USA Today’s Barbara DeLollis, writer of the Hotel Check-In column, published an interview November 24 discussing the Hilton HHonors loyalty program changes with Jeff Diskin, Senior Vice President, Customer Marketing, Hilton Hotels Corporation.

She asked Mr. Diskin for a response to members who are upset over the coming changes. I particularly like this quote, “We offer one of the fastest if not the fastest track to elite-level status in the industry and members can earn more points faster with Hilton.”

As an aside, let me start out by telling you a comment made in a travel track forum at Blog World Expo 2009 by a hotel industry person when asked what hotel marketing people look for when deciding whether to work with a travel blogger. He said he looks for multi-paragraph comments in response to blog posts. I chuckled when I heard that standard.

I comment frequently on other people’s blogs and I often feel like I am hijacking a blog since I am one of the few people I ever see writing a lengthy comment. I hijacked Barb DeLollis’ blog with two lengthy analyses of Hilton HHonors that are probably longer than the entire Jeff Diskin interview. And I cut out several points I wanted to make.

I suggest you read the Jeff Diskin HHonors interview in USA Today.

And then read my analysis of certain comments made with regard to a comparative analysis of HHonors to the other major loyalty programs of Hyatt Gold Passport, IHG Priority Club, Marriott Rewards, and Starwood Preferred Guest.

Hilton Hotels has a good product on par with the other major hotel loyalty programs.  There are many facets to the HHonors loyalty program and things like Miles & Points, discounts on award stays of 6 nights or more, and the ability to convert airline miles into HHonors points are admirable attributes benefitting members.

My concern is that Hilton HHonors is pushing the bar higher towards a devaluation of points across hotel loyalty programs. These changes push Hilton farther outside the norm with regard to other hotel loyalty programs.  At the upper end hotels, currently Category 5 and 6, and soon to be Categories 6 and 7,  the Hilton HHonors program is still competitive with regard to hotel free nights using points, but the Hilton chain is allocating a much larger proportion of their hotels to the upper tier categories relative to the other four hotel chains’ loyalty programs. Starwood Preferred Guest is really a poor value at the high end Category 6 and 7 hotels in terms of how much spending is required to earn a free night, but a relatively small number of hotels are in the top two categories. I would argue the quality of a Starwood Category 6 hotel is much higher than a Hilton Category 6 – soon to be Category 7 property.

I think Hilton HHonors is not as good a value as the other hotel chains at the mid-level and low-level category hotels. Increasing PointStretcher award availability would go a long way to improving that aspect of the program. The past several years have seen hotels available for PointStretcher awards, a 40% discount using points for a free night, dwindle down to no hotels at all for the last six months of 2009.

The primary objection to the Hilton HHonors changes, in my opinion, is not the addition of a new higher category 7 to the Hilton HHonors reward table. The hint from HHonors representatives that the changes will result in a large scale shift of hotels upward within the new categories is the truly objectionable aspect of the changes if they turn out to be true.

The distribution of hotels within the hotel categories is the primary concern around the proposed restructuring of HHonors category changes.

Basically the hotel chain is renumbering categories from the current HHonors system of Opportunity at the lowest end, along with Categories 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.  HHonors Category 6 is currently populated by some of the high end Hilton and Conrad hotels. Waldorf-Astoria Collection is a separate high end category within the HHonors program.

Hilton HHonors will still have the same number of hotel categories in 2010. There is no change in the points required for Category 3, 4, 5, and 6 hotels in 2010. The change we are awaiting is what proportion of hotels will be moved from their current category placement to a higher category.

Essentially, the HHonors hotel category labeled Opportunity is becoming Category 1 in the new 2010 system and these hotels will remain at 7,500 points for a free night. Currently, there are only 1% of the 3,300 Hilton Hotels in the Opportunity category and these hotels will likely be almost the same set of hotels in the new HHonors Category 1.

The real impact of the changes becomes apparent when looking at the current Category 1 to Category 5 hotels.

Here is a breakdown of 2009 Hilton HHonors hotels by category which is not precise, but probably accurate to 1 or 2% based on my Loyalty Traveler research. Hilton HHonors website makes it difficult to quickly determine what hotels are in each category. Hyatt, Starwood, and Marriott provide lists of hotels in each hotel reward category. Hilton requires a search by country. I attempted to update my Hilton spreadsheet last December, but stopped after two weeks due to time constraints. FlyerTalk member BlondeBomber has tracked Hilton Hotels category placement over several years and I used his spreadsheet for a quick estimate of how many hotels are located in each Hilton HHonors reward category.

HHonors Category Shift for 2010 Could be 20% Across the Chain

Here are my comments I posted on USA Today in response to the Barbara DeLollis’ Hotel Check-In interview with Jeff Diskin, along with additional tables I made showing comparisons of the hotel programs.

November 28 comment by Ric Garrido:

My readers at Loyalty traveler know I am a numbers person. There are some numerical errors in this piece.

Hilton, Marriott, and IHG award 10 base points per $1 spent at hotels. Starwood awards 2 base points per $1 hotel spend and Hyatt awards 5 points per $1 hotel spend. The article should state 2 and 5 points rather than $2 and $5.

In that same paragraph I understand the calculations used for the comparison of money spent to earn a free night. Apparently Mr. Diskin is comparing earning for highest elite members. These dollar amount calculations equate to the estimated earning for Hilton HHonors Diamond (28 stays or 60 nights in calendar year), Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond (25 stays or 50 nights), Marriott Rewards Platinum (75 nights), IHG Platinum (50 nights or 60,000 points earned), and Starwood Platinum (25 stays or 50 nights). [Note: SPG does not appear to be calculated correctly]

Hilton HHonors is based on a member choosing a “points & points” earning preference instead of “points & miles”. HHonors member earns 10 base points per $1 in hotel spending + 5 Diamond elite bonus points + 5 points per $1 for “points & points” for a total of 20 points per $1.

