Whew: Hilton is Rolling Back (Some) Painful Award Rate Hikes

For the third time in less than a year, Hilton raised award rates at dozens of its top-rated luxury properties last month, forcing travelers to fork over another 50,000 points for a free night award … and charging as much as 250,000 points per night. That's up from a maximum of 150,000 points per night less than a year ago.

Based on what we're seeing this week, they might be having seller's remorse. 

At a handful of properties that were hit by previous devaluations, we're now seeing some lower award rates. That includes:

• At the Grand Wailea, a Waldorf Astoria Resort in Maui, standard room rewards are now going for as low as 110,000 points per night – down from the 160,000-point rates we saw earlier this fall and back to the pre-devaluation prices
• Our beloved Hermitage Bay on the Caribbean island of Antigua has dropped slightly to 230,000 points per night – a far cry from the 130,000 point nightly rate Hilton charged a year ago but down from the 250,000 points it was charging a month ago
• The family favorite Conrad Orlando at Evermore is back its pre-devaluation rate of 90,000 points per night, down from 105,000 points
• Canaves Oia Suites on Santorini is once again pricing out as low as 175,000 points per night, down from the peak of 240,000 points after the latest round of increases

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As you can see, that's far from an exhaustive list – this isn't an across-the-board decrease at the dozens (or even hundreds) of properties that were hit with award rate hikes over the last year … at least not yet. Fingers crossed it continues.

And there's an interesting wrinkle in how many of these award rate decreases are being handled: Even for Hilton's lowest “standard room reward” pricing, we're seeing ranges for peak- and off-peak pricing. 

Take, for example, Canaves Oia Suites in Greece. Everybody flocks to the Greek isles over the peak summer, so that's where you'll see the highest award rates – if you can find anything at all. But in the off-peak “shoulder season” months of April and October, that's where you'll find these suddenly lower rates of 175,000 points available … as well as some still pricing out significantly higher at 226,000. 

Yet even those pricier nights are labeled standard room reward rates, so they should still be eligible to redeem Hilton free night certificates … at least until those get the axe, too.

We've seen this sliding scale of award rates crop up on a handful of properties over the last year or so. If it continues to expand, it'll add another layer of complication to Hilton's award pricing.

Like many other hotel programs, Hilton uses a dynamic pricing model … with a twist. While the points rate is typically tied to the cash price, they also have “standard awards” at a set rate for every property. That means award rates can be all over the map at many Hilton properties – sometimes as high as 1 million points a night or more – but there’s still a lowest-and-best base rate when redeeming Hilton Honors points.

Throw in this back and forth with award rates and the slow introduction of peak- and off-peak standard pricing, and it's getting harder and harder to pin down exactly what a Hilton property should cost. 

It's been a dizzying year for Hilton fans, myself included. Just a few months back, I made the case that Hilton could dethrone Hyatt as the best hotel loyalty program – heck, we even devoted an episode of our podcast to it!

That take has aged like airport sushi. And while we welcome any improvement, we're only seeing lower rates at a small slice of top properties. Elsewhere, the damage remains deep.

The Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal – among the most prized points redemptions in Hilton's worldwide portfolio – remains stubbornly stuck at a minimum of 250,000 points per night after the latest increase last month. That's true whether you head for Cabo during the peak winter season or the off-peak summer. 

Same goes for other top resorts and hotels like the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island, Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam, and new Waldorf Astoria locations in the Seychelles and Costa Rica. Ditto for a smattering of Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH), which were a serious bargain when they were first brought under Hilton's umbrella last year only to get hit with round after round of award rate increases: Prized properties like RiverView Ranch Retreat, Calala Island, South Bank in Turks and Caicos, and Furore Grand on Italy's Amalfi Coast remain pricier than ever when redeeming points. 

Bottom Line

Finally, some good news from Hilton.

After a trio of devaluations in less than a year, Hilton has backed off some of its most painful award rate increases. Here's hoping this is just the start.