How To Redeem Hilton Honors Points For Best Value

How To Redeem Hilton Honors Points For Best Value

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I write a lot about the value of hotel loyalty programs, and in this post I wanted to specifically look at the best ways to go about redeeming Hilton Honors points, and how I use my points. Just as I wrote guides to redeeming Marriott Bonvoy points and World of Hyatt points, in this post I wanted to share strategies for redeeming Hilton Honors points for maximum value.

Basics of redeeming Hilton Honors points

Let’s start by talking about the basics of redeeming Hilton Honors points — how much should you expect to pay for free nights, are there blackout dates, how much are Hilton Honors points worth, etc.?

I value Hilton Honors points at 0.5 cents each

Personally I value Hilton Honors points at 0.5 cents each. There’s no science to that, but rather I think that’s a fair, conservative valuation for what the points are worth. In other words, I won’t redeem points for a hotel stay with Hilton unless I’m getting well over 0.5 cents of value per point.

It’s important to come up with a points valuation for yourself (it can be different than mine), so that you can decide whether to pay cash or redeem points for a hotel stay.

Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam

Hilton Honors has no blackout dates

Hilton Honors has no blackout dates, which is to say that if a standard room is available for purchase with cash, it can also be booked with points.

Now, the important thing to keep in mind is that some hotels have a very small pool of “standard” rooms, and a vast majority of rooms at a hotel may be considered “premium.” If a hotel has 150 rooms, it’s possible that only 10 rooms are considered “standard,” so that’s the major issue you’ll run into when redeeming points at some properties.

Free night awards cost 5,000-150,000 points per night

Hilton Honors doesn’t publish an award chart, but rather has dynamic award pricing. That’s to say that the cost of a free night redemption can vary based on the cash cost of a stay.

However, there are limits to Hilton Honors’ award pricing for standard rooms. Across the Hilton Honors portfolio, standard room redemptions cost a minimum of 5,000 points and a maximum of 150,000 points per night.

Each individual hotel has an (unpublished) maximum of how many points a standard room will cost. There are only a couple of properties that will cost up to 150,000 points, while all other properties will cost significantly less than that.

This is important to understand, because a hotel could be charging the same number of points on two nights, even if one night costs $200 if paying cash, while the other night costs $400 if paying cash.

Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal

Standard room rewards vs. premium room rewards

When you search award availability, you may notice that some awards are labeled as a “Standard Room Reward,” while others are labeled as a “Premium Room Reward.” What’s the difference? Standard room rewards are for situations where a standard room is available for sale, while premium room rewards allow you to redeem points for any type of hotel room, though generally the value won’t be as good.

If you see pricing at a hotel that’s above the typical maximum for a property, that means there’s no a standard room available, and you’re booking a premium award. Take the below example for the Waldorf Astoria Maldives, where a standard room is available for 150,000 points, while a premium room costs a minimum of 1,125,000 points — that’s quite a difference!

Hilton has “standard” and “premium” awards

Hilton Points & Money awards aren’t a great deal

Hilton Honors offers Points & Money awards, whereby you can book a stay at a hotel using a combination of points and cash. This might sound appealing to those who want to reduce the cash cost of a stay using points, or those who don’t have quite enough points for a stay.

Generally speaking, Hilton Points & Money isn’t a great use of points, and you’re going to get a better value booking a free night award stay outright. For example, take the Waldorf Astoria Maldives, where a free night costs 150,000 Hilton Honors points.

Hilton Honors Points & Money awards

Want to book a Points & Money award instead? If you wanted to reduce the points requirement by half (75,000 points), you’d need to pay a total of $1,050.12. As a point of comparison, I value Hilton Honors points at 0.5 cents each, meaning those 75,000 Hilton Honors points are worth $375 to me. But here you’re being asked to pay nearly three times that much.

Hilton Honors Points & Money awards

Hilton Honors elite members get a fifth night free

One way to maximize Hilton Honors points is to stay in increments of five nights. All Hilton Honors elite members (including Silver, Gold, and Diamond members) receive a fifth night free on award stays. There needs to be award availability for five consecutive nights, and then you’ll only pay for four of those nights.

You can use this an unlimited number of times, and even for back-to-back stays. However, you must be paying for all nights with points out of the same account.

Katara Hills Doha, Hilton LXR

Hilton Honors elite status is easy to earn

When you redeem points for your hotel stay, you of course want to have as good of an experience as possible. That’s why it’s worth noting that Hilton Honors makes it easier than any other hotel program to earn status with credit cards:

The reason this matters is because having status can get you everything from room upgrades, to complimentary breakfast (or a food & beverage credit), to executive lounge access. The value of that will add up quickly.