HHonors Diamond member = 20 points per $1 (Category 7 hotel = 50,000 points)
Marriott Rewards Platinum member = 15 points per $1 (Category 8 hotel = 40,000 points)
Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond = 6.5 points per $1 (category 5 hotel = 18,000 points)
IHG Priority Club Platinum = 15 points per $1 (InterContinental high tier = 40,000 points)
Starwood Preferred Guest Platinum = 3 points per $1 (Category 7 = 30,000 points)

The money spent to earn a free night in each chain:
HHonors 50,000/20 = $2,500
Marriott 40,000/15 = $2,667
IHG 40,000/15 = $2,667
Hyatt 18,000/6.5 = $2,769
SPG 30,000/3 = $10,000

The $4,000 for Starwood spending used in the article comparison looks incorrect to me. $4,000 would be correct for a Category 5 free night at a Starwood hotel, but the highest category hotel was used for the other 4 chains.

SPG always looks very bad in these comparisons, but SPG loyalty program members know most of the points earned are from promotions and elite bonuses rather than base hotel spending. Hilton is opposite in that most points are earned from base hotel spending.

As an SPG Platinum on a $100 stay I earn far more than 300 points. I typically receive 500 bonus points for a platinum amenity and almost always at least 1,000 points for a promotional bonus. 1,800 points for a $100 stay is far more earning power than indicated from a comparison of base spending.

The main point I make when evaluating hotel claims for the best earning potential is the “promotions make all the difference”.

The points earning potential of Hilton HHonors looks highly favorable when only base spending is compared. Hilton HHonors lags behind the other four chains compared here when it comes to points earning potential and free night offers through promotions.

IHG, Hyatt, Starwood and Marriott all ran earn a free night promotions in 2009 which made a free night possible for under $250 in total hotel spending with the other chains.

Where was Hilton?

November 29 comment by Ric Garrido

Here are some other relevant points to the HHonors changes and your article.

Mr. Diskin rationalizes the HHonors increase in points due to hotel rates increasing 30% over the past few years. The logic here is that Hilton HHonors is playing catch-up to changes other hotel chain loyalty programs have already made.

Here is my analysis comparing Hilton HHonors to other hotel loyalty programs.

A shift of almost all hotels upward in the categories, which I believe is what Hilton representatives implied might happen with the changes, will mean only 1% of hotels will be the same price in 2010 for a free night. Only the bottom level of hotels in the Hilton chain, the current Opportunity Category hotels moving to Category 1 level hotels in 2010 will be available at the same cost as 2009. Hilton’s other 3,300 or so hotels, around 98% of the global properties will increase in points for a free night in 2010 if Hilton HHonors increases the hotel category across the system for hotel rewards.

On average the increase is 20% across the 3,300 hotel chain based on the points needed to spend one free night at every Hilton-brand property in the world in 2009 compared to 2010 if all hotels move up one category in the 2010 realignment.

Hotel Competitive Sets

The other side of this argument is the issue of ‘hotel competitive sets” within any specific location. Mr. Diskin claims Hilton HHonors will still require the least spending to earn a free night at a top level Category 7 hotel even after the 25% increase next year compared to spending for a free night in the top hotel level for other major hotel chains. That argument is essentially correct, however, the comparison disregards the issue of a comparable competitive hotel set for most locations.

A hotel competitive set must be used when comparing hotel reward nights across different hotel chains. Comparing a Hampton Inn to an InterContinental or JW Marriott is not really meaningful since they are different market segments and different price segments.

Mr. Diskin uses the highest tier hotels in each chain as a competitive set to make his point that Hilton requires less spending for a free night. But aside from a few locations in the world like New York, Paris, London, Tokyo, Sydney, and Rome, the competitive set is not going to be based on the highest category hotels for most cities.

I’ll show the concept of a hotel competitive set using San Francisco hotels.

San Francisco has several hotel brands from each major hotel chain within close proximity of each other and also close in price. Hilton operates the Hilton Union Square and Hilton Financial District.

A competitive set of comparable hotels in the Central Business District of San Francisco to the two Hilton Hotels are Hyatt Regency San Francisco, Grand Hyatt San Francisco, Marriott Marquis, Marriott Union Square, Starwood Westin St. Francis, Starwood Westin Market Street, Starwood Luxury Collection Palace Hotel, Starwood Le Meridien, InterContinental San Francisco, and InterContinental Mark Hopkins.

Using the same variables from the article for hotel spending the comparison works out like this if the two San Francisco Hilton Hotels go from their current Category 6 to the new Category 7 for free nights:

Hilton Union Square, 50,000 points = $2,500
Hilton Financial District (Category 6 in 2009) Cat 7 = $2,500

Hyatt Regency San Francisco Category 4 = 15,000 points = $2,307
Grand Hyatt San Francisco Category 3 = 12,000 points = $1,846

Marriott Marquis, Category 6 = 30,000 points = $2,000
Renaissance Stanford Court, Category 6 = 30,000 points = $2,000
JW Marriott San Francisco, Category 6 = 30,000 points = $2,000
Marriott Union Square, Category 6 = 30,000 points = $2,000

Starwood Westin St. Francis, Category 4 = 10,000 points = $3,333
Starwood Westin Market Street, Category 4 = 10,000 points = $3,333
Starwood Luxury Collection Palace Hotel, Category 5 = 12,000 points = $4,000
Starwood Le Meridien, Category 5 = 12,000 points = $4,000
Starwood W Hotel, Category 5 = 12,000 points = $4,000

InterContinental San Francisco, 40,000 points = $2,667
InterContinental Mark Hopkins, 40,000 points = $2,667

San Francisco Hotel Competitive Set for Comparison of Hotel Spending by High Elite member to Earn a Free Night

The amount of spending to earn a free night using points at a San Francisco hotel will be less for Hyatt and Marriott than Hilton within this comparable competitive set. And there is a good argument to be made that the JW Marriott may be in a higher level hotel set for San Francisco.

