Six month award stay?
 

I'm heading to Bali next year (where I've been living off and on for 10 years). Since my last trip I've racked up 800k HH points, and the Bali Hilton Garden Inn costs 5000/nt, even less after 5thNF

I usually wouldn't plan things so far ahead, but having stayed at the HGI there before, it's a great hotel with wonderful breakfast and location. I want to lock in the rate so that I can't get hit with a devaluation. If they devalue it from 5000 to 10000, that's like losing half the nights I could book.

Every time I see a post about "Hilton Devaluation," I have a mini panic attack, expecting the Hilton to get smacked as it sells for $60USD+tax, and 5000 points is sort of like $25.

Any tips how to manage this? I would like to book 3-4 months, but still maintain flexibility, and still lock in the 5000/nt rate. Should I just book that whole time in separate 5 night intervals? This would take forever, and might be a pain to manage once I arrive. If I book it in 30 days blocks, can I change them as I need to? The point is to lock in the rate to prevent devaluation. If a de-val hits, and I make a change, do i lose the locked-in rate?

Well I went in and made some bookings and learned a bit. Only 4 free nights per stay. Checking the terms of 4NF:

5th Night Free: For every Standard Room Reward stay of five or more nights, every 5th night is free. Members can utilize the 5th Night Free benefit on an unlimited number of stays annually. Applies only to five consecutive nights within the same full Points Standard Room Reward stay at the same property, up to 20 nights, when confirmed at time of booking. No more than four free nights will be awarded per stay.

Indeed when I try to price out 30 nights, it stops adding free nights after the 4th one.

Anyone had any experience with this? I am not keen to have to check out every 25'ish days just to keep my free nights coming but suspect that's what I will have to do. I have a feeling I can book 25 night stays to my hearts delight that show free nights but the system or overzealous office staff may catch on.

Can you move to another hotel just for one night after the 4 stays - then move back there - and repeat as necessary ?

You are going to have to checkout and stay elsewhere for 1 night each block of 25 nights. Or do the maths and decide whether it's cheaper and more convenient to give up the free night and stay where you are.

Also, don't some hotels have a thing about continuous stays longer than 30 days or may be that is just some countries ?

Yes, book five nights per reservation, and after four reservations (twenty nights), have a one night stay at a different hotel. Booking this way provides maximum flexibility - any individual reservation of five nights can be cancelled without affecting anything else. This will not take "forever", and will be no problem to manage once you are there.

After you make a reservation, all you can do with it is cancel it. You lose the "locked-in rate". You can't change dates, reduce the number of days, etc. for a reservation.

That's exactly what I'm trying to avoid....it would only be every 25 days or so....but once i get moved in and all snuggly....be nicer just to leave everything as-is instead of a pack-o-rama just for a day. Then again' there's plenty to see in Bali so no harm in checking out some new places.

In that case, you can simply pay for one night between two 20-night blocks of award stays.

The two accounts and second guest would certainly be the easiest. What's the easiest route to Gold? Guess I should have gifted someone Diamond last year when I was racking up the nights.

Not sure I'll get sick of the breakfast, they've got those lovely homemade jams. If I do, I'll just Gojek some ayam betutu in from Warung Liku, best ever!