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U.S. Travel Association Daily Getaways offer for Wednesday April 25 is Hilton HHonors points at a rate under $5.00 per 1,000 points. The regular purchase price for HHonors points is $10.00 per 1,000 points through the Hilton website. Read More…
I periodically post hotel numbers to keep track of how many properties are in specific hotel brands and what is the ratio of hotels in the USA and outside the USA for the major hotel chains.
Hilton Worldwide At-A-Glance (December 31, 2011 data)
Hilton HHonors members can earn double points or double miles for stays from April 1 through June 30, 2012.
HHonors Promotion registration is required. Promotion FAQ link.
HHonors Points & Points Earners with Double Points
Double points means 20 points per dollar for all brands except Home2 Suites where double points is 10 points per dollar. A Points & Points earner gets 25 points/$1 and elite bonuses are on top of that.
Gary Leff spouted off this morning about La Quinta Inns being an unsuitable hotel chain for the way he likes to travel. My god, they don’t even have room service!
And even though he has never slept at a La Quinta Inn, he implies the housekeeping staff does not clean the rooms to the same standard a guest will find at a full-service hotel chain like IHG, Hilton or Hyatt.
Yet, he has no problem being a member of La Quinta Returns loyalty program to collect free points.
Here is my rebuttal for you Gary and a reason to build your account balance beyond 300 points.
Waldorf-Astoria Resorts – here we come with ice coolers.
Here is a Loyalty Traveler lesson in cheap value for travelers who can get by without room service morning coffee for hotel stays at La Quinta Inns & Suites.
Over the next few weeks I will compare aspects of different hotel loyalty programs. While it is easy to look at the different websites and compare member benefits, the proportion of hotel brands and their market segment as a proportion of hotels participating in a hotel loyalty program tends not to be as well known.
Hotel Chain Scales are used by hotel industry analysts at STR.com to segment hotel brands into luxury, upper-upscale, upscale, upper midscale, midscale and economy categories.
The largest hotel loyalty programs for the US are Hilton, Marriott and IHG in terms of the size and broad range of hotels in different market segments. Wyndham Rewards, Choice Privileges and Best Western Rewards are comparable megachain hotels, but there are far fewer hotels in the upscale to luxury segments in these three brands. Starwood (1,100 hotels) and Hyatt (500 hotels) have a high proportion of upscale to luxury hotel brands in their portfolios, however, the number of hotels are far fewer in these chains and not as useful for travelers needing wide geographic coverage.
Hotel Brands and Market Segments
What is a luxury hotel or an upper-upscale hotel?
Price is generally the defining line between hotel market segments. I do not work in the hotel industry and I am an amateur analyst interpreting numbers from hotel industry data. STRGlobal.com provides industry data reports and I gather statistical data about the hotel industry regularly from the free data provided online.
STR has a list of hotel brands in different chain scale segments based on the average room rate data for thousands of hotels worldwide.
This post uses the 2011 STR US Chain Scales along with the latest hotel properties data for each brand from the hotel chain’s websites to compare market segments for hotel brands of Hilton, IHG and Marriott.
Basically I want to see how the hotels in Hilton, IHG and Marriott segment out in each chain and compare to each other when looking at the number of luxury, upscale and midscale hotels in each hotel loyalty program.
Hilton Worldwide Hotel Brands with Market Segment and Number of Hotels
Marriott International Hotel Brands with Market Segment and Number of Hotels
InterContinental Hotels Group
I have some issue with the broad segmentation of Crowne Plaza and DoubleTree as Upscale rather than Upper Upscale for some locations and Holiday Inn as Upper Midscale for some locations where the Holiday Inn is more upscale. Keep in mind in the real world of travel there will be some Crowne Plaza and DoubleTree hotels that will be just as nice or better than the nearby Marriott, Hilton or Embassy Suites.
How the hotel chains stack up when brands are compared by market segment.