In my opinion, based on detailed analysis of hotel loyalty program promotion bonuses over the past few years, Hyatt Gold Passport, Starwood Preferred Guest, and IHG Priority Club allow a loyalty program member the ability to earn promotional bonuses at a much higher percentage to base spending than is typical with Hilton HHonors, thereby reducing the total spending required to earn a free hotel night from those chains.

There is one other point to make regarding the highest categories for the different hotel chains.

Hilton HHonors currently has over 100 hotels in the highest Category 6 level. Assuming most of these current HHonors category 6 hotels are recategorized in the new HHonors category 7, a comparison across chains may look like this in 2010.

Hilton Category 7 = 100 hotels worldwide
Hilton Category 6 = 200 hotels

Marriott Category 8 = 12 hotels worldwide
Marriott Category 7 = 19 hotels worldwide

Starwood Category 7 = 16 hotels worldwide
Starwood Category 6 = 45 hotels worldwide

Hyatt Hotels Category 5 = 25 hotels worldwide

Marriott is the hotel chain most comparable to Hilton. The data shows Hilton will have 6x as many hotels in its two highest categories compared to Marriott.

Hilton HHonors has released a change in the category structure for HHonors free night redemption using points and a restructured VIP Reward Table for January 15, 2010.

The positive change in the hotel VIP rewards is the opportunity to redeem for 4 and 5 night awards at a discount. This is a huge change and benefits many members who seldom had the opportunity to redeem hotel stays of 6 or more nights. 

The HHonors VIP four night reward stay is a competitive advantage against Starwood and Marriott’s 5th night free awards. Currently, 4 night HHonors award stays are available at a 15,000 points discount to HHonors American Express card members as the AXON5 award for Category 5 hotels (125,000 points) and AXON6 award for Category 6 hotels (145,000 points).

VIP Rewards are available to all HHonors elite members (Silver VIP requires 4 stays in a calendar year.)

HHonors VIP Awards as of January 15, 2010

How does the 2010 HHonors VIP Redemption Chart compare to the Current HHonors VIP Rewards chart?

HHonors VIP Rewards as of October 13, 2009

 

 

Currently, Category 5 hotels are 150,000 points for 6 nights and the VIP reward saves nearly 29% on the single night rate of 35,000 points. One issue with HHonors is there is currently no discount on points for stays of fewer than 6 nights unless you are an American Express card member eligible for AXON 4 night reward stays. And PointStretcher discount awards disappeared this summer.

Marriott went the other way in 2009 with the 5th night free redemption change. Previously Marriott Rewards offered a discount on points per night for any multi-night stay beginning with a 2-night reward stay with increasing savings for up to a 40% discount for 7 night award stays. Now there is only a discount on points with a 5 night or longer stay. The cost increased for almost all hotel rewards booked with Marriott Rewards points in 2009. The changes reduced the potential value of many members’ points who favored Marriott hotel stays of 2 to 4 or 6 to 7 nights.

I created comparative graphs of the Hilton HHonors category distribution and Marriott Rewards distribution in October 2008. I was wrong in my prediction last year that Marriott Rewards would see a major category shift in 2009. I based my prediction on the higher proportion of HHonors hotels in higher categories compared to Marriott. Fortunately for consumers the Marriott category shift did not happen to create a double hit devaluing members’ points in 2009.  

Hilton HHonors Rewards Chart (per night), current for October 13, 2009

There will be a category shift of some properties currently in Category 6 into the new Category 7 redemption.

What remains to be seen is how widespread is the shift from other lower categories to higher categories, e.g. how many Category 3 hotels will move to Category 4 and how many category 4 hotels will move up to Category 5?

This could be a small movement across the 3,200 properties with only a few luxury and really high-demand hotels shifting to the new category 7. Minor shuffling among the other redemption categories could leave most of the 3,200 Hilton brand hotels in their current 2009 category. Some hotels may even move down a redemption category.

On the other hand, the new Category 7 could be accompanied by a wide scale shift upwards in redemption hotel category among the 3,200 hotels, perhaps even involving 25% or more of the properties.

During the years from 2003 to 2007 there was a large shift of hotels upward that created a significant reduction in the overall proportion of hotels in the lower categories of HHonors. Currently, the lower HHonors redemption categories of Opportunity and category 1 are pretty vacant while the categories of 2 and 3 are stuffed.

Graph of category distribution for HHonors October 2008

The 2010 changes could see system-wide recategorization of the 3,200 hotels and may provide a major redistribution of hotels among the 7 hotel categories.

Unfortunately, I predict there will be a shift upwards for a large number of Category 2 and 3 hotels.

A rumor spread on FlyerTalk last month about the discontinuation of Hilton HHonors Point Stretcher awards for the remainder of 2009. Point Stretchers are award nights at a 40% points discount of the standard award level.  Historically Hilton HHonors has been remiss in timely posting of updated Point Stretcher dates. The typical schedule is to release the first six months of Point Stretcher dates sometime in January for January-to-June bookings and then release the latter six months of dates sometime in July for July-to-December bookings.

There were reports of HHonors customer service representatives stating Point Stretchers would not be offered for the second half of 2009.

Last week the rumor was dispelled.  A notice on the Hilton HHonors Point Stretcher web page states new dates will be available in September 2009.

Does the delay indicate a change in the Point Stretcher program?

