Hilton HHonors - Best way to word 175k award for Catholic School fundraiser

My wife has made it clear she would be very happy if I donated a 175k award to her high school's annual fundraiser. They want me to describe it for their program and come up with a dollar value. I could mention it would good for 6 nights at any Hilton/Hilton Resort worldwide, subject to availability, this will be auctioned, does $2000 sound reasonable as a retail value? I'm kind of struggling here any suggestions would be appreciated.

I would pick an expensive resort it would be good for, and see what six nights there would cost and say for example,

At the Hilton Anytown Resort, this would have a value of $x,xxx

and leave it at that. If there is one particular resort the crowd would be interested in, say Disney or something, get the value from that to help it along with the bidding.

Personally, I would refuse to assign a value. I would leave that up to the high school. If they want to assign a value, that is their choice.

There may be some liability to you if you put a value on the item that then gets used by someone for tax purposes. ie. The person bids $2,500 for the item... and then uses your value to offset their bid for tax purposes. You might then have to get involved in substantiating your valuation.

Let the charity deal with it. You are being generous enough just giving the award.

Why not email flyertalk@hilton.com and see what they say?

I have no great desire to move it but i wonder if this has come up before with other programs and there might be issues etc that other posters would know about???

Please PM me with your thoughts.


thanks

squeakr
mod Hilton

You have a better udestanding of its value than the school does. It's a very nice thing you are doing. I'd give two or three examples of how the award can best be used. I think a couple Europe and I also would add Phoenix or Orlando.
Aiming it at folks with the ability to maximize its benefit (Cavalieri, Paris,etc) possibly maximizes the possible bid.
Also a CEO of a non-profit I especially appreciate your wife's heart and your sacrifice.

Isn't it necessary for you to transfer the points to the "winning" bidders HHonors account? This requires an additional charge beyond whatever they chose to pay. Am I right?

Isn't it necessary for you to transfer the points to the "winning" bidders HHonors account? This requires an additional charge beyond whatever they chose to pay. Am I right?

Correct me if I am wrong but I believe you would make the reservation in your own name and add the winning bidder as additional guests.

sdcarver

I assumed the OP would book the award trip for the winner. While this requires some effort, it eliminates issues with winners needing a HH account as well as any costs for transferring points.

Can't the donor simply give the reward certificate to the winner?

There is no need to transfer points or require the giver to make the reservation. The owner of the points can request a certificate to be auctioned off. The winner of the certificate doesn't need to be a Hilton Honors member to redeem the certificate.

Correct me if I am wrong but I believe you would make the reservation in your own name and add the winning bidder as additional guests.

sdcarver

Incorrect! If you make the reservation in your name and add them as a guest two things could happen: 1. they don't show up and you are required to pay any penalty imposed by the hotel or 2. the hotel wants to see the primary account holder at the front desk. While neither 1 or 2 may happen, it is a real possibility.

All the giver needs to do is get a certificate and present it to the winner. The winner then assumes all responsibility for the reservation and any additional requirements the hotel may impose.

A generous donation to the Catholic high school indeed.

But while you're in the generous mood, perhaps you might also offer a few nights free to your priest for his next vacation... a great way to show him appreciation during the Year of the Priest. :)

I had planned on telling the winning bidder to contact my wife (she works at the school) and let us know where and when they would like to travel. I would then book the room in their name and issue an award cert also in their name, I have put award certs in the name of my son/parents-in-law/friends/ect, many times with no problems.

I had planned on telling the winning bidder to contact my wife (she works at the school) and let us know where and when they would like to travel. I would then book the room in their name and issue an award cert also in their name, I have put award certs in the name of my son/parents-in-law/friends/ect, many times with no problems.

Why not simply contact Hilton to get an actual certificate to auction off? If they need a name, then once the winner is known, simply call and have the certificate made in the winners name. This way, you don't get caught up in details of the reservation, maybe having to cancel the reservation and rebook it, etc

There is no reason that you need to make the reservation or do anything aside from providing the reward certificate. The winner can easily redeem the certificate by calling Hilton.