Historically, Hilton Honors has offered by far the most generous promotions of any major hotel loyalty program. However, something has changed as of earlier this year — is this a permanent shift, or is Hilton just doing some testing?
Continue reading: What Happened To Hilton Honors’ Generous Promotions?
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
What happened to Hilton's promise to show a lifetime status tracker in the app/website from the covid times?
Hilton (and Marriott and Hyatt) spends money on things like contract acquisition costs (money paid to owners to get them to brand developments as Hilton), acquisitions (Graduate Hotels) and share repurchases (Hilton is on pace to spend over $3 billion in repurchases this year, up from $2.9 billion last year). Take a peek at Hilton's financial statements and you will see money spent on all three of these has increased in recent years. The Graduate was Hilton's first acquisition in a number of years, for example. More cash is going out of the door for all of this. So they need to fund this stuff.
The cost of debt has gone higher due to interest rats. One way to generate cash is through the loyalty program. As more Hilton members sign up, money goes into the loyalty program, which results in line items like deferred revenue going up (which helps cash). However, as members redeem, cash goes out of the system. A way to address this is to reduce promotions, which lead to fewer points being issued, and less redemptions in the future. Another way is to increase redemption costs. As you have noticed, both are happening. It's cash management.
The lesson is to read your 10-Ks and 10-Qs, and you will find the answer 🙂
I remember in Summer of 2021, they had their promotion that gave either double or triple points depending on the length of a stay.
I had a longer stay (on points and free nights), where I was getting triple the normal points via that promotion (so 30 points per dollar), plus 10 extra points per dollar for being Diamond, plus 14 points per dollar for using my Aspire card. 54 points per dollar overall!
Certainly moved the needle for me. Currently at a Marriott property as a newly minted Titanium.
Probably cause they're going to continue to devalue points and everyone and their mother has elite status with Hilton through credit cards lmao.
You mention Hilton being the most generous program, but if looking at return on spend without a promotion, Hilton is near the bottom. Having regular promos really just put them on par with the return you'd get from the other leading programs.
As a diamond member the last few years, Hilton has gone way downhill. I just got off the phone with the excessive charges (even though there is a promotion) for resort fees at Resorts World. They refused to honor the promotion. The billing dept. was less than professional.
I have switched in recent months to build up Marriott and have enjoyed my stays, properties, and rooms much more. I am a newly minted Titanium member! I think that last Resorts World stay was the last of Hilton stays for me.
Bye bye Hilton, hello Marriott!!
Maybe the business picked up anyway and promotions are not needed, maybe they're issuing too many points these days and need to balance the books... Or maybe they just don't see the ROI anymore.
Personally I miss the promotions as much as everyone but if I'm being honest, they don't really impact my choice of staying at Hilton or not. The three programs where I earn points for stays are IHG, Hilton, and RevPoints, and of the three, Hilton provides the best value for points (by the virtue of using fixed award chart) even without any promo. I use Hilton points for aspirational redemptions or when rates are expensive which allows me to get exceptional value for points, whereas I treat IHG points as a currency which has more or less the same value at all times. Regarding RevPoints, I used those for airline miles conversions, which is far less of a value than hotel programs.
Sadly, Resorts World is still a huge mess. Recently stayed at Crockfords for 3 nights. I was given an upgrade to a very nice room and they initially charged me rack rate for the room for just the upgrade which was more than if I just paid for the nicer room with the public rate myself! I was also auto charged for internet, no food and bev credit and they even charged us for a gift from the Host and fought me on it! For being a Hilton 3 brand property for almost 5 years they are still a mess at billing and customer service. Took me quite some time to get all of the charges reversed.
Stop giving away FNCs and elite status like candy. And bring back executive lounges.
My guess, Chris Nasetta's $28 million bonus sucked up all those loose dollars for guests promotions?
Also, the "early" news financially is showing a weakening in second quarter showing worse into the the third and fourth quarters for hotel bookings.
Promotions and points earning rates have absolutely nothing to do with when/why I book Hiltons. Hilton knows this. Footprint and convenience do.
I'm Hilton Diamond - earned through nights/stays. 100+ nights a year in hotels (not all at Hilton).
Great choice !! Me too. It just depends which has an airport shuttle service and free parking.
I'm a Marriott lifetime Titanium as well !!!! I only stay at Hilton if there's an airport shuttle and free parking.