I have no insider knowledge, but it would be nice to see some changes to the Point Stretcher program which has steadily declined in participating properties over the past few years.

Is Hilton HHonors planning an expansion of Point Stretcher hotel offers? Is a Cash & Points type program possibly in the works in line with Starwood Cash & Points and IHG Priority Club Cash & Points?

Time will tell.

Related post: Loyalty Traveler December 19, 2008 post  on the last batch of Hilton Point Stretcher offers.

Hilton Financial District, San Francisco

Promotion Dates: July 15 through September 30, 2009

Offer: Earn progressive points, up to a maximum 10,000 points after 5 stays.

Stays                Points per Stay           

First Stay         500 points      

Second Stay     1,000 points   

Third Stay        1,500 points   

Fourth Stay      2,000 points   

Fifth Stay         5,000 points   

Registration Link: Hiltonhhonors.com/stay5earn10000

Hotel occupancy is dropping around the globe along with average room rates and this is the summer marketing plan for HHonors loyal frequent guests?

10,000 HHonors points will buy you one free night at the bottom of the barrel Hilton Hotel Category 1 properties. In all of California there is only the Hampton Inn Tulare available at the Category 1 level.

The Hilton San Francisco or the other two Hiltons in the city will cost 40,000 points for a free night at these Category 6 hotels. These hotels have all had recent rates under $100 per night. And now it looks like Hilton HHonors has even eliminated PointStretchers for the remainder of 2009.

I don’t see much value in this HHonors summer offer.

Loyalty Traveler Promotion Rating = 1 Key

Obviously Hilton HHonors continues to pursue a loyalty marketing strategy designed to entice new members with instant elite status offers, but hold back loyalty program points bonuses from the membership.

Hilton HHonors is the hotel loyalty program which use to give 2,000 points just for updating your frequent guest member profile online every three months. Has there been a lucrative promotion since the WalkforHope campaign a few years back? A member could get 5,000 points for a $25 online registration as a virtual walker and support cancer research at the same time.

Let’s compare summer promotions across the major chains.

Marriott Rewards – free night up to Category 4 Hotel with every 3 stays by August 31. The value of the free night should be at least a $100 and will be around a $200 value at many properties. Hilton’s 10,000 points after 5 stays is a $100 value based on the cost to just buy 10,000 points for $100 from HHonors.

Hyatt Gold Passport – 2,500 points per stay when paying with MasterCard through September 15. Five stays at Hyatt will provide enough points for a free night at all but the highest category hotels. A free night at a Category 4 hotel like the Hyatt Regency San Francisco is 15,000 points and a member with five stays should earn about 15,000 points with 2,500 points assuming $500 in spending and 12,500 bonus points. A free night will be worth $200+.

Starwood Preferred Guest – The free weekend night promotion after two stays is ending July 31 and a new promotion has not been announced yet.  If history is a sign, Starwood has been providing the best offers this year.

Wyndham Rewards – 10,000 miles for 3 Stays in different brands through September 10. This is at least a $100 value for hotels where the average daily rate is around $60 per night. I don’t have Hilton’s average room rate data, but likely higher room rates for 3 stays at Hilton brands than the economy Wyndham brands.

Choice Privileges – 3 stays earns 14,000 points through August 13 and these points can be used for savings at an all-inclusive Barcelo resort stay.

IHG Priority Club – free night after two nights through August 15. Six stays could be worth 3 free nights at InterContinental Hotels with Priority Club that would otherwise cost 120,000 points or $900+ in room rates at an upper upscale hotel. This is a high value loyalty promotion.

Hilton HHonors’ summer entry in this lush hotel loyalty travel landscape is to offer 10,000 points after 5 hotel stays. The maximum bonus is 10,000 points. A $100 value-added incentive.

I used to be a Hilton HHonors loyalist when I was getting great value from the program in the first half of this decade. Over the past several years I have found greater value with other hotel chains. In the midst of the travel industry meltdown of 2009, I see Hilton HHonors offers little incentive to draw this loyalty traveler back into the Hilton family of hotels.

Double Dip is a nice feature for points and miles, but there is generally more hotel value for the frequent guest in the other major hotel loyalty programs.

Hilton Auckland, New Zealand

Link to the HHonors Pointstretcher List

The next two weeks are your best opportunity to find a Pointstretcher award for the listed offers of the next six months.  Come January 1 the current Pointstretcher list can be purged.  A large portion of the hotels listed do not show any Pointstretcher dates for 2009.

Hilton HHonors Pointstretchers allow an HHonors member to redeem points for hotel rooms at 40% below the standard redemption rate.  An HHonors Category 6 hotel like the Mount Juliet Conrad in Ireland normally costing 40,000 points per night is only 24,000 points if using a Pointstretcher award available most nights during the months of January and February 2009.

The selection of hotels is limited and Pointstretcher dates are sporadic.  Hilton has no Hampton Inn properties listed for Pointstretcher dates despite this brand being Hilton’s largest with about 1,500 hotels. 

There are over 500 Hilton Hotels globally and 23 hotels in the USA are participating in this 2009 Pointstretcher offer while 75 are participating in international locations.  A bit less than 20% of Hilton Hotels are participating in Pointstretcher awards over the next 6 months, however, 9 of the 23 USA Hilton Hotels only list December 2008 dates and 19 international Hilton hotels do not have any 2009 dates listed.

HHonors has always struggled to release Pointstretcher dates in a timely manner.  This offer is no different.  Hilton Garden Inn, primarily a domestic hotel brand, has 31 hotels on the Pointstretcher list offering dates only in December 2008.  There are only about 52 Hilton Garden Inn hotels on the Dec-May 2009 Pointstretcher list, about 1 in 7 HGI properties, and 60% of these Hilton Garden Inns only have award availability over the next 12 nights during December.  Might as well purge the list as of January 1 and show just how few hotels are offering Pointstretchers in 2009.