Luxury market segment
Upper Upscale market segment
Upscale market segment
Upper Midscale market segment
Midscale market segment
The key point here is to consider what market segment you desire for your travels. IHG Priority Club will tend to be lower room rates, but Priority Club does not offer frequent guest elite members the level of defined benefits provided by Hilton HHonors or Marriott Rewards to their md-tier and top-tier elite members.
Another point to add is the practice of placing branded hotels in the same chain adjacent to each other. This is really common with Marriott where Courtyard and Residence Inn are literally adjacent hotels in many places. I have seen three Marriott properties in the same location in places. Geographic coverage is not as extensive as you might think when all the locations with multiple properties are considered. On the other hand, the placement of hotels in the same chain next to each other makes hotel hopping for loyalty promotion stay credit an easy task when you want to earn free Marriott MegaBonus nights.
Comparison of hotel loyalty program benefits across these hotel brands will be discussed in future posts.
Hilton Worldwide acquisition of the Elysian Hotel in November 2011 will give Chicago a new Waldorf Astoria Collection hotel when the Elysian is rebranded February 1, 2012. Hilton is expanding its luxury brand footprint in key North America cities with growth in Waldorf Astoria Collection and Conrad brands. These two brands currently hold 22 hotels in Waldorf Astoria Collection and 17 hotels in Conrad globally.
The Elysian is currently the #1 hotel of 165 hotels in Chicago ranked on TripAdvisor.com. A food critic I met last month in Chicago raved about dining Read More…
Hilton Worldwide has a December Sale available for booking through January 1, 2012 on stays from December 8 to January 8, 2012. These are prepaid, no changes and nonrefundable rates offering from 20% to 33% discount on Best Available Rate (BAR). The discount depends on the hotel brand and global region.
Hilton Rate Discounts by Hotel Brand and Region
North and South America
Europe, Middle East and Africa
Asia Pacific
Loyalty Traveler analysis
Rate comparisons for two San Francisco Hilton Hotels show a 25% discount on BAR. These hotels offered from 10% to 15% discount with AAA rates. The December Sale discount is the lowest rate I found for these two hotels. Keep in mind though that December Sale rates are prepaid at time of booking and nonrefundable.
December Sale rates apply to higher category rooms like junior suites and full suites.
Hilton Union Square San Francisco Dec 24-26, 2011
December Sale rate saves about $130 after tax for a two night stay in a one bedroom suite compared to AAA rate.
Hilton San Francisco Union Square Rate Comparison
Bed & Breakfast deals in EMEA region can be a significant savings compared to the normal cost to eat breakfast which often runs as high as US$30 per person at hotel restaurants.
Hilton London Euston Hotel Breakfast rate is only US$10.40 more per day.
Hilton HHonors members will no longer have the option to earn Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards points effective January 1, 2012. Members with Points & Miles earning preference set with Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards need to change earning to a different airline by January 1, 2012 or the account automatically reverts to Points & Points earning on January 1, 2012.
The removal of Southwest Airlines as a Hilton earning partner is a loss for members who spend lots of nights at Hampton Inns and Homewood Suites where 600 Rapid Rewards points are earned per stay, the same rate as all other Hilton brands.
HHonors airline miles table Southwest shows *See important notice below.
*Effective January 1, 2012, the Hilton HHonors program will no longer offer Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards® Points for stays at hotels & resorts within the Hilton Worldwide portfolio.
Most airlines earn only 20% miles at Hampton and Homewood compared to stays completed at other Hilton brands. Fixed miles earners typically receive 500 miles per stay at all Hilton brands, and only 100 miles per stay for Hampton Inns and Homewood Suites.
JetBlue is the only other US carrier offering full points/miles for stays at these lower miles earning Hilton brands.
HHonors Points & Miles vs. Points & Points Earning
500 miles per Hilton stay is a convenient way to build up frequent flyer account mileage balances. 30 stays per year can earn 15,000 additional miles with most airlines at 500 miles earned per stay at Hilton, Doubletree, Embassy Suites, Conrad, Waldorf Astoria Collection, Hilton Garden Inn and Hilton Grand Vacations.
