One of Hilton Honors’ most aspirational properties (and one of the points hotels that I most want to stay at) has just opened the award night floodgates…
Redeem points at the Waldorf Astoria Seychelles
The Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island opened in early 2024, and is located on a private island in the Seychelles. The 50-key property looks gorgeous, though award availability has been really tough to come by.
While Hilton Honors lets you redeem points for any room at a hotel, only the standard rooms typically have attractive pricing. This property has essentially created a small subset of rooms that are considered standard, so award availability has been virtually non-existent.
I’ve been wanting to plan a trip here, and yesterday was looking at award availability, and noticed that not a single night for the entire next year was bookable with points at a reasonable cost. Well, today it’s exactly the opposite — I see award availability virtually every single night over the next year.
The property charges 130,000 Hilton Honors per night for a standard room, and elite members get a fifth night free. This means that a five night stay would cost you 520,000 points, or an average of 104,000 points per night. If you’re like me and value Hilton Honors points at 0.5 cents each, that’s like paying $520 per night including all taxes and fees, which is amazing.
What’s interesting here is that the property seems to have gotten rid of its rubbish, fake “standard” room category, which was essentially the bedroom of a larger suite. It’s my understanding that the property would always upgrade guests from those rooms, since it was never full. But clearly that was done to limit award availability.
Now the standard rooms at the property appear to be the Hawksbill Garden Pool Villa. This also means that there’s way more award availability than before, and it’s also possible to book multiple rooms with points. The options here really are exciting. 
Just keep in mind that since this is on a private island, you’ll have to pay €700 per adult for the transfer between Mahe Airport (SEZ) and the island. Furthermore, food, drinks, and activities, won’t be cheap, given that they have a captive audience.
Now, it’s anyone’s guess if this availability sticks around, or if this is even intentional. Regardless, I’ll take it. It’s my understanding that the hotel has consistently had very low occupancy, so frankly you’d think the property would want to encourage redemptions, since that’s some revenue, and on top of that, secluded resorts make a lot of money on incidentals.
This is the key to maximizing Hilton Honors points
Over the years, Hilton Honors has grown on me quite a bit, in no small part thanks to the easy Diamond status that can be earned with the Hilton Aspire Card. Hilton Honors points are easy to earn, though at times it feels like actually redeeming for good awards is like taking part in a lottery.
At Hilton’s top properties, it’s not uncommon to see almost no award availability for the entire bookable calendar. But then sometimes we see award nights made widely available, and those are the times you’ve gotta book. This is the perfect example of that.
Bottom line
The Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island has the most award availability I’ve ever seen, as virtually every date is bookable. This change seems to be because the standard rooms for redemption purposes actually match what most people would consider to be the standard accommodations here, rather than some made up room category.
So if you’ve been wanting to visit this property, now would be a great time to book.
Anyone plan on taking advantage of this Waldorf Astoria Seychelles award availability?
I stayed at this resort last year. I have to say - I was so excited to stay here and there’s a reason this hotel has had such low occupancy. Villas are interior on the island with no views, beaches are often covered with dead seaweed, waters are rough such that it can be hard to even get a boat out on the water certain times of year, and food was stale as much of...
I stayed at this resort last year. I have to say - I was so excited to stay here and there’s a reason this hotel has had such low occupancy. Villas are interior on the island with no views, beaches are often covered with dead seaweed, waters are rough such that it can be hard to even get a boat out on the water certain times of year, and food was stale as much of it is brought in periodically and frozen. The previous general manager was hardly there and is now out, so we’ll see if the new management they bring in turns things around. But unfortunately I think the island itself is the main problem with the hotel, which is not fixable. It’s the first time I’ve stayed at a hotel like this and felt bored & stuck. Here’s a link to my youtube review if you’re curious for more about what the hotel is like: https://youtu.be/hc65fiZwMl4?si=SifTKyY_-qLOVU5f
My husband and I booked two nights with our Aspire certificates a few months back. On Flyertalk we learned you could book the flight transfers with 100k points via Hilton Experiences which was a much better deal than 700 euros each. Afterwards we're staying 3 nights in Praslin at the Constance Lémuria using LHW points. From what I've read five nights on this island might get a little bit "Gilligan-y" so I was happy to split our time!
I made a reservation with points - however, while during the booking process the room showed as "One Bedroom Hawksbill Garden Pool Villa" in the confirmation email it shows as just "HAWKSBILL GARDEN VILLA" which doesn't sound like this is a pool villa. Anyone else having received the same after booking?
I am experiencing the same thing. Hope there isn't a bait and switch here.
At first glance, seems like a good deal when you compare it to the room rate and the beauty of the surroundings.
However, Flyertalk reviews all say that three days seem to be enough to get all you need out of the resort/island. Also, there are very few other guests around, which could be a positive or negative. You have to factor in the cost of the flights as well - free flights at...
At first glance, seems like a good deal when you compare it to the room rate and the beauty of the surroundings.
However, Flyertalk reviews all say that three days seem to be enough to get all you need out of the resort/island. Also, there are very few other guests around, which could be a positive or negative. You have to factor in the cost of the flights as well - free flights at six days seem like a fair deal, but you gotta be there for six days.
Overall seems like a good stop on an African itinerary, or a good place if you really wanna be secluded like a honeymoon, but I could also see the points being better used elsewhere given the cost of getting to the location
My thoughts exactly. I love the idea of this resort but the travel time/expense of getting there would detract somewhat from the overall value.
I'll just stuck to the "simple" yet reliable WA Los Cabos for now.
Old points reservation, the 'weird room' for standard room reward has changed to 'Hawksbill Pool Villa' in the system. Nice. Questionable how successful the resort will be going forward.
Lucky, flights for stays longer than 6nights should be also free. "Flights are complimentary for stays of 6+ nights booked after September 1, 2024. For shorter stays, charges apply."
The free flights are clutch. Was gonna stay 5 nights to maximize 5th night free, but yes I'd rather trade another 130K points to save $1400 on flights and get an extra day.