32 Doubletree Hotels in USA Pointstretcher list and only 12 of these hotels have Pointstretcher dates for 2009.

16 Embassy Suites (about 1 in 20 brand properties) show Pointstretcher availability.   Eight of these hotels only show December 2008 Pointstretcher dates.

Homewood Suites take the prize for the least timely release of Pointstretcher dates.  There are 17 Homewood Suites properties on the just released Pointstretcher list.  Only 2 of these hotels have Pointstretcher dates in 2009.  And if you wanted the Homewood Suites Lancaster, PA on a Pointstretcher, then you will need to wait for the next list to be released.  Last night, December 18, was the last Pointstretcher date shown for this period at the Homewood Suites Lancaster, PA.

Overall Hilton Hotels, a corporate chain with over 3,000 hotels globally included about 225 hotel properties in this Pointstretcher list.  About 40% of these hotels do not show any Pointstretcher dates after December 31, 2008 through May 2009. 

Loyalty Traveler hopes to see more dates added for 2009, but it has not been the normal operating procedure over the years for HHonors Pointstretcher dates to be added after the initial release of the list.

Marriott Rewards Advantage is Free Nights Redemption Chart

Marriott Rewards competitive advantage over Hilton HHonors, Hyatt Gold Passport, IHG Priority Club, and Starwood Preferred Guest is their “Free Nights Redemption Chart” which offers a progressively increasing per night discount for multiple night hotel stays using points. The difference with the Marriott Rewards table is the points per night cost decreases for every extra night of a hotel stay using points beginning with 2-night stays.

 Marriott San Francisco 

Savings Example Using Marriott Rewards Points for a Multiple Night Stay:

Marriott Rewards Category 5 Hotels cost 25,000 points for one room night using points. 

2-night stay = 46,000 points.   Per night rate drops to 23,000 points for a free night when you book a two-night stay using points.  Spending 46,000 points for two nights is an 8% discount from 50,000 points.

Important Difference of Marriott Rewards — The other major hotel programs do not discount the per night cost for a two-night stay.

A Crowne Plaza stay at 25,000 points  for one night will cost 50,000 points for two nights using hotel points.

A 5-night stay at a Marriott Rewards Category 5 hotel using points costs 95,000 points.  The cost per night on a 5-night Marriott Rewards Category 5 hotel = 19,000 points per free night.  This is a 24% savings on the per night cost for a five night hotel stay.

The higher category Marriott Rewards hotels, Category 5, 6, and 7 hotels, for longer stays of five to seven nights provide a per night discount over 30% and some reward stays approach a 40% discount when using points.  This is one of the highest discounts in the hotel industry for upscale and luxury high-end hotel properties when using hotel points for free stays.

Starwood Preferred Guest has the 5th Night Free Award Stay which gives a 20% discount on the per night rate, but SPG does not have discounted point rates for stays less than five nights using hotel points.

Marriott Rewards Redemption Chart 

source: http://www.marriott.com/rewards/usepoints/hotelrew.mi  

Marriott Rewards – Points per Night for a Multiple Night Stay 

Color codes show the relative per night discounts for longer stays. 

Percentages shown are per night discounts for an award stay based on per night cost for a 1-night award.  The larger percentages indicate more savings in points when booking a multi-night award using Marriott Rewards hotel points.

Marriott Rewards discounts the per night rate by 30% or more for cat 5, 6, and 7 hotels on 6-night and 7-night award reservations.

Marriott Rewards discounts are 20% to 27% on per night rates for Category 5, 6, and 7 hotels when booking 4-night or 5-night award stays using points.

Other Hotel chains are not as generous as Marriott Rewards for shorter hotel stays using points.

Hilton HHonors requires a minimum 6-night stay before any discount kicks in on the per night redemption rate using points.  VIP-only awards for 6-night or longer hotel stays are available to Hilton HHonors elite members.  Elite membership is a relatively small hurdle to qualify for Silver elite status and access to VIP-Only Reward stays.  Hilton HHonors Silver VIP requires just four Hilton-family hotel stays per year.

HHonors Category 6 hotel is 40,000 points per night.  A 6-night VIP award for a Category 6 hotel is 175,000 points, a 27% points discount.  Marriott’s comparable 6-night, Category 6 award is only 120,000 points and offers a 33% discount on the per night rate.  Hilton allows the member to earn 15 points per $1 hotel spending with Points&Points earning preference.  These awards will take about the same amount of hotel spending to earn the award.

HHonors Category 6 hotel is 40,000 points per night.  A 4-night award for a HHonors Category 6 hotel is 160,000 points, no discount on the per night points for a four-night HHonors stay.

Marriott Rewards Category 6 hotel for a four-night stay is 95,000 points.

The Marriott Rewards member is likely to earn a four night stay with less overall spending.  Hilton HHonors Diamond elites will have more equally matched earning power due to HHonors 50% elite bonus for Diamonds compared to only a 30% elite bonus for Marriott Rewards Platinum members.

Update Oct. 4, 2008:  HHonors American Express credit card HHonors 4-night AXON award discount.  An astute reader pointed out the option for Hilton HHonors members with a co-branded American Express HHonors credit card to redeem HHonors points for a 4-night AXON award at HHonors Category 5 or Category 6 hotels for 125,000 points. 

I overlooked the AXON hotel stay option in this analysis.  I have a post from May 15, 2008 about the HHonors American Express AXON awards.  The HHonors American Express card, along with SPG AmEx, also came out on top in earning potential in my analysis of hotel co-branded credit cards in this post “Comparison of Hotel Loyalty Program Affinity Credit Cards“.

