Waldorf Astoria Palm Jumeirah {ARE}
 

I have been keeping an eye on the opening date for the new W-A on the Palm in Dubai, as it seems like a good way of burning my huge pile of Amex MR points (via a HH transfer).

The hotel is still to start taking bookings. However, in the last week or so, when you look at the booking page on Hilton.com (with 'Use HH points' ticked) you get the message:

'Hotel does not participate in HHonors Rewards'

Is this correct? I know that SPG has a few properties, ironically also in Dubai amongst other places, that opt out of SPG membership. It is not something I have come across with Hilton before though.

If it does exist, does this also mean no HH benefits if you stay at such a property? Or do you just not earn / burn there? I honestly don't see the point in using the W-A branding if the hotel opts out of HH entirely.

In my many searches for Hilton Group properties around the world I have come across a few non-participating hotels. One that springs to mind is listed as "King Hussein bin Talal Convention Centre managed by Hilton" in Jordan, although I am sure there are a few others as well.

I have never fathomed out why this would be. Why be a part of the branding but not take part in the loyalty programme. And why would Hilton (Honors) allow this?

Could it be that in the case of the W-A Palm Dubai that the property does not YET participate, as it is not accepting reservations of any kind? It may well be that the property has to become registered in the programme and that when reservations open this changes ...

Yes, I considered that - it could be a coding error (ie hotel does not accept reservations so the message pops up). It hasn't always come up, though.

(Didn't the old London Wembley property also not give points? Again, though, whilst Hilton managed that was not branded as Hilton.)

If there are no other obvious examples of this practice, then let's assume it is a bug for now.

It is also possible, of course, that the hotel is owned by the same people who own the Westin and the 2nd Meridien in Dubai, both of which refuse to take part in SPG .....

The new Doubletree at SFO says the same thing when you look up SFO hotels.

As noted there have been, and still are, a few properties that do not participate in HiltonHonors. There could be other explanations like that they are not going to participate during their soft opening and may later. Of course, they may not at all.

For that matter, why does Hilton corporate permit literally hundreds of Hilton properties to opt out of the quarterly HHonors promos? Makes a mockery of the brand and the loyalty program. Some quarters, I swear, it'd be simpler to list the hotels that are in the promo than those refusing to take part.

It's only going to get worse too, as Hilton continues to reduce corporate ownership of properties:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/...stock/3989067/

Waldorf Astoria Palm Jumeirah {ARE}
 

I couldn't find a thread on this property, feel free to merge in if there is one.

Booking opened in the last week or so for this new property, which opens in a few weeks. However, only Premium redemption rooms were showing.

I used my blogger power (hmm) to query this with Hilton and got this response:

'Our apologies for this inconvenience. Please know that when the Hilton HHonors program changed to allow standard and premium rooms to book under points, the hotels can choose to have only premium available to book or only standard. This is not a Hilton HHonors policy, but is the choice of the hotel on what rooms they will make available for points reservations. This does not mean that they will not offer standard rooms in the future though. Once again we are truly sorry for the frustration this has caused.

Best Regards,
XXXX
Sr. Guest Assistance Specialist'

This is a huge hotel, not a 50 room boutique. It is not even so expensive - at super peak weeks it hits £500 per night, admittedly, but is substantially less at other times. This is getting a bit silly in my view.

Getting silly? LOL
You are a very nice guy. It was getting silly a couple years ago. Now its just cheap. And its the reason why Hilton doesn't have any of my 15 nights already booked for Q1 2014. I'm spreading it among Marriott and SPG.

Do any other properties have a policy of no redemptions? Seems contra to the whole idea of a loyalty scheme.

Very disappointing indeed.

I think this amply illustrates the futility of trying to earn HH points. As far as I am concerned HH points are now virtually worthless. Devaluation is one thing but the frequent lack of standard redemptions makes the whole scheme too much of a lottery, hence almost all my nights go to Starwood and IHG.

Same here - completely agree.

Just checked some dates I wanted and they're 85k even at the "premium room rate". I can live with that.

Does anyone know if children can access the lounge at this property?

Seems the premium rates go as low as 65,343/night. Still doesn't excuse the lack of a standard reward redemption.