Jailer

Interesting, I thought that it had to be by phone. BTW, what category is the Conrad? Is it possible that the system accepted the reservation but that the cert won't be honored if the Conrad turns out to be a level 7 on the new tier?

Notenut

Which was exactly my point, not necessarily EVERY hotel will go up. that won't be known for sure until the updated list is released.

Jailer

My sense is that every hotel is going up exactly one category level, and that any shift, or reclassification, based on an individual hotel’s quality (if it happens at all) will be done at another time. That’s just a guess, but I did ask a CSR if she had seen any hotel not go up a level or go up two levels and she said that she had not and thought that this would be very rare.

The CSRs do have all the new levels, so if anybody gets information regarding a no- or two-level move perhaps they could share it here.

LarryU

The Conrad Singapore is currently Category 5.

Keyser

was at the singapore hilton recently....according to them this property is going up by 2 categories....

zachary

Interesting. That hasn't been my sense at all. I thought that most hotels, probably the overwhelming majority, would go up one level, but that some others would be adjusted differently. If you are correct, Jailer, one wonders why they didn't just say that instead of saying that they will post the new category list in Dec. or Jan.

Jailer

The TRUTH is out there...and all will be revealed. Anything but a one level increase will be rare, but we have an example of a two level increase, so I'll back down from thinking that it won't happen at all. That said, I think that people are Pollyanna if they believe that a number of hotels will stay the same category (which means they were downgraded one level) due to Hilton wanting to soften the blow. But, we will see, and I would love to be proved wrong so please post any details of hotel downgrades here.

Jailer

This article, posted by Andrea the HHonorsRep on FT says that 74% are staying in the same level, which is hardly rare, and seems to indicate that many hotels will need the same number of points for a redemption....I am a bit confused, and wonder if this takes into account the new categories:

http://content.usatoday.com/communit...s-categories/1

If you have Hilton HHonors points, expect the majority - 2,575, or 74% - of Hilton's 3,476 properties to stay in the same category, HHonors chief Jeffrey Diskin told me in a recent interview. The rest?


Hilton will move 547 properties (or 16% of total) into a cheaper points category, while it will move 354 others (or 10%) into a pricier category. (These changes come on top of the 20% increase in the number of points required for a free night's stay across Hilton's system.)

Here's a sneak peak at what Hilton HHonors members will see when Hilton unveils its 2010 points category list next month:



HOTEL NAME POINTS REQUIRED IN 2009, POINTS REQUIRED IN 2010


Hotels that will stay in the same points category:



Hilton Waikiki Prince Kuhio 40,000 40,000
Hilton New Orleans Riverside 40,000 40,000
Hilton Short Hills 40,000 40,000
Hilton London Canary Wharf 40,000 40,000
Hilton Manchester Deansgate 40,000 40,000
Conrad Indianapolis 40,000 40,000
Hilton Tokyo 40,000 40,000
Embassy Boston At Logan Airport 40,000 40,000
Conrad Miami 40,000 40,000
The Saratoga Hilton 40,000 40,000

Hotels that will be raised into a pricier point category:

Hilton Orlando 40,000 50,000
Conrad Tokyo 40,000 50,000
Hilton San Diego Resort And Spa 40,000 50,000
Conrad Hong Kong 40,000 50,000
Hilton Times Square 40,000 50,000
Hilton Hawaiian Village 40,000 50,000
Hilton Bentley Miami South Beach 40,000 50,000
Chicago Thewit A Doubletree Hotel 35,000 40,000
Hilton Alexandria Old Town 35,000 40,000
Hilton Los Angeles Checkers 35,000 40,000

Hotels that will be dropped into a less-expensive point category:

Fiji Beach Resort & Spa By Hilton 40,000 35,000
Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina 40,000 35,000
Embassy Suites By Hilton Mexico City Reforma 35,000 30,000
Embassy Suites Fort Myers Estero 35,000 30,000
Hampton Inn Corpus Christi Padre Island 35,000 30,000
Homewood Suites Bakersfield Ca 30,000 25,000
Hilton Baton Rouge Capitol Center 30,000 25,000
Homewood Suites Mobile East Bay Daphne 30,000 25,000
Hampton Inn Alexandria 20,000 12,500
Hampton Houston Texas 20,000 12,500

ALW

Maybe I'm missing something but I don't see cause for confusion: the sentence in (my) bold seems to sum it up, "same category" means a 20% increase, "cheaper category" means an increase of <20%, "pricier category" means an increase of >20%.

No?

=aw

travelinfoo

Wow! Thanks Jailer!

Where did you get the info about the hotels?

Jailer

Yes! Thanks for the bolding, ALW, that's what I missed and now it jives with my understanding. Although, I'm surprised that slightly over a quarter of the hotels will be re-level-ed, and that 16% will be going down, 10% up. Maybe I've been a bit harsh, so maybe I should keep my thoughts to myself that the 16% going down will be the hotels I have no interest in staying as opposed to the 10% going up.

And, I'm not sure where they get the 20% across the board increase number. I just made a Huntington Beach, CA reservation that is going from 40,000 to 50,000, a 10,000 increase on 40,000 seems like a 25% increase to me...but maybe I'm confused there as well, J.

And, foo, check out the link in my post above.

ALW

Thanks Jailer, your link above is broken. It goes to a reply page to reply to a thread.

And I agree, it's not "20% across the board", it's 5K across the board, with exceptions at the 2 ends:

10K->12.5K = +25%
20K->25K = +25%
25K->30K = +20%
30K->35K = +17%
35K->40K = +14%
40K->50K = +25%

That's not harsh, it's a given. Presumably they were overpriced in the first place.

=aw

Jailer

Here's the link, and I'll correct it on my above post:

http://content.usatoday.com/communit...s-categories/1

Keyser

hold on....weren't there a number of posts earlier in this thread & in a couple of other threads which stated that every hilton property will be raised by atleast one level from next month....am i just imagining that or has something changed over the last few days????

ALW

No you're right. I think the confusion is that "cat 6 is the new cat 5" is the reality.

So yes, everything's moving up a category. But it's probably equally accurate to say they're renaming the categories (by +1) and then increasing them.

BTW, with the new link to USA Today, I can see the "20% across the board" was actually a USAT reporter's paraphrasing of an earlier article that said, "by about 20%".

=aw