The information and associated card details on this page for the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card has been collected independently by OMAAT and has not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Complimentary breakfast can add a lot of value to a stay

Pool Hilton Honors points to maximize value

Among hotel loyalty programs, Hilton Honors arguably has the most generous policy for combining points between accounts. Hilton Honors lets you pool points with others at no cost, which is awesome in situations where that could allow you to book something you don’t otherwise have enough points for.

There are no resort fees on points stays

Nowadays many properties charge resort fees or destination fees, which are essentially a money-grab. One awesome thing about redeem Hilton Honors points is that you’re not on the hook for those fees when you’re redeeming points for your stay, rather than paying cash. This applies regardless of whether or not you have elite status.

Hilton Honors often sells points for 0.5 cents each

Hilton Honors frequently has promotions for purchasing points, and the program frequently sells points with a 100% bonus, which is a cost of 0.5 cents per point. That’s right around what I value the points.

The reason this matters is because there are lots of situations where you could get outsized value simply by buying points from Hilton and then immediately redeeming them for a hotel stay. Personally I think it’s worth having a reserve of Hilton Honors points when a situation like that arises.

Waldorf Astoria Dubai DIFC

The best uses of Hilton Honors points

With the above basics out of the way about redeeming Hilton Honors points, how do you get the most value with your points? Below is my approach to redeeming Hilton Honors points for maximum value.

Standard room free night awards get you the most value

Personally, I exclusively redeem Hilton Honors points for free night awards in standard rooms. I don’t use Hilton Honors points for premium awards, or for merchandise, or for Points & Money awards. I consistently get way more than 0.5 cents of value per point when redeeming for standard room free night awards, while I find most other redemptions don’t offer that level of value.

Conrad Bora Bora

Crunch the numbers on each redemption

Even though Hilton Honors has dynamic award pricing, that doesn’t mean every redemption is created equal. With each redemption you’ll want to crunch the numbers, and in general you’ll get the most value when you can find a standard room that’s available over a busier period.

For example, say you want to stay at The Gabriel Miami Downtown, a Curio Collection by Hilton property. I just pulled up the calendar availability for the month of December. Nearly every night has redemptions available for 70,000 Hilton Honors points. As mentioned above, I value Hilton points at 0.5 cents each, so to me that’s the equivalent of “paying” $350 for a night.

Hilton Honors award calendar

Want to pay cash for your stay instead? Over the course of the month, rates vary from $298 to $798. Yet when paying points, you’d pay the same no matter what. In other words, the value you’ll get per point ranges from 0.43 cents to 1.14 cents — that’s a massive difference!

Hilton Honors revenue stay calendar

Similarly, points pricing between hotels isn’t always logical. Let’s use two hotels in Turkey as an example. The Hampton by Hilton Bolu costs 5,000 Hilton Honors points or $80 per night, giving you a redemption value of 1.6 cents per Hilton Honors point.

Hilton Honors award pricing

Meanwhile the Hilton Garden Inn Erzurum cost 12,000 Hilton Honors points or $41 per night, giving you a redemption value of 0.34 cents per Hilton Honors point.

Hilton Honors award pricing

I can’t understate enough how just crunching the numbers and doing some comparison shopping can stretch your points further.

Redeem at Hilton’s best hotels for maximum value

While you can get great value with Hilton Honors points with a bit of effort at your typical four star hotel, the area where Hilton Honors really shines is when it comes to luxury hotels, as that’s where you’ll get the most value for your points.

Let me give some examples of hotels that I’ve redeemed at, and the maximum you’d pay for a standard room free night award:

Given that you can acquire Hilton Honors points for 0.5 cents each, those are some potentially amazing values. For example, redeeming just 150,000 Hilton Honors points per night at the Waldorf Astoria Maldives, when cash rates would be $2,000+ including taxes & fees, is an awesome opportunity.

That’s a great use of points!

The challenge is that award availability at these top properties can be really limited. That’s because each of these hotels only categorizes a limited number of rooms as “standard” accommodations, so the pool of rooms bookable with points is limited.

This is a case where persistence most definitely pays off, though. Either book right when availability opens, or keep checking back as the stay date approaches, as more rooms often become available closer to arrival.

Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills

Bottom line

Hilton Honors is a pretty easy-to-use points program, and there are many great uses of the points. If you want to maximize your points, make sure you redeem for a standard free night award, which will stretch your points furthest. I value Hilton Honors points at 0.5 cents each, and recommend trying to get way more value out of your points than that.

Personally my favorite use of Hilton Honors points is for stays at Hilton’s top luxury hotels, where you’ll almost consistently get the best value, assuming you can find award availability.

