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Hilton Honors quietly DOUBLES the price of many of its cheapest redemptions

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Hilton Honors has, with no announcement, made substantial increases to the points required to stay at many of its cheapest hotels.

These have been slipped through over the last 48 hours.

As of last week, there were seven UK hotels – I think – which cost 10,000 Hilton Honors points per night:

  • Hampton by Hilton Liverpool / John Lennon Airport
  • DoubleTree by Hilton Newcastle International Airport
  • Hampton by Hilton Newcastle
  • Hampton by Hilton Newport
  • Hampton by Hilton Corby / Kettering
  • DoubleTree by Hilton Sheffield Park
  • Hampton by Hilton Sheffield (photo below)

Six of them now have a maximum price of 20,000 Hilton Honors points per night. They will be cheaper than 20,000 points on nights when the room rate is under circa £65.  Newport is the only one still showing at 10,000 points.

It isn’t clear how many of the 150 x 10,000 point hotels globally have been raised to 20,000 points, although I have found other examples such as the Hilton Salalah Resort in Oman.  This used to be 5,000 points per night until recently, but jumped to 10,000 points.  It is now 20,000 points.

I randomly checked the six hotels in Malaysia which used to be 10,000 points.   Two are now showing as 20,000 points whilst four remain at 10,000 points.

Some (many?) of the 5,000 point per night hotels globally have also been raised to 10,000 points.

Many of these hotels were, of course, disproportionately cheap at 5,000 or 10,000 points per night.  With the main Hilton in Sheffield costing 30,000 points, having the new Hampton at 10,000 points made little sense as the cash difference was certainly not 3x.  That said, keeping a few bargains in the portfolio does no harm in keeping people interested in the programme.  Giving no notice just continues to undermine trust in the programme.


How to earn Hilton Honors points and status from UK credit cards

How to earn Hilton Honors points and status from UK credit cards (December 2021)

There are various ways of earning Hilton Honors points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

Do you know that holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE Hilton Honors Gold status for as long as they hold the card?  It also comes with Marriott Bonvoy Gold, Radisson Rewards Gold and MeliaRewards Gold status.  We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

American Express Platinum card Amex

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Did you know that the Virgin Atlantic credit cards are a great way of earning Hilton Honors points? Two Virgin Points can be converted into three Hilton Honors points. The Virgin Atlantic cards are the only Visa or Mastercard products in the UK which can indirectly earn Hilton Honors points. You can apply here.

You can also earn Hilton Honors points indirectly with American Express Gold (20,000 bonus points), the American Express Rewards Credit Card (5,000 bonus points) and – for small business owners – American Express Business Gold (20,000 bonus points) and Business Platinum (40,000 bonus points).

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Hilton Honors points

(Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)

Comments (134)

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

  • TripRep says:

    Rob, firstly appreciate the heads up on these increases.

    Secondly please feed this back to Lauren/HH HQ.

    “It’s disingenuous to promote a 100% Hilton Honors points buy bonus and at the same time quietly increase redemption values.

    As yet I haven’t participated in the buy points offer, ultimately this lack of transparency really acts to discourage loyalty.”

    • Dave Barron says:

      Totally agree. Think my Hilton days may be coming to a halt once my Gold status comes to an end in March 2020. Makes IHG Accelerate all the more relevant to me sadly.

    • TripRep says:

      Just checked a 10k Hampton that I use in Florida, it is still 10k, tempted to book it today..

      • Brighton Belle says:

        I am on a status match from IHG Spire to Hilton Diamond. Hilton have just given me the reason not to bother. Ramping up the redemption price without any notice just illustrates how Hilton Honors can’t be trusted if they are going to devalue your points saved at any moment of their choosing.

      • Alan says:

        Why not just book anyway? It’s free to cancel 🙂

        • TripRep says:

          I thought that 5mins after my post, booked it. Good location for heading north after a day at St Pete Beach & Clearwater 🙂

      • Simon says:

        I see you mentioned St Pete Beach and Clearwater – any recco’s for a great hotel for 2 adults and 2 kids in that area ???

    • mr dee says:

      Double the points to redeem means your points are now worth half if using them for the cheaper hotels effectively cancelling out any value of the offer, I would be asking for a refund or compensation if I brought points

      • Pangolin says:

        I just bought points in that 100% bonus promo and the places I was looking to use them over the next 2-3 months have all doubled.

