sdsearch

I don't know what your idea of "decent" is.

A week or two ago I booked the Hilton Buenos Aires for 20k points + $75 a night (for an early Dec stay). Even for points only, it's still 40k points a night, but to me $75 to save 20k points is a no-brainer. (On money, the hotel is around $300ish a night, as I recall, at the time of my upcoming stay.)

Also, I just checked the Hilton Budapest "castle" that I stayed at in May, and it's available for the same 35k this week as it was back then for either tonight or tomorrow night, and in fact on Point Stretchers at 21k for the next 3 nights! Yes, on Nov 22 it's only available for 81,264 points, but that's one night out of 15 (on the flexible dates search), and I presume that's a night when it would have simply have shown as "sold out of reward rooms" under the old system.

So either things are fixed between the time you searched and I searched, or you didn't search widely enough for "decent" hotels (or your definition of "decent" is one I don't understand).

particlemn

Some properties are acutally using the premium rewards as a way to offer a discount on rooms at some times of the year below the catagory rate. This offers the property flexibility without changing the catagory. We have booked some nights at the Hilton Waikoloa Village CAT 7 for Just 35k per night. from their own website the state: "Many dates have Premium Rooms for less points than a standard room reward."
http://www.hiltonwaikoloavillage.com...ton_honors.cfm

So the sky is not always falling

milesmomma

Thanks birdseye for your thoughtful comments here. I really appreciate the info. I am aware of the AXON but haven't used it yet. Thanks for letting me know the process to go through. I am hoping for 2 Queen beds. If it's crazy points, maybe I can just get a cot or something for 1 kid. Kids don't need much. My kids are young too so they don't know the difference. I definitely know I'm going to stretch my Hilton points. I have a bunch of Starwood points, so I might have to move back and forth in the UK to best stretch points for our 3 week trip. I have almost 200,000 saved so far. If I add 350,000 (including the Citibank 50k offer) I'll really be way over the top of my goal leaving more points for something else.
I'm sure I'll be blogging about my saving progress over the next year. I'm planning this 3-4 week UK trip in 2013. My husband thinks I'm crazy to plan so far in advance but you really have to with this hobby. He is going to love it when I tell him how much are trip is going to cost. Come check out my little blog sometime - www.milesmomma.com I'm really have fun with it. Use to just blog to pass along tips to family & friends, now I'm getting more serious about it and letting the world in.
Thanks again! See you around!

milesmomma

Seems like with the Hilton program right now location is the key. Some hotels are high and some are the same. Maybe it might change, maybe not! I highly recommend that you always find out where you want to go first, how much it costs (points) and then accumulate the points. It's like earning money for a vacation but not know how much you need to earn. Doesn't make sense does it. Miles/Points are $$$. This may be a great opportunity for some and not for others depending on your plans.

birdseye

Be sure to check with all the individual hotels on their policies regarding having kids in the same hotel room. Many European hotel rooms are small and don't physically have room for a rollaway bed. Others have fire codes that restrict 2 to a hotel room. I think you'll have the easiest time finding Marriotts that will accommodate a family of 4 (almost half the hotels I checked would allow it) and virtually impossible with SPG, Hilton may be somewhere in the middle if they don't demand an outrageous number of points for rooms with two doubles or queens. Many hotels would prefer you book two connecting rooms even though your kids are young. Most Europeans with young families will rent apartments, vacation homes, or camp cottages when they go on holiday. I keep getting frustrated every time I research hotel rooms for 4 on points in Europe! I don't think it will be as easy for you as you think!

wise2u

You may find regular room prices at an acceptable 35k a night now, and by the time you accumulate enough points and you get around to trying to book them, the king size room that was the "regular award" is no longer available. Instead the property has turned it to a "premium room" classification and the only "regular award" is now the twin bed rooms overlooking the dumpsters. Or the " regular room catagory has only 2 available rooms and they are now booked solid for the next 2 years....Hilton had a policy of if a regular room is available for cash you can book it with points....now it seems that high end properties are allowed to expand their catagories to 7 different kinds of rooms either limiting or eliminating the available cheap awards.
Yes right now some "premium rooms" are available cheaper (i think it is 20% off) but they will go up to a higher rate soon enough, then how appealing are they?
It has been mentioned that this has happened in many more hotels than bora bora and such, so just because it didn't change the rates at your airport hilton, dont think it hasnt hit a substantial number of high end hotels in their program, it will probably lead to many more if they sneak the first round by us without any outcry. If you stick your head in the sand and think it's just in Bora Bora and will never affect you, you may wake up one day when your next free room costs a lot more HH points.
Instead of shutting down this thread in the Hilton area they need to have a thread listing examples and specific hotels that have changed prices and policy. This issue is far from resolved and despite some posters bickering that thread was a source of info...too bad the Hilton people won't comment more.

World-Wide

Thank you for all your input, and I will check your website out.