linaseta

Im trying to figure out if you book several nights individually with points, is there any way to combine them to get the free night?
To answer this, I would like to know the following:

-if you cancel an award stay, how long do points take to go back to the account? Does it depend on the hotel?
-if you cancel an award stay, do the nights go back into the available award pool? if so, how long does it take? Does it depend on the hotel?

storewanderer

Proceed with caution.

No way to book individual nights then merge reservations to get the 5th night free on points.

In theory when you cancel an award stay, the points go back to your account immediately. Sometimes it may take a while (an hour, a day, etc.). Once in a while the points don't go back at all and you have to contact Hilton Guest Assistance and hopefully they will get it sorted out immediately on your call and credit your points back (or if you are unlucky they will "open a case" which is a slow road to nowhere so good luck if that happens).

My observation if you cancel an award stay is that the night may or may not go back into the available pool. Also since Hilton does dynamic award pricing, the points value of the reservation you cancelled may or may not be the same amount of points as the new "sale price" for an award night.

Proceed with caution. I have let go of good deals more than once, canceling reservations and counting on being able to immediately rebook. At this point in time, I have learned my lesson.

craigthemif

Sometimes the points don't return immediately. Sometimes the room doesn't go back into inventory. With dynamic pricing you have no idea what the rate might end up being.

The only safe way to proceed is to make the new booking before cancelling the older individual bookings. Obviously this requires a large points balance which the OP may not have.

I can assure you from personal experience that Hilton Honors won't do anything to help you if something goes wrong and you lose your standard room bookable with points.

SK AAR

If the OP is able to book 5 nights at standard rate now, there is a good chance that he/she will also be able to book it after cancelling the current reservations. But I agree to cancel and rebook is not without risk and the Q is if it is worth it to try to get a free night.

I'm not sure what I would do in the same situation.

Cat88L3

I've booked many awards stays and then canceled...My experiences are that the points would go back into my account within 1-3 minutes.

For the standard room inventory, I can give you an example. I made two separate standard award reservations for the Conrad Bali using points. I wound up canceling one a couple of months later. By then, the standard awards for my dates have sold out. I checked immediately to see if the standard award was put back into the inventory since I canceled... It wasn't there. Only premium awards were left.

I also just checked again now for some data points. Still no standard award and now the premium award has jumped up by 10,000 points per night.

So as others have stated, you are taking a risk by trying to rebook. You should at least check to make sure the standard award availability is there so you can rebook instantly when you cancel

Super Mario

I've never had an issue with points not going back immediately.

As others have said, proceed with caution. Ensure your rooms are still available with points. Heck, ensure they are still the same price with points.

thbe

I never had an issure with the points coming back fast as well.

But: If you have bookings from i.e. September 1 to September 4 and September 4 to September 6 and you cancel both, it doesn't mean necessarily, that there will be availability from September 1 to September 6 or even availability at all.

I would only try canceling and rebooking, if I don't have a problem if I end up with no award booking.

The safe way is to book the new stay first and then canceling the older bookings. But you need enough points to do that.

Often1

The RM/IM algorithm looks at demand at the moment there is availability. Thus, if you cancel a reservation and at this moment, the algorithm deduces that there is greater demand than projected, the room may not go back into inventory and when you go to book, it may simply not be there.

Or, some group might book 20 rooms and that's the end of it. All depends on who hits "SEND" and when.

craigthemif

I agree... the problem is that many of us have come across the glitch where you don't get your points back immediately.

So that standard rate available today might not be there in a week when Hilton fixes its screw up. (and Hilton won't care... personal experience)