What has your experience been with redeeming Hilton Honors points?

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  1. Jill Guest

    DCS is right about Hilton

    I have had some amazing receptions

  2. Khatl Diamond

    Has anyone ever seen a reasonably priced "Premium" redemption compared to standard? In my experience, often they are 100,000+ different in points. But if you look at cash rates, maybe $20-$50. That would have to be one of the worst costs per point ever. Maybe, Ben, you should do an article on that: 10 of the worst redemptions. Likely many Delta and some AF/KLM flights would feature!

    1. DCS Diamond

      Lift Boycott to resume informing the masses

      Here's a great question:

      Has anyone ever seen a reasonably priced "Premium" redemption compared to standard?

      Yes, at Hilton Pattaya one consistently gets better redemption values for "premium" awards than for standard awards -- a bizarre inversion of the "redemption value vs. award costs in points" curve. Typically, one gets about 0.4cpp for "premium" awards, which isn't great but acceptable because the number of points of...

      Lift Boycott to resume informing the masses

      Here's a great question:

      Has anyone ever seen a reasonably priced "Premium" redemption compared to standard?

      Yes, at Hilton Pattaya one consistently gets better redemption values for "premium" awards than for standard awards -- a bizarre inversion of the "redemption value vs. award costs in points" curve. Typically, one gets about 0.4cpp for "premium" awards, which isn't great but acceptable because the number of points of required not too high (another oddity about the property), but only about 0.3cpp for standard awards.

      In my experience, often [standard and "premium"] awards are 100,000+ different in points. But if you look at cash rates, maybe $20-$50. That would have to be one of the worst costs per point ever.

      It is a misunderstanding of the difference between standard awards and "premium" awards. For the redemption of "premium" awards HH points are treated exactly like cash, by assigning a "fixed cash value" to a point at each properties. To determine the "fixed cash value" of a point at each property, one simply needs to do a plot of "award costs in points vs. corresponding cash rates " for all the rooms in property, as illustrated in the charts shown at this link:

      https://bit.ly/3TJMlO4

      Such plots yields two straight lines, one for standard awards and another for "premium awards", whose slopes are not only the corresponding redemption values, but for "premium" awards, represents the desired "fixed cash value" of a point.

      OR, just dividing the "premium" room cash rate by the corresponding "premium" award cost in points will yield "fixed cash value" of a point

      Armed with this cash to points "conversion factor", any Hilton "premium" room that is available for booking with cash can also be booked with points by simply converting the cash rate to the required number of points.

      At WA Maldives, the "fixed cash value" of a HH point or conversion factor for "premium" rooms is $0.0022213/HH, so that just as provided in the post (values are rounded)

      A "premium" room that costs $2,499 will require: $2,499/$0.0022213/HH = ~1,125,000 HH points
      A "premium" room that costs $3,283 will require: $3,283/$0.0022213/HH = ~1,478,000 HH points

      Standard awarda, on the other hand, do not behave the same way.

      A standard villa at WA Maldives with a cash rate of $1,695/night requires "just" 150,000 HH points/night, for a redemption value of 1.13cpp (taxes and fees not included).

      if we treated that villa as a "premium" award, it would require: $1,695/$0.0022213/HH = 763K HH/night, for a lousy redemption value of 0.2cpp.

      What it all means

      Hilton's "premium" awards work exactly like Accord ALL awards, where there is a fixed "40 euros per 10 Accord points" correspondence, allowing any room that is available for cash booking to be bookable using points. Because of that direct equivalence or interchangeability between cash and points, Hilton's "premium" and Accord ALL awards are the only awards about which the statement that:

      "if a standard room is available for purchase with cash, it can also be booked with points"

      It is not true for Hilton's standard awards as claimed in post, nor is it true for Hyatt's standard rooms or standard suites bookable with SUAs, as is widely claimed. Everyone knows this to be true because everyone has encountered situations where standard rooms/suites are available for booking with cash but they cannot be booked with points. By contrast, Hilton's "premium" awards are always available for booking with points, as long as "premium" rooms are not sold out, because CA$H = POINTS!

      That is why, @Khatl, "often HH [standard and "premium"] award are 100,000+ different in points. But if you look at cash rates, maybe $20-$50." For the purpose of redeeming "premium" awards, Hilton points are treated exactly like cash. The upside is that any "premium" room that is available for booking with cash can be booked with points. The downside is that, like airline "AnyTime Awards", they are exorbitantly priced.

      G'day!

    2. DCS Diamond

      Omitted words:

      Because of that direct equivalence or interchangeability between cash and points, Hilton's "premium" and Accord ALL awards are the only awards about which the statement that:

      "if a standard room is available for purchase with cash, it can also be booked with points"

      is true. It is not true for Hilton's standard awards as claimed in post...etc...