Gary Leff wrote about the best bonus points offer he has seen from HHonors American Express on his “View from the Wing” blog in this October 4, 2008 post .

Hyatt Gold Passport

Hilton HHonors Point Stretcher Rewards Hotel List for 2008

Hilton HHonors Point Stretcher Free Night Rewards offer a 40% discount on points compared to the Standard Free Hotel Night Reward cost.  The best values tend to be for hotels in Europe where the lowest room rates can frequently be over $250USD per night.  Point Stretcher dates are extremely limited and becoming more so each year.  November and December dates around Thanksgiving and the end-of-year holiday season seem to be the best availability.  And this can be a great opportunity for hotel savings for travelers taking holidays.  Link to the 2008 Point Stretcher Hotel List.

Hilton Pointe Tapatio Cliffs waterfall, Phoenix, Arizona

Hilton HHonors offers Point Stretcher Rewards for participating hotels and dates from their Category 2 through Category 6 hotels.  Waldorf=Astoria Collection luxury properties are not offered as a Point Stretcher option.  These days it is rare to even find a Conrad brand hotel on the Point Stretcher list.  And you won’t find Opportunity or Category 1 hotels on the Point Stretcher list either.  The current offer shows about 150 hotels worldwide (about 5% of total Hilton family).

Point Stretcher Rewards         Standard Rewards

Opportunity                                                     7,500 points

Category 1                                                      10,000

Category 2                  12,000 points              20,000

Category 3                  15,000                         25,000

Category 4                  18,000                         30,000

Category 5                  21,000                         35,000

Category 6                  24,000                         40,000

Hilton Pointe Tapatio Cliffs pool, Phoeniz, Arizona

Airline Miles to HHonors Points Exchange

You may find difficulty in redeeming 90,000 AAdvantage miles for a Business Class ticket to Europe this December (and the cost increases to 100,000 miles for USA-Europe award tickets after Oct. 1, 2008). You definitely want better value for your earned miles than spending 120,000 miles for an AAnytime Economy class award ticket to Europe. 

An alternative is to exchange those hard to use miles into Hilton HHonors points with HHonors Miles-to-Points Exchanges available with American Airlines, (also available with Hawaiian, Mexicana, South African Airways, and Virgin Atlantic).  90,000 AAdvantage miles can be exchanged for 180,000 HHonors points.  Redeeming your HHonors points for free hotel nights is a breeze compared to finding an available airline ticket using miles. 

Back in 2000 when the LatinPass airline loyalty program ran the 1,000,000 mile bonus promotion I took advantage of the LatinPass agreement with HHonors to transfer over 600,000 airline miles into 1,200,000 Hilton HHonors points over the course of a few years.  That was a lot of free hotel nights from airline miles and I used Point Stretcher awards for hotels in Singapore, Belfast, Budapest, and a number of other cities. 

Hilton Amsterdam

Buying Points Sometimes is the Best Solution

At times you may find just buying Hilton HHonors points for a Point Stretcher free night a cheaper option than the lowest available rate.

The Hilton Budapest hotel is a Category 4 HHonors property with Point Stretcher dates during October.  A free room night is 18,000 points per night.  A room rate search for Wednesday, October 8 to Sunday, October 12 for a 4-night stay shows the lowest available rate at 169EUR per night.  At today’s currency exchange rate that is $249USD/night or basically $1,000 for a 4-night stay. 

The Hilton Budapest hotel is located in the lovely Castle District on the hill overlooking the Danube River.  I had one of my best hotel stays ever at this property in 2002.  My wife and I were upgraded to the King Duna Suite on a Point Stretcher stay in July.

So, you don’t have 72,000 HHonors points or airline miles to manage a Miles-to-Points exchange. 

Simply buy the points.  HHonors members can buy up to 40,000 points in a calendar year.  A couple can each buy 36,000 points for $360.  Points will be deposited into the member’s account almost immediately. 

$720 for a 4-night stay in Budapest would reduce the total cost of the hotel stay by nearly 30% compared to the lowest available rates.

HHonors HHoliday Travel

In the past I have frequently planned my air travel around Point Stretcher Reward dates to get a good quality room at a significant discount for stays.  Here is a sample Point Stretcher deal for travelers desiring a vacation in London this coming Christmas season. 

Hilton London Canary Wharf

Dec  20-27 for 7 nights stay. 

87.20 GBP per night reservation. Nonrefundable, nonchangeable rate. 

($1.83USD = 1 GBP; 87.2 x 1.83 = $160USD/night).

Point Stretcher Reward for this Category 6 hotel for 7 nights = 24,000 x 7 = 168,000 points. 

This is 37,000 fewer points than the 205,000 points normally required with a VIP-only GLONP07 reward for a 7-night stay at a Category 6 hotel.

pool area of Doubletree Sonoma, Rohnert Park, CA

My computer suddenly opened up a weblink to the PointStretcher Dates Calendar for May and June 2008. It was unintentional on my part so I take it as a sign to post about Hilton.

PointStretchers are great when you can use them for a reservation and the 40% savings really does stretch your points for awards.

I see the Hilton Budapest is available for late June pointstretcher dates. My wife and I stayed here on a PointStretcher in 2002 in July and the King Duna Suite upgrade was one of the most memorable hotel stays we have ever experienced. The hotel is on the Castle Hill. The hill is so steep the city has had the Castle Hill funicular for nearly 140 years (rebuilt in 1986 after funicular destroyed in WWII).