Assume an HHonors member spends $6,000 per year on 30 stays and a Points & Points earners will receive 30,000 bonus points compared to a Points & Fixed Miles earner who can pick up 15,000 miles instead. The value of 15,000 miles might exceed the value of 30,000 points for someone who probably earns 100,000+ points already as a Points & Miles earner.
The HHonors Brand Determines the Miles Factor
The miles factor is dependent on which of the ten HHonors hotel brands you stay. There is a two-tier earning system for most airlines when collecting Points & Fixed Miles. Hilton, Doubletree, Embassy Suites, Conrad, Waldorf Astoria Collection, Hilton Garden Inn and Hilton Grand Vacations offer 500 miles per stay with most airlines.
The value of miles is reduced greatly if you frequent Hampton Inn or Homewood Suites where the earn rate is only 100 miles per stay for most airlines. That 15,000 miles is reduced by 80% if you have 30 stays at Hampton Inn and earn only 3,000 miles with American Airlines AAdvantage, Delta Skymiles, or United Mileage Plus.
I’d take 30,000 HHonors points as a Points & Points earner rather than 6,000 miles as a Points and Variable Miles earner.
The value of Southwest Airlines is 30 Hampton Inn stays earns 18,000 points and enough for a free flight on Southwest Airlines. That is a comparable value to 30,000 HHonors points and likely a better deal than 6,000 miles in another airline.
bmi, British Midland International (Star Alliance partner)
There is a decent alternative for earning miles when staying at Hampton Inns, Homewood Suites and Home2Suites.
bmi airlines, a Star Alliance partner, earns 1,000 miles per night at Hampton Inn, Homewood Suites for a maximum three nights per stay. 3,000 miles is a good haul and applies to stays at all Hilton brands except Home2 Suites where the earning limit is 1,000 miles per stay.
Home2 Suites is Hilton’s newest brand and I have to give a big thumbs down to HHonors this year when setting a precedent of reduced points earning for stays at Home2 Suites. Stays at this newest brand of Hilton HHonors earn only 5 points per dollar. All other Hilton brands earn 10 points per dollar. Hilton points earning link.
Many airlines, including Southwest Airlines, do not earn any miles for stays at Home2 Suites. Most airline partners allow a maximum 100 miles or points for a stay at Home2 Suites. bmi airlines at 1,000 miles per stay at Home2 Suites looks like a great deal.
I seem to recall some issues about redeeming miles for new members to bmi who have not had a bmi flight. Perhaps someone with up-to-date knowledge on that aspect of bmi can comment to remind me of any restrictions on using bmi miles.
bmi airlines earns most miles of any airline for Hampton Inn, Homewood and Home2 Suites brand stays.
The “Hilton HHonors Premium Room Reward Only Scam“ is a thread quickly growing on FlyerTalk showing evidence that availability of only Hilton HHonors Premium Rewards have effectively blocked out some resort hotels like Hilton Bora Bora Nui Resort and Conrad Sanya, China from Standard Reward redemption and GLON/AXON extended stay rewards at the Standard and Discount redemption rates.
This effectively is a devaluation of HHonors points if only Premium Room Rewards are available since the redemption rate for these rewards rarely exceeds $5.00 per 1,000 points for these Category 6 and Category 7 resort hotels.
FlyerTalk member JasonVR wrote to Hilton HHonors asking if some hotels are now only offering Premium Room Rewards and yesterday posted this response from Hilton .
Hello Mr. jasonvr,
Thank you for your message to Hilton Reservations and Customer Care. It is my pleasure to assist you today regarding your concerns with Premium Rewards.
We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused. With the new Reward offerings provided by HHonors, some of our hotels only offer Premium Rewards. Because rooms at some of our Resorts offer additional features or are not standard hotel rooms (i.e. bungalows) all room types for these hotels are now considered Premium Roomsand the point values will now reflect this new change.
[bolding was added by jasonvr]
A Major Devaluation of HHonors Points
What does this effectively mean?
Will Premium Room Reward only hotels effectively eliminate Standard Room redemption and block availability of extended stay Going Global and American Express AXON rewards for stays of four nights or more?
