From January 7 through March 31, 2013 HHonors members can register to earn double base points or double base miles. Promotion bonus applies to existing reservations for stays and nights within the promotion period, however, bonus only applies for stays completed after promotion registration.

‘Double Your HHonors’ promotion registration page.

Bonus points or miles apply to up to two rooms per reservation when both rooms are booked and paid for by the HHonors member.

HHonors Points Earning Analysis

Double points means a Points & Points member earns at least 25 points/$1 for all Hilton brands except 12.5 points/$1 for Home2 Suites stays.

HHonors Points Calculator

• 10 base points per dollar
• 5 bonus points points per dollar (Points & Points earner)
• 10 bonus points per dollar (Double Your HHonors promotion)
• Elite bonus points if applicable (1.5 to 5 points/$1)
• HHonors credit card bonus points if applicable (up to 12 points per dollar with HHonors American Express Surpass)

If you have all the right stuff and stay at a participating hotel, Double Your HHonors promotion can pull in 42 points per dollar.

That is a decent rebate on hotel spend.

Non-Participating HHonors Hotels (link to hotel list)

The major drawback of Double Your HHonors is there are about 600 nonparticipating hotels in the USA. That is almost 1 in 5 hotels in the USA opting out of this offer.

There are only 14 hotels outside the USA not participating, so not too much of a concern for international travelers.

Over 600 hotels opted out of Double Your HHonors 2013 Q-1 promotion with 97% of those in USA.

Here are some comparative statistics to other HHonors quarterly promotions.

• HHonors 2011 Q-4 fewer than 300 opted out.
• HHonors 2012 Q-2 about 350 hotels opted out.
• HHonors 2012 Q-3 about 550 hotels opted out.
• HHonors 2012 Q-4 only about 250 hotels opted out.

The vast majority of hotels opting out of HHonors promotions are in the USA.

Earning Double Miles

In general, I do not think earning double miles is nearly as valuable as earning double points.

Remember you can keep your profile preference at Points and Fixed Miles or Points & Variable Miles and still earn double points with this offer and standard base miles. Your earning is only reduced by 5 points/$1 (Points & Points bonus) by choosing Double Points for this promotion with fixed or variable miles.

If your travel includes many stays at Hampton Inn, Homewood Suites or Home2 Suites, then poor fixed miles earning rates, typically 100 miles per stay, make Double Miles a poor promotion choice for Double Your HHonors. Many international airlines do not even earn miles for stays at these three brands.

Another advantage of choosing Double Points is award stays will earn double points for incidental charges, however, award stays will not earn double miles.

Double Your HHonors FAQ.

Conrad Miami bar balcony view.

Ric Garrido, writer and owner of Loyalty Traveler, shares news and views on hotels, hotel loyalty programs and vacation destinations for frequent guests. You can follow Loyalty Traveler on Twitter and Facebook and RSS feed.

The hotel chains are announcing their winter 2013 promotions before you can actually register.

Hilton HHonors promotion leaked out as double points or double miles for stays January 7 through March 31, 2013. No registration page is up yet.

I give the Hilton promo a California wave wash rating.

Marriott Rewards Spring MegaBonus will happen February 1 through April 30, 2013. Registration will be available through Marriott Rewards beginning tomorrow, December 20. Members must register by March 15, 2013.

I’ll take a guess that most members will receive an offer for one Category 1-4 hotel free night certificate after every two stays. That is the MegaBonus Marriott offer for 10 months of 2012. Of course, frequent Marriott Rewards guests will have variable free nights and bonus points offers.

Then again, Marriott Rewards may have a surprise in store for us on December 20.

The Marriott Spring 2013 MegaBonus promotion was announced 12/17 on Marriott Rewards Insiders. The announcement states there will be no exclusive credit card like Visa or MasterCard required for promotion bonus.

Marriott has been a fairly consistent wave of MegaBonus offers. I’ll rate this MegaBonus as a good bet for two stays earns one free night. Tomorrow we will know for sure what we will get from Marriott Rewards.

Starwood Preferred Guest Power Up Promotion Jan 15-Apr 15

Earn 2,000 bonus points for every four nights, up to 8,000 bonus points after 16 nights from January 15 through April 15, 2013.

Stay 20 nights and get 10,000 additional bonus points.

Seriously, I think this is a weak promotion offer designed to provide incentive to the 75-night Platinum crowd.

500 bonus points per night after you complete four nights does not create any promotion excitement for this loyalty traveler.

And 20 nights in three months is a high hurdle for 18,000 bonus points.

I hope they throw in some supplementary and stackable airline miles promotion like the recent 5,000 Aeroplan miles for five nights that just ended a couple of weeks ago.

There is a webpage for the SPG Power Up promotion and you can register to receive a text message notification when SPG promotion registration opens.

The leisure traveler may encounter rough seas earning bonus loyalty points for winter stays.

Perhaps Hyatt Gold Passport will treat us to something a little warmer for winter. After knocking out Platinum Extras Awards for elite members, the Gold Passport program needs to calm the membership down with a good value promotion.

[photos are Garrapata State Park, Big Sur coast, Monterey County, California on a windy and cold December day.]

Ric Garrido, writer and owner of Loyalty Traveler, shares news and views on hotels, hotel loyalty programs and vacation destinations for frequent guests. You can follow Loyalty Traveler on Twitter and Facebook and RSS feed.