Lovely acoustic guitars and local folk music drifted up from the courtyard to our room windows and the views from the room of the Danube River let us see for miles. In contrast to the vista of the valley was an upclose view of the Fisherman’s Bastion Disneyesque building located directly outside the window. A more detailed link about Fisherman’s Bastion is here. The view is incredibly beautiful. The King Duna suite was at the height of the upper part of the Bastion and to my recollection was less than 100 ft away. The entire area was a popular romantic evening getaway for couples. And there were lots of couples on the warm July evenings looking over the lights of the city below.

An article appeared today in PR Newswire for Journalists, Economy Foreclosing on Spring Break?, based on a survey by AccessAmerica, a travel insurance company. “Access America survey finds half of American families scaling back spring break plans…or forgoing their vacations altogether”

The not-so-surprising conclusion of the data is poorer families are cutting back on vacation spending this March 2008. The website says the full report is available upon request.

My observation, as someone who has traveled nearly every Easter to Europe for the past ten years, is airfare to Europe is dirt cheap right now for long-haul travel this Spring 2008. The fares are comparable or lower than commonly available fares at Easter time since 2000. Airfare is probably near a record low right now for purchasing trans-Atlantic travel in just 14 days or so from today.

I have seen fares from Monterey, San Francisco, and Los Angeles hovering around $500 all-in to Frankfurt and London. The fare was $541 Monterey to Frankfurt last week, 21 days before Easter travel. I think that airfare has to be near the record low over the past five years for a ticket purchase from Monterey this close to Easter. There were flights costing less from Monterey to Europe than San Francisco to Europe. The flights route from Monterey to San Francisco and then on to Europe. $100/barrel oil doesn’t seem to have much of an impact on airfare prices.

I commented a couple of months ago that trans-Atlantic travel was down 2006 to 2007 year-over-year. American Airlines reports February passenger loads have increased to Europe. The low prices are getting people across the ocean, but are you prepared for the $7.00 Coca-Cola and $18 fishs & chips pub tab?

Hotel Tips from the Loyalty Traveler –
Planning a Spring Break European hotel stay?

Here are links to some of the best hotel opportunities for a lower-cost trip. I provide a hotel sample, but there are many choices of hotels and locations offering these reduced hotel stay awards. And there is good news for those of you not banking enough points at the moment for a free hotel stay this Spring trip. Hotel points can be purchased and there is a possibility you can save money by just purchasing the hotel points you need to book a free hotel stay.

Hilton Point Stretchers and London.

Hilton London Canary Wharf has PointStretcher dates from March 16-28 and May 1-7. This 40,000 HHonors point/night Category 6 hotel can be booked for 24,000/points/night with an HHonors Point Stretcher reservation.

HHonors members can buy 40,000 HHonors points in a calendar year. Purchases of 10,000 points reduce the price to $10/1,000 points.

Hilton London Canary Wharf can be booked for 24,000 points. If you don’t already have the points, you can buy 24,000 points for $240.

March 20, 2008 rate check of Hilton London Canary Wharf
The nightly rate ranges from $454 low to $500+ for most rooms. This would be a high value use of a PointStretcher night, if you could get a reservation. In contrast, the Friday night rate at the London Canary Wharf is under $175/night.
S
ample trip for a couple: Each person purchase 24,000 Hilton HHonors points and redeem for one free Point Stretcher night ($480 total cost). Pay for two weekend nights when rates drop to about $175/night from the $400 to $500 midweek rates. Friday and Saturday night will cost $350. Four nights at the Hilton Canary Wharf London for a little over $200/night.

Other HHonors Point Stretcher hotel opportunities

Marriott PointSavers
Marriott has several UK hotel properties available for Spring break trips at reduced points rates.

InterContinental Hotels Group Priority Club PointBreaks

These awards are an unbeatable deal if you have a trip to a hotel location where IHG Priority Club is offering a PointBreaks award. The cost is only 5,000 points per night. Priority Club members can purchase 10,000 points for $100, up to 20,000 points per calendar year.

Sample Award night:
Crowne Plaza Hotel, Caserta, Italy (near Naples)
March 19-21, 2008 for 10,000 points (=$100 for 2-night stay)
Paid rate for a 2-night stay March 19-21, 2008 = 77EUR/night or $230 for 2-night stay.

Another incredible deal with IHG Priority Club is their Pay 2 Nights, Get 1 Free offer. Dozens of hotels in Europe are participating this Spring season. Check the link and search for a hotel.
Naples, Italy Holiday Inn for March 19-21 is only 45EUR/night. That is a budget saver.
If you are lucky you may save hundreds of dollars between this offer and a PointBreaks stay.

An integrated loyalty program travel plan provides numerous opportunities to use airline miles and hotel points for travel savings. The knowledge of equivalent exchange values for points and miles between loyalty programs allows the traveler to save money on travel. This loyalty traveler is always looking for a good exchange of hotel points and airline miles for an economical 5-star vacation.

Hilton HHonors advertises itself as the only program letting members earn both hotel points and airline miles for a hotel stay. This feature is what HHonors calls “Double Dipping”. Starwood, Marriott, IHG, and Hyatt loyalty programs all allow the member to select in the member’s guest profile an earning preference for either hotel points or airline miles.

An even more impressive feature of Hilton HHonors is the ability to exchange airline miles into HHonors points. Airline miles to points exchange can be done with the following airlines: American, Hawaiian, Mexicana, Midwest, South African Airways, and Virgin Atlantic Airways.
http://hhonors1.hilton.com/en_US/hh/points/milesforpoints.do

Exchange rate is 5,000 frequent flier miles = 10,000 HHonors points for all these airlines except Virgin Atlantic which has an even exchange of 5,000 miles = 5,000 HHonors points.

Over the past ten years I have exchanged nearly 1,000,000 airline miles from American Airlines, LatinPass, and TWA into hotel points with Marriott Rewards and Hilton HHonors. The option to transfer airline miles into Marriott points was discontinued several years ago.