Here are some rate searches I made today at properties mentioned in the FlyerTalk thread as now having only Premium Room Reward availability.
[Note: click on images below to view full size]
Hilton Bora Bora Nui Resort & Spa
Looking at flexible dates for points rewards over the next several months showed no standard reward availability at 50,000 points per night.
HHonors Bora Bora flexible dates search showed 151,366 as lowest reward rate.
HHonors Bora Bora rate at $551/night or 151,366 points.
Hilton HHonors Premium Room Reward Redemption rate for Hilton Bora Bora Nui: $649/151,366 is $4.29 per 1,000 points and even less when compared to advance purchase rates.
Hilton Moorea Lagoon Resort & Spa
This hotel shows 105,822 points for a Premium Room Reward as the new standard for hotel stays on points.
HHonors Reward Stay at Hilton Moorea Lagoon Resort & Spa costs 105,822.
Granted this places you in a large King Garden Bungalow Pool room, but this room used to be 50,000 points per night or even less with Going Global and AXON rewards.
Hilton Moorea Lagoon Resort premium reward
Hilton Moorea Premium Reward Redemption Rate = $453/105,822 = $4.28 per 1,000 points.
I still found availability of Standard Rewards for 80,000 points at the Waldorf Astoria Maldives.
Waldorf Astoria Maldives still shows limited Standard Reward availability.
This property shows the high value of Standard Rewards compared to the new Premium Room Rewards.
Redemption Value is $875/80,000 points = $10.94 per 1,000 HHonors points.
Conrad Sanya, China Category 6 Hotel = 40,000 points as Standard Reward.
Conrad Sanya shows only Premium Reward availability.
Granted this is another resort property with special rooms, but the Premium Reward rate is relatively low redemption value for these March 2012 dates.
Conrad Sanya Haitang Bay King Deluxe Plunge Pool Ocean Room
HHonors Redemption Value $495/115,395 = $4.29 per 1,000 HHonors points.
Do you see a redemption rate pattern here with the hotels Premium Room Rewards?
Here is a Premium Room Reward outlier using a different date at Conrad Sanya Haitang Bay for the same room type in December 2011.
HHonors Premium Reward at Conrad Sanya is far less in December 2011.
HHonors Redemption Value $479/79,808 = $6.00 per 1,000 HHonors points.
There is something happening here with Premium Room Rewards at select Hilton Resorts.
The big devaluation?
Hat tip to FlyerTalk member Beltway and Gary Leff at View from the Wing pointing me to the FlyerTalk thread today.
HHonors Premium Room Rewards were introduced in April 2011 as one of three expanded reward options of Points & Money, Premium Room and Upgraded Room reward options. Premium Rewards offer the ability and option to book a higher room category, even a suite using only points.
Upgraded Room rewards offer the ability to book a confirmed upgrade using points to upgrade a confirmed reservation. Points & Money reduce the cost of a reward night to a fixed dollar amount and 50% points of a standard reward. Points & Money rewards were analyzed in this Loyalty Traveler post last week.
Premium Room Rewards Analysis
The Waldorf=Astoria New York room rate for Wednesday, October 19 is $709.
[Note: Click on images below to view full size in separate window.]
Waldorf Astoria New York BAR rate Wednesday 10-19-11 is $709.
The checkbox in upper right corner, “Use HHonors Points“, allows a search for reward availability. The points reward availability appears when the box is checked. The $709 lowest Best Available rate makes a 60,000 points Standard Reward a high value points redemption. But what if there is no standard reward availability?
Waldorf Astoria New York Premium Room Reward 10-19-11 is 212,487 points.
There is no standard reward availability for the Waldorf-Astoria New York for the October 19 date. Premium Reward availability is 212,487 points for a small room at 250 to 300 square feet. This is more than three times the high season standard reward rate of 60,000 points per night.
The extremely high rate for a small room makes paying a bit more points for a one bedroom suite with twice the room space look like a feasible option on this date for an HHonors points millionaire.