        As you can imagine, I’m not a happy camper right now. I just don’t think there’s any way I can get that money back.

        After what Marriott has done to the SPG programme I don’t know where to go any more. Maybe I’ll just forget about hotel status permanently and concentrate solely on airlines.

      • Chris says:

        Argh!

        Nobody brings points anywhere!

  • James A says:

    Gutted. I’ve dont dozens of stays in the Hampton LPL and it has long been our go to points based mattress run hotel.

    • Chris says:

      Which might in itself offer some hint as to the motivation to increase the redemption rate?

      • shd says:

        If you get rid of *all* the sweet spots in any redemption chart, you end up with a totally boring unflexible scheme which compares poorly to maximum cash rewards instead of points.

        I think the loyalty scheme folks need to have a tutorial from Rob on this.

  • Alex W says:

    I guess Salalah was perhaps too cheap at 5k per night, but to QUADRUPLE the price in a couple of years is a disgrace. Given the difficulty in getting there and the slightly undesirable location, it’s now off my redemption “to do” list. I’m just hoping the Maldives property(ies) don’t jump in price before I get the chance to redeem there.

    • Pawel Siewko says:

      My friends spend 3days at Salah on February (I transfer 15000poimts to them) they got gold status from Amex platinum and had free breakfast also because 2-3promotions they got 11000 for this redemption stay so spend only 4000pomts for 3nights best redemption ever ….but now 20000points and to get where you had to take flight or long drive 9h it’s to much….

    • Pangolin says:

      In fact it was available for only 5K on some dates, as recently as March. So that’s a quadrupling in 6 months. Even by Hilton devaluation standards that’s impressive!

    • swhostring says:

      It’s not disgraceful, Hilton Honors are not scum, get real you people.

      They have simply readjusted the redemption rate. Loyalty progs do it all the time.

      Surely you don’t expect all the other suppliers you use to tell you when they add 3p on a litre of petrol or loaf of bread etc?

      These are for-profit organisations, not some kind of charity. You had it good in the past for some destinations: now find the new good ones and stop bloody moaning.

      • Alex W says:

        3p a litre on petrol is about 2%. We are talking a 300% increase here, with no notice, and which people may have been saving up for, and hadn’t even had a chance to “have ot good” yet.

      • Rob says:

        HH is NOT for profit. Under US franchise law it is not allowed the make money.

        • swhostring says:

          That’s disingenuous at its best. The parent organisation is for profit. The loyalty scheme is there to promote use of the company’s hotels.

  • Alan says:

    Sadly this was always going to be the way with the new-style Hilton system and why I wasn’t keen on the changes. However on the positive side I wonder if some have recently reduced in price too? I’ve been able to rebook a Sydney hotel for next year at a 40k saving over the 5 night stay vs when I booked it a couple of months ago.

    • John says:

      The increases far outweigh the decreases, and when there is a low points redemption it usually means the paid rate is already cheap. But possibly still an ok deal if it avoids taxes or, on topic, resort fees.

    • mr dee says:

      I managed this too but about a month ago

  • James says:

    Filthy scum. They sneak this in whilst trying to scam customers into buying points which they’ve secretly devalued.
    Poor form.

  • James says:

    The Hilton Honor point system is like a joke, they do half price on the point price but triple the points you need.

  • Nick G says:

    I suspect they didn’t announce it as they know it will annoy people to say the least…..I’ve used the Sheffield and Liverpool airport for 10k points only a few months ago. I give up on status and loyalty now, hence I’ve got small numbers of points in various hotel chains. I used to only ever use Accor now I’m classic again but I’ll stay if the price and location is right. I think people will be less loyal and it’s about time hotels realise this

    • Nick_C says:

      I’ve not booked directly with Hilton since 2012. I always check their Web site, and always find it’s better to use Hotels.com for reward nights and cash back or avios.

      Until now I’ve collected Hhonors points from other sources, but I don’t think I’ll bother any more. Strangely, I also have Silver status with Hilton, as Barclays seem to think I have a Hilton Credit Card, even though I don’t!

    • VK says:

      Yes. I don’t care about loyalty anymore. Many hotels don’t care about honouring status either.

      Hotels.com is also a good way of getting something back

  • Mike says:

    Any comment from Hilton, Rob?

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.