Great post,
Hhonor Guard, and much appreciated. Hilton should be proud to have you as a service professional... but I doubt they are smart / strategic enough to have planned the devaluation as a motivator for the rank-and-file troops.
You are right that the devaluation has pitched a lot of HHonors members, including me (longtime Gold), into tire-kicking mode with other chains and programs. The value of HHonors has diminished to the point where it makes more financial sense to shop around or use Priceline, spend less per stay, and put one's savings towards leisure stays... in short, run a one-man "rewards program" in my own savings account. This puts service pros like you behind a big eight-ball, unfortunately, because guests like me are no longer much motivated by HHonors -- they need to be attracted to excellence at each individual property.
Example: say I have ten stays coming up with an average folio charge of $500 each if I book through Hilton.com... $300 each if I book via Hotwire or Priceline. If I book via Hilton.com I spend $5,000 and rack up 50,000 HHonors points. If I take the bargain-basement route I earn no points but save $2,000.
Are 50,000 HHonors points worth $2,000? Not remotely. They're worth perhaps $400, on average. So why am I spending $2,000 to earn a prize worth $400? Shouldn't I just say the hell with it and go out looking for good cheap deals at any nice property?
That's what you are struggling against,
HHonor guard, and I'm sorry Blackstone doesn't understand that. IHG certainly does.