Waldorf Astoria New York Premium Room One-Bedroom Suite 10-19-11 is 272,427 points.
Compare Redemption Value of HHonors points for Premium Room Rewards
Both Premium Rewards offer the same redemption value of $3.34 per 1,000 points compared to the Best Available room rate. This is a relatively low redemption value for HHonors compared to the $5.00 per 1,000 points most redemption rate analyses for HHonors points. NerdWallet.com changed its point value analysis for HHonors points to a points value extended range from $1 per 1,000 points (0.1 cent/point) to $17/1,000 points (1.7 cents/point).
Using Flexible Dates Calendar tool to find Standard Reward Availability for Waldorf Astoria New York
Standard Rewards at 60,000 points per night will allow a three night stay for 180,000 points compared to a one night premium reward stay at 212,427 points. Flexible Dates calendar tool makes this an easy search option.
Restarting my search and checking “Flexible Dates” box allows me to quickly check two weeks of dates for standard reward availability.
HHonors Flexible Dates reward search tool.
The Flexible Dates search shows there are several dates in a two week period around October 19 where peak season standard rewards are available for 60,000 points per night.
Waldorf Astoria New York Flexible Dates reward search shows several dates with Standard Rewards at 60,000 points.
Moving the hotel stay forward by one week provides a Standard Reward room for three nights at 60,000 points per night or 180,000 points for three nights.
Waldorf Astoria New York Standard Reward availability is 180,000 points for three night stay October 14-17.
When I go back to flexible dates and input October 14-17 I find there is actually much more Standard Reward availability for a 3-night reward stay compared to when I checked Standard Reward availability for a one night stay.
One would think that Premium Rewards would be less for these dates since the Best Available room rate is less for the lowest category rooms. That does not appear to be the case.
In the earlier search for October 19 the flexible dates returned only Premium Reward availability at 212,000+ points per night for each night from October 19-22. When searching 3-night stays there is Standard Reward availability at 60,000 points per night.
Waldorf Astoria New York Flexible Dates search for 3-night stay shows plenty of Standard Reward Availability.
Returning to the original search date of October 19, the flexible dates reward calendar now shows a three night stay is available for 180,000 points in a Double Deluxe Guest Room on HHonors Standard Rewards compared to my previous search showing only Premium Reward availability at the one night rate of 212,487 points for a King Bed Superior Room.
Waldorf Astoria 3 night Standard Reward October 19-22 is 180,000 points total.
HHonors Redemption Value for this three night stay Oct 19-22 using 180,000 points for Standard Rewards is $10.98 per 1,000 points for a stay that is $1,977 + tax compared to the original Premium Room reward rate of 212,487 points for a $709 Superior King room for one night with a redemption value of $3.34 per 1,000 HHonors points.
The King One Bedroom Suite is still available as a Premium Reward for October 19-22, however the rate is unchanged from the initial search at $909 or 272,427 points per night for a redemption value of $3.34 per 1,000 HHonors points.
Dozens of searches for Premium Rewards at hotels around the world reveal a fairly constant redemption value for HHonors Premium Rewards at $3.34 per 1,000 points. The exceptional case is when a hotel has Point Stretcher Reward availability. In these cases the Premium Reward Redemption Value improves significantly.
HHonors Flexible Dates search tool using points provides members the ability to quickly search and compare paid stay and reward stay rates in a two weeks calendar.
The Flexible Dates Calendar tool allows you to search for better reward and paid stay rates when your dates are flexible.
Hilton Worldwide has a three day sale for 50,000 rooms beginning today for select hotels in Europe, Middle East and Africa for weekend stays from October 14 to December 16, 2011. These rates qualify for Hilton’s Q4 promotion of a free night after four stays. Bookings must be made by Wednesday October 12.
Both room only rates and Bed & Breakfast discount rates are offered. FlyerTalk members report finding some good rate discounts with these prepaid, nonrefundable rates.
5,000 HHonors bonus points new member enrollment bonus for two night stay by Dec 31, 2011.
Non-participating hotels
