Hi all,

I just wanted to clarify on the number of hotels participating. While we have over 4,600 Hilton properties worldwide, our properties in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau are excluded from the discount due to contractual obligations in these territories. This brings the total number of properties offering the HHonors discount to more than 4,500.

I saw a few other questions come through today, but I need to follow up on them - I will be back to post once I have the answers.

Thank you!
Lauren

I just checked the same hotel I mentioned above earlier today.

Prices have gone up $15 across the board. Oddly, every room type (two double beds, two queen beds, one king bed, one king with whirlpool suite, one king smoking) are all the same price.

The HHonors discount is $4 off of all rates... a 3.1% discount.

Still $16 higher than every other week I've stayed here in the last 6 months.

This is an epic fail by Hilton. Companies need to realize that pricing games are not only easily exposed by customers today, but also widely ridiculed via sites such as FT. As a very frequent Hilton customer, I find the numerous examples cited above to be extremely troubling. The fact that the discount applies to all HH members should have been a tip-off. Quite frankly, this thread invites more ridicule than anything and certainly doesn't reflect well on Hilton.

Good to see, wonder if they will implement better rates for elites like Hyatt did.

stackable with AAA or trounced by AAA?
 

For those of us who are AAA members (and/or AARP members), will this rate ever do us any good? AAA discount is typically 10% (and I think at least 5%), so unless the 3% is on top of that, it seems that AAA rate would always beat it.

I guess the only exception would be if the hotel doesn't accept a AAA rate.

Seems to me this program isn't designed to benefit someone like you. I see it as an attempt to get more occasional travelers to join HHonors. Once they join, they might be more inclined to stay at Hilton-branded hotels in the future.

It also sounds like a smart way to incentivize people to book direct and not at sites like Orbitz or Expedia. Booking via Hilton is about as easy as with an online travel agency. Even if it's just $3/night, many people will choose Hilton.

From that perspective, it's not "an epic fail". It's actually a wise business decision.

You completely missed my point about pricing games. See posts above.

I don't think I did...but, you're welcome to believe that. If you want me to believe that Hilton is engaging in "pricing games" at their thousands of hotels worldwide, you'll need to provide more than the anecdotal evidence shown in this thread.

Exactly. Mainland China does not include Hong Kong, Macao, and especially Taiwan.

Assuming the property raises it's prices by $X across and offers a small discount back under this. You may feel the property is "cheating" but they are just making a pricing decision. They do still have to compete with neighbouring properties / competitors. An overall higher pricing will hurt them if that is not acceptable to its guests and not all of them are members. Why all the anger. Continue with your practice in searching for rooms. Ignore the discount if it makes you feel better. Ultimately, they (some properties) decided to raise prices across as a revenue measure. The point of this is members gets better pricing than non members.

^

Adding another tier of fake higher rates that no one is dumb enough to book does not make the regular rates a "discount".

I agree. It's misleading and may even be illegal in some markets if they haven't let the rates settle long enough before the fake discount.

This is not the same as increasing price and then running a "sale". Even if some properties happened to raise their prices, the price increase is 100% across all customers but a small % aka members gets a discount for their loyalty. The two scenarios are different. As a guy who tries to view the glass as half full, I see it as "gee.. Prices have risen but boy am I glad that the new discount allows me to keep the old pricing / soften the increase." You honestly believe most guests are Hilton members? Lots of guests are members of none. I am willing to bet No and probably a lot are on tour packages which will get hit with the increased pricing even though the increase is not clear.

I guess thats why the Hilton representative wrote it isn't valid in Mainland China and HKG/Macao/Taiwan, as the later three areas aren't part of Mainland China - if you write "Mainland China", you don't mean HKG/Macao&Taiwan, and if you write the easier term "China", some people will think that HKG/Macao&Taiwan aren't included. Thus, writting Mainland China including HKG/Macao&Taiwan is the easiest way to make it all clear what you mean.

Similar with "not valid in the US (excl. & incl. Hawaii/Alaska), or 48 continental states, etc. - to make it clear that something isn't valid in Puerto Rico, for example.

But.. back to topic:

I just checked the discount offers today for an upcoming stay.

Somehow the "original" rate is now about 20% higher than what it used to be 3 days ago. The discount is a few % off. The new "discounted" price is quite a bit above what the old price was. Ummm, "thanks".

Despite being HHonors Gold, my money will go elsewhere on this booking.

Some corporate deals offer discounts that are contingent on business volume, so the corporation may push local managers to accept a higher price to achieve a corporate-wide savings. Not so good if you're the local manager who is also charged with P+L responsibility. :(