1 million points to burn...time to move on
 

iv been loyal to hilton for 8 years now diamond 7 of those years ...as the owner of my own buisness i watch my dollars very carefully ..with the new hilton hhonors point system i will be moving to priceline and hotwire i was good for about 50 stays a year at mainly hampton inn hotels in utah and montana ..my california stays were all priceline well time to start spending those hilton points and moving on was saving my points for a big world trip in 2012 but looks like i will not be diamond by then

Wow, I didn't realize the Hyatt world was so rich and panning for HH defectors. Perhaps it's time to consider them. I'm going to finish burning my HH pts first though. And I have 3 days to do it.

I have been a Diamond HH for 15 yrs

I also am jumping ship.:o

gotta maintain my RA IC status now

"Why I think the Devaluation is a Good Thing" - A very short essay
 

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A short answere ... WOW ! ^

If Hilton / Blackstone had more people like you working in their management things would be MUCH better!

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. :p

Thanks for your nice post.

Sadly though, as you have read in so many of these threads, the issue is with the Hilton marketing and loyalty program.

With one of us traveling 75% of the time for business and the other having only 2 weeks vacation per year, you can see why it becomes so difficult to use the points we have earned the hard way – it would have taken a few years to use all the points. While the ‘free night certificate’ was nice, it was wholly inadequate and it did virtually nothing to compensate for the lost weeks of award stays.

Prior to devaluation, we remained very loyal to Hilton and primarily stayed at Hilton properties when traveling on our own $ (short weekend trips, etc.) Now, business travel stays are spread out at Marriott, Hyatt, Starwood, IHG, and occasionally Hilton. For personal travel, well, we have seen weeks of award stays just evaporate ‘into thin air’ and now we use the least expensive manner to get nice quality rooms. We have had tremendous success getting excellent rates using Priceline (which includes quite a few nice Hiltons) and we will continue to do so.

This devaluation by Hilton has certainly caused us to focus on the best ROI for us. Bad move Hilton. We love the IHG promotion and only wish that Marriott had gone after Hilton in the same way - it would have been great.

Hhonor Gguard, many thanks for expressing your perspective. It makes very interesting reading.

From my position (as a European HHonors member) I am not perturbed by the changes to redemption rates. I earn my points from a single source - by virtue of stay activity at Hilton family hotels. Yes, the rates for award stays have recently increased but over the past year or so, HHonors has thrown a chunk of bonus miles in my direction by way of thanks for my continued loyalty. So where others see the changes as devaluation, I am inclined to view it as a correction. I accept though, those that earn points principally via their affiliate credit card spend will see things differently.

For me, the level of service and quality of product I receive from Hilton still remains the overriding factor in choosing Hilton properties above others.

Nice sentiments but I sense you are the exception rather than the rule. Additionally, the message that is being sent from your sr. mgmt is not encouraging in terms of the way THEY value our ongoing business.

Hi Hh Gguard, your short story put a smile on my face :).

I admire your positive attitude when faced with difficult circumstances ;).

Using your logic I have decided to double the fees that I charge my clients and have told my staff to be twice as polite to them.

As a result I expect to have more spare cash and look forward to staying with you soon....^

You've got it all wrong... if you double your fees you need to QUADRUPLE your service!

This is really a very nice post. The "devaluation" doesn't really bother me that much, to tell you the truth, because it's easy to rack up points with the Amex Hilton card. Also, some hotels that had an upward change in category really deserved to be changed.

In any case, Hilton is lucky to have you.

Bobette

Cool post OP. And to be honest, you have the most important job in the company...

OP, like the post and your attitude towards your staff. I always appreciate good service and most of my time go out of my way to comment on it to HH corporate.

Unfortunately your view is from the service provider side, for us it is really devaluation.

Business travelers make up the vast majority of Hilton Hhonors members. They have little incentive to save money using Priceline or other discount schemes when spending from the company's or client's coffers. Ergo, the only valid comparison is personal kickbacks does the business traveler get at Hilton vs. the competition. $5000 hotel spend yields 15,000 SPG points or 87,2500 HH points (for the common mid-tier business traveler). I'll choose the latter.