When Hilton eliminated award charts, they promised loyalty members that the maximum a hotel would cost would be 95,000 points. In February of 2019 Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi became openable to bookings and priced out at 120,000 points. Hilton has just made the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos (formerly Resort at Pedregal) bookable and this is pricing at 120,000 points per night. Ithaafushi cash rates were pricing out at $2,000+ in peak season, whereas the Los Cabos property prices out normally at $1,000 during peak season.
Over time I think we will see more and more properties added at this 120,000 point price and both the quality and cash rates will decrease. Then we will get existing properties moving up to this tier. I don’t really have an issue with Hilton adding more top tier properties and charging more for them, but I think this is an important reminder that what a loyalty brand says they will do and what they end up actually doing are usually the reverse.
Will cancel one of my Hilton Honors Surpass cards next month. Bonvoy sucks but Hilton delivers an even lower value on last-minute bookings.
When I was checking availability of Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills for Sat earlier this year, the standard room was 250,000 points and I thought that cant be right, esp as I thought the cap was 95k. When I called in for Aspire free night, they said only Sunday night was available and receipt said 95,000 pts. Cash price with tax was over $900. So Sat was priced way higher as a peak demand day!
Ive seen other similar cases where rooms at ordinary mid level Hiltons at high demand times will be far more points than normal for the same standard rooms, and again I thought I was not reading it right it was so ridiculous.
I’m so old I remember when Hilton properties were economical
How long do you guys think a trip to Maldives should be?
4 nights that’s like half a million points! Yikes!
The real concern is that this serves as example for other chains to jump onto this ‘we’ll remove chart and keep everything the same’ followed right by ‘well we’re going to charging 3X more after all since there’s no longer a chart anyways’ bandwagon. Just as how ‘basic economy’ has spread across the industry.
Maybe cash back cards are on a faster pace to become much more lucrative than the ‘flexible pesos’ than most would have imagined or hoped;)
Right! All these rewards programs like to put the frog in warm water first otherwise the frog will jump out. In any case, it’s reneging or lying to the customer as their words are written in stone. Hilton Honors, I’m looking at you!
Anyone is a fool, who still puts significant spend on “Rewards” cards outside of reimbursed business travel aka “other people’s money”. I only put spend on and MS either with cashback, or good-as-cash UR / MR.
Anyone remember the name before it was Resort at Pedregral?
Really wish I had jumped on the 0.5 cent per point conversion to amazon credit last year.
Well let’s hope it comes back this year.
Ugh – I remember less than 5 yrs ago booking the Conrad Maldives for 5 nights for 200k points……those days are gone forever
The March 28, 2013 devaluation happened over 6 and 1/2 years ago, not less than 5.
You are correct,I forgot it was much earlier – I didn’t actually travel until Feb 2015 (I had booked out almost as far as the calendar would allow at the time)