Originally Posted by
Flying Lawyer
I am more than tires about these threads. We had them in the IHG forum, in the SPG forum and now in the Hilton formum.
No one is forcing anyone to open and read this thread, so those tired of this thread or any others are free to not open and/or read them.
Originally Posted by Flying Lawyer
So what?
everything is getting more expensive. Hotel get more expensive, we get more points and the point rates have to increase too. So what? I know, the first very bright poster will now argue that that the rates in the Springfield Hilton went down. They did, because the US is sufferering from its past mistakes. And the rates in the Springfield Hilton went even more down in a strong currency like the AUS$ or the Euro. Given the decline of the USD and the USD linked Hilton points currency, it is not a surprise that these rates go up too.
Hotel revenue per available room has fallen inside the US and outside of the US too. This has come with a
decline in room prices that is reflective of much of that fall.
Hotel prices have
fallen this year compared to 2008 or 2007 and that's true in USD, EUR and many other major currencies. Whether you or I are getting the full benefit of a drop in hotel costs in Europe or elsewhere doesn't much matter as the hotels in Europe are generally discounting too and have done so by lowering rates or increasing back-ended discount terms.
Increasing the price in points during a year in which regular currency denominated prices have fallen -- and fallen tremendously from the year prior even in localities with a greater growth rate than the anemic economic performance found in Europe, the US and a lot of other places -- comes across as extraordinarily greedy and customer-unfriendly.
Trying to assign responsibility to the US government for Hilton's customer-unfriendly change is the most ridiculous thing I have read in this thread since coming across the ridiculous Mormon-bashing evident in this thread too.