.
However, if there’s any silver lining, at least as of now, it looks like not that many properties are priced at over 150,000 points per night, so this seems to be for a very limited number of resorts. Still, it’s never fun to see the cap on redemptions increased in this way.
Personally I value Hilton Honors points at 0.5 cents each, so that means a property costing 200,000 points per night is the equivalent of spending $1,000 per night for a hotel. With a fifth night free, that could be as low as $800 per night.
In terms of the cap on redemption costs and my valuation of points, this puts Hilton Honors more in line with IHG One Rewards, Marriott Bonvoy, and World of Hyatt.
If anything, my bigger frustration with Hilton Honors continues to be the limited number of standard rooms that are available for redemptions at so many of the top properties. I find that situation to be much worse than with Marriott Bonvoy, for example.
Bottom line
Hilton Honors is now charging up to 200,000 points for free night redemptions in standard rooms, compared to the previous cap of up to 150,000 points per night. As of now, only a very limited number of properties seem to be impacted by this. Of course the issue is that once some properties charge that much, it makes it easy for other properties to similarly increase their rates.
What do you make of these Hilton Honors changes?
Hilton has been devaluing their program for years. Diamond status is irrelevant and easy to get with a credit card. Burn your points now before they devalue it again.
This can be said for every major loyalty program, really. Earn and burn is the name of the game. Shout out to a certain commenter here who would post paragraphs of copy (way before generative AI) just to basically say YMMV and brag about his extravagant breakfasts at Asian properties. Valuations really seemed to set him off. He also didn't understand what a boycott means. And apparently he was an academic. Will wonders never cease?
For what it's worth I just booked 5 nights at the 150k-a-night Milhaidoo Maldives. That's 600k (which I also value at $3k) a much better deal than if we had to pay cash ($18k with the seaplane transfer which the award booking includes).
To be fair, even 200k a night for that hotel (and probably for Waldorf Astoria Maldives too) is a good deal.
I personally have been trying to move away from Hilton ever since they made the inexplicable change to switch all their pillows to down. I'm really allergic, and while I can request hypoallergenic pillows, they consider this a request, not a guarantee, and I hate the extra hassle of having to wait for them to find the pillow swhen I'm checking in late at night. Unfortunately, hilton has such a huge footprint and happens to...
I personally have been trying to move away from Hilton ever since they made the inexplicable change to switch all their pillows to down. I'm really allergic, and while I can request hypoallergenic pillows, they consider this a request, not a guarantee, and I hate the extra hassle of having to wait for them to find the pillow swhen I'm checking in late at night. Unfortunately, hilton has such a huge footprint and happens to own many of the conference hotels I end up at. This gives me one more reason to be cranky at them.
I booked South Bank last week at 130k, now it's 180k. Dodged a bullet there.
Obviously not good news, but as long as the free night awards can still be used for any standard room then I'm happy.
Hyatt is typically a better use for regular bread-and-butter points redemptions.
Looked at some hotels I'll be staying at this summer to see if they changed. Noticed Sowaka Kyoto is now up from 120,000 to 130,00. Thankfully already had my award reservations booked a while ago.
@Ben not sure what you mean by “up to”. The Pedregal now costs at least 190k. It jumped from 120 to 140 not that long at all. I think the deval is bordering on “major” depending on how widespread it is.
Lol and now the Hilton site is crashing...
At this point is it even worth chasing points and status for hotel programs?
Marriott does not miss a chance to show two middle fingers to all elite members.
Hilton keeps devaluing its program.
And even Hyatt had a major evaluation that went into effect in March
"As of now, only a very limited number of properties seem to be impacted by this"
I typically use my points for stays in the Maldives and every property there has increased their standard points redemption. Besides the Waldorf you mentioned, the standard rate for the Conrad is now 140k up from 120k-130k, the Milaidhoo Maldives is now 170k up from 150k, Hilton Maldives Amingiri is 130k up from 110k. Even the SAii Lagoon Maldives is now 95k up from 80k.
I also just noticed this this morning. I was looking for a place to use a free night cert and saw a place on a map search showing 170k so at first I ignored it assuming it was a premium room. I ended up clicking through just because I was curious about the hotel and was surprised to see it was for a standard room.