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?
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Hilton Honors promotions aren’t what they once were
Among the major hotel loyalty programs, Hilton Honors has historically offered the most generous and consistent promotions. Prior to 2025:
- Hilton Honors constantly had global promotions, without any sort of a gap between them; so if one global promotion ended on June 30, the next one would reliably start on July 1
- Hilton Honors promotions were also pretty consistently generous, with offers like double or triple points on select stays
There’s no denying that Hilton Honors’ points earning rates were industry leading, when members could essentially count on these as being a core part of the program. However, as of 2025, something major has changed:
- Hilton Honors is no longer consistently offering promotions — we saw no promotion from May 1 through May 30, and now the last promotion has ended as of August 15, and no further promotion has been announced
- The last Hilton Honors promotion we saw (from June 1 through August 15) was the least generous we’ve seen in years, just offering a flat 1,000 bonus points per stay (which I value at a $5 return)
Hilton Honors was simply in a different league than competitors when it came to promotions. As a point of comparison, Marriott Bonvoy and World of Hyatt typically offer two global promotions per year.
Not only have we seen Hilton Honors decrease points earning by not offering promotions, but the program has also devalued points considerably. For example, the program’s most expensive properties recently increased in cost from 150,000 points to 200,000 points.
Is this a permanent shift, or an experiment?
Presumably up until recently, Hilton believed that offering consistent and valuable promotions for loyalty program members had an ROI, or else the company wouldn’t have offered them. So what has changed in recent times?
Has Hilton Honors decided this is no longer an area where the program has to differentiate itself, or is the program running an experiment to see how member behavior shifts with fewer and less generous promotions? It’s anyone’s guess, but I do have a few thoughts:
- Hilton Honors of course gives away elite status like candy, so perhaps executives at the program believe that’s enough to get members to stay loyal, and choose Hilton over a competitor
- Hilton Honors has been growing its portfolio in an impressive way, especially in the luxury sector, which is an area where the brand historically lagged; so maybe Hilton believes those aspirational properties are enough to keep people engaged
- Hilton Honors has seen a huge increase in members in recent years, and while Marriott Bonvoy still has more total members than Hilton Honors, Hilton Honors’ growth rate is higher (110% vs. 60% over five years, last I heard)
- Post-pandemic, we’ve seen publicly traded companies even more focused on finding ways to cut costs and increase profits, and it’s something that Hilton’s executives haven’t at all been secretive about
I guess this all raises the question of how much our consumer behavior is actually impacted by global hotel promotions. We say that we like these promotions and they make us loyal, but does our behavior reflect that? I obviously don’t have any data there, but I do think the change to the way that loyalty programs have monetized elite status through credit cards probably does quite a bit to drive our hotel choices, rather than just what promotions are being offered.
So we’ll see how this play out. I of course hope that Hilton Honors continues to lead the industry with promotions, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if the program puts itself more in line with the competition.
Bottom line
Prior to 2025, Hilton Honors was by far the most generous hotel loyalty program when it came to consistently offering lucrative promotions. However, something has obviously changed as of this spring. Hilton Honors is no longer consistently offering promotions, and on top of that, the one promotion we’ve seen has been lackluster.
For some people, this will certainly change the value proposition of Hiton Honors, given the extent to which consistent and generous promotions were a core part of the program.
What do you make of Hilton Honors cutting back on promotions?
Certainly moved the needle for me. Currently at a Marriott property as a newly minted Titanium.
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!
Those were the days! I also remember earning 54 points per dollar spent.
I think I remember even getting higher due to a Rakuten bonus as well.
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...
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 :)
What happened to Hilton's promise to show a lifetime status tracker in the app/website from the covid times?
And we haven’t seen a transfer bonus?