I discovered the value of this strategy for exchanging airline miles into hotel points when I planned a trip to Spain and the Netherlands in 1999. Hotel prices were about $150/night at the Hilton hotels in Amsterdam and Barcelona. I exchanged 50,000 TWA miles into 100,000 Hilton HHonors points. The miles could have been exchanged for an economy class airline ticket to Europe ($500 value) whereas the 100,000 HHonors points were good for 9 hotel nights ($1,300 value).

Currently in 2008 it  is also possible to purchase up to 40,000 points in a calendar year for $400. http://hhonors1.hilton.com/en_US/hh/points/purchase.do

If you purchase more than 10,000 points at one time the price is $0.01/point and $0.0125/point if less than 10,000 points are purchased. Points will appear in account in about 30 minutes.

Extending Frequent Flier Mile Accounts with Hilton Stays

A strategy I have frequently used for stays at Hilton Hotels was to change my airline miles earning preference to frequent flier programs holding miles in accounts I might not use for the year. Losing your frequent flier miles for inactivity is cheaply avoidable. A Hilton-brand hotel stay allows the guest to maintain an active account with 500-miles earned for most Hilton-brand hotel stays. And, you also get HHonors points for your stay.

Paradise with an Ocean View

In 1995, when I worked as a special education teacher in Maine, I received my classroom’s first Mac computer. The desktop picture I selected for the monitor was a beautiful white sand island with palm trees. The island paradise was my fantasy image when the day-to-day grind of behaviorally impaired special education students had me feeling whipped. The picture title named the location as the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean, a thousand miles off the coast of Africa.

My dream of an Indian Ocean resort getaway has eluded me to this date. I have had opportunities to fly British Airways using miles and stay for free at the Hilton Mauritius on points, but my vacation fantasy was not my wife’s ideal vacation. The resorts of the Maldives, the Seychelles, and Mauritius in the Indian Ocean are still a trophy travel dream of mine. These locations are about as far as a person can travel from the USA.

Nearly every year the resorts in these island locations go up in price (at least for Americans exchanging devalued dollars) and the Category rating for many of these hotels continues to rise in various loyalty programs.

Which brings this discussion around to Hilton HHonors PointStretcher discounted hotel stay awards.

Hilton HHonors PointStretcher Award Chart
http://hhonors1.hilton.com/en_US/hh/rewards/pointstretcher.do

HHonors PointStretcher Participating Hotels for 2008
http://hhonors.hilton.com/en/hhonors/rewards/stretchers/

Hilton Mauritius Resort, [Pointstretcher dates: May 25-June 30, 2008]
Category 6 HHonors hotel = 40,000 points/night or 175,000 points/6-night GLON2P award
PointStretcher Award is available for 24,000 points/night
Monday, June 16 –Sunday, June 22
King Deluxe room = 144,000 points/6-nights

Cash price is 13,696 MUR/night = $472/night for the nonrefundable internet only lowest rate or 17,120 MUR/night flexible rate. In this instance, 24,000 HHonors points can be redeemed at a value of almost 2 cents each for a $472/night room.
A complimentary upgrade for an elite status member may be even more rewarding with a PointStretcher stay in a Corner Suite = $772/night or Deluxe Suite = $868/night.

Other PointStretcher Opportunities:
Hilton Prague, Czech Republic, PointStretcher dates: March 8-14, 22-28; April 20-26
HHonors Category 4 hotel, standard award = 30,000 points/night or 150,000 points/6-nights GLON2 award.
PointStretcher Award = 18,000 points/night
March 22-28 PointStretcher award is available for 108,000 points/6-nights.
Pointstretcher saves 42,000 points on regular GLON2 award.
Paid rate = 158€/night = $235/night compared to 18,000 points/night ($180 value)

Hilton Waikiki Prince Kuhio, Hawaii- Rated #11 of 85 Honolulu hotels on TripAdvisor.
HHonors Category 6 = 40,000 points/night
PointStretcher dates = April 1-7, 2008
24,000 points/night and 5 night award available for 120,000 points. This saves 80,000 points on regular award rate.
Internet only paid rate = $172/night.
Even at a pointstretcher award rate the value of points redeemed is worth less than one cent each and is a low redemption value for hotel points compared to other hotel options. This hotel may be a better value for a paid stay and save your points for a higher value redemption.

Hilton Waikiki Prince Kuhio - $172 night vs. 24,000 points/night ($240 value)
Hilton Prague - $235/night vs. 18,000 points/night ($180 value)
Hilton Mauritius - $472/night vs. 24,000 points/night ($240 value)

Also, for a more accurate comparison, the traveler needs to calculate the points not earned on award stay that would be “added value” for the cost of a paid stay. (Another outstanding and unique feature of Hilton HHonors is an award stay counts as a stay for elite status qualification – terrific added value for elite status seekers.)

Hilton Prague $235 night = 2,350 points + 1,175 points = 3,525 HHonors points for non-elite with Points&Points preference selection) = $35.25

The value of points not earned for a PointStretcher stay compared to a paid stay at Hilton Prague is about $35.00. A comparison of the value of using a free hotel award must include the “added value” that would have been earned if paying for the room. The 18,000 points for a free night have a $180 purchase value. The “added value of a paid stay would be $35. Together, $180 + $35 = $215, the points value and the missed opportunity for “added value” from a paid stay, can be compared to the going room rate for a comparison of award value to paid stay value.

$180 + $35(added value, if paid stay) = $215 value of using PointStretcher Award. Even considering the “added value” of the HHonors points notearned for an award stay, the PointStretcher award option is still a higher value alternative than a paid stay.
Hilton Prague PointStretcher = $215/night
Hilton Paid Stay Nonrefundable internet-only rate = $235/night