  3. DCHillGuy Guest

    There is one left in Turkey.
    The HGI in Bali is no longer a 5k property - it was a great redemption spot for a long time.

  4. Jeremy Guest

    Are there even Hilton properties that can be redeemed for 5k points left? The last that i knew was the Hilton Garden Inn in Bali, but even that property has inflated in terms of the number of points needed.

    1. brteacher Guest

      Ben gives an example in the article of a hotel in Turkey at 5k.

    2. Anonymous Guest

      And smoking allowed

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DCS Diamond

Omitted words: Because of that direct equivalence or interchangeability between cash and points, Hilton's "premium" and Accord ALL awards are the only awards about which the statement that: <blockquote> "if a standard room is available for purchase with cash, it can also be booked with points" </blockquote> <b>is true.</b> It is not true for Hilton's standard awards as claimed in post...etc...

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DCS Diamond

<b>Lift Boycott to resume informing the masses</b> Here's a great question: <blockquote> Has anyone ever seen a reasonably priced "Premium" redemption compared to standard? </blockquote> Yes, at <b>Hilton Pattaya</b> one consistently gets better redemption values for "premium" awards than for standard awards -- a bizarre inversion of the <i>"redemption value vs. award costs in points"</i> curve. Typically, one gets about 0.4cpp for "premium" awards, which isn't great but acceptable because the number of points of required not too high (another oddity about the property), but only about 0.3cpp for standard awards. <blockquote>In my experience, often [standard and "premium"] awards are 100,000+ different in points. But if you look at cash rates, maybe $20-$50. That would have to be one of the worst costs per point ever.</blockquote> It is a misunderstanding of the difference between standard awards and "premium" awards. For the redemption of "premium" awards <b>HH points are <i>treated exactly like cash</i>, by assigning a "fixed cash value" to a point at each properties</b>. To determine the "fixed cash value" of a point at each property, one simply needs to do a plot of <i>"award costs in points vs. corresponding cash rates "</i> for all the rooms in property, as illustrated in the charts shown at this link: <b>https://bit.ly/3TJMlO4</b> Such plots yields two straight lines, one for standard awards and another for "premium awards", whose slopes are not only the corresponding redemption values, but for "premium" awards, represents the desired "fixed cash value" of a point. OR, just dividing the "premium" room cash rate by the corresponding "premium" award cost in points will yield "fixed cash value" of a point Armed with this cash to points "conversion factor", any Hilton "premium" room that is available for booking with cash can also be booked with points by simply converting the cash rate to the required number of points. At WA Maldives, the "fixed cash value" of a HH point or conversion factor for "premium" rooms is $0.0022213/HH, so that just as provided in the post (values are rounded) A "premium" room that costs $2,499 will require: $2,499/$0.0022213/HH = ~1,125,000 HH points A "premium" room that costs $3,283 will require: $3,283/$0.0022213/HH = ~1,478,000 HH points Standard awarda, on the other hand, do not behave the same way. A standard villa at WA Maldives with a cash rate of $1,695/night requires "just" 150,000 HH points/night, for a redemption value of 1.13cpp (taxes and fees not included). if we treated that villa as a "premium" award, it would require: $1,695/$0.0022213/HH = 763K HH/night, for a lousy redemption value of 0.2cpp. <b>What it all means</b> Hilton's "premium" awards work exactly like Accord ALL awards, where there is a fixed "40 euros per 10 Accord points" correspondence, allowing any room that is available for cash booking to be bookable using points. Because of that <b>direct equivalence or interchangeability between cash and points</b>, Hilton's "premium" and Accord ALL awards are the <b>only awards</b> about which the statement that: <blockquote>"if a standard room is available for purchase with cash, it can also be booked with points"</blockquote> It is not true for Hilton's standard awards as claimed in post, nor is it true for Hyatt's standard rooms or standard suites bookable with SUAs, as is widely claimed. Everyone knows this to be true because everyone has encountered situations where standard rooms/suites are available for booking with cash but they cannot be booked with points. By contrast, Hilton's "premium" awards are always available for booking with points, as long as "premium" rooms are not sold out, because CA$H = POINTS! That is why, @Khatl, "often HH [standard and "premium"] award are 100,000+ different in points. But if you look at cash rates, maybe $20-$50." For the purpose of redeeming "premium" awards, <b>Hilton points are treated exactly like cash</b>. The upside is that any "premium" room that is available for booking with cash can be booked with points. The downside is that, like airline "AnyTime Awards", they are exorbitantly priced. G'day!

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Jill Guest

Redemptions

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