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When looking to redeem points do you steer towards high-end properties that come with an exorbitant price tag, or properties on the other end of the points spectrum that cost much less in points?
When the previous Hilton credit cards last enjoyed an increased welcome offer, we covered a variety of ways to redeem 100K Honors points, predominantly across the middle and higher-end categories. This time, we’ll focus on the lower end of Hilton’s award chart.
- Earn 125,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points with the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card after you use your new Card to make $2,000 in eligible purchases within the first 3 months of Card Membership.
- Earn a Weekend Night Reward from Hilton Honors after you spend $15,000 on purchases on your Card in a calendar year.
- Earn 12X Hilton Honors Bonus Points for each dollar of eligible purchases charged on your Card directly with a hotel or resort within the Hilton Portfolio.
- Earn 6X Hilton Honors Bonus Points for each dollar of eligible purchases on your Card at U.S. restaurants, U.S. supermarkets, and U.S. gas stations.
- Earn 3X Hilton Honors Bonus Points for all other eligible purchases on your Card.
- Spend $40,000 on eligible purchases on your Card in a calendar year and you can earn Hilton Honors Diamond status through the end of the next calendar year.
- $95 annual fee.
- Terms Apply.
- Rates & Fees
- 12X Hilton Honors Bonus Points for each dollar of eligible purchases charged on your Card directly with a hotel or resort within the Hilton Portfolio
- 6X Hilton Honors Bonus Points for each dollar of eligible purchases on your Card at U.S. restaurants, U.S. supermarkets, and U.S. gas stations
- 3X Hilton Honors Bonus Points for all other eligible purchases on your Card
Redeeming points for hotels on the lower end of the award spectrum will not be for punters chasing aspirational redemptions. But, these hotels can offer great value to members who enjoy redeeming points for multiple nights as opposed to just a few nights in luxury redemptions.
Making Sense of Hilton Honors Award Pricing
Hilton recently completed the move to a dynamic pricing structure for its award pricing, eliminating its award chart in the process. Hilton's award pricing is now seasonal and fluctuates depending on demand at the property. There is still value with Hilton Honors if you know where to look, and the dynamic pricing means that exorbitant award rates, when the cash price of a hotel is low, will hopefully become a thing of the past.
Hilton Honors points are easier to earn than the majority of points in similar programs, particularly if you hold one of the four co-brand credit cards from American Express:
- The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card (Terms Apply)
- Hilton Honors American Express Card (Terms Apply)
- Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card (Terms Apply)
- Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card
All four cards offer complimentary elite status, ranging from Silver all the way through to Hilton's top-tier Diamond. And don't forget, if you stay at a Hampton Inn, you receive free breakfast and Wi-Fi regardless of your elite status, costs which can add up if you are staying with another chain.
Hilton's new award pricing is, to some extent, revenue based. And the seasonal pricing reflects the changing cash price of a standard hotel room during different seasons.
5 Hotels to Redeem Hilton Honors Points for Budget Travellers Around the World
The five hotels below don’t offer the best possible cent-per-point value using Honors points, but these are a selection of our favorite destinations that DO offer substantial value, in locations that you might actually visit, rather than out of the way places that just offer a decent monetary return.
DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel at the Entrance to Universal Orlando
Located at the entrance to Universal Studios in Orlando, the DoubleTree offers the perfect way to access this iconic park for a family holiday with your kids. At 20,000 points per night, you could redeem 60,000 Honors points for a long weekend visiting the Florida Theme Parks.
Category 3 Hilton Hotel at $133.88 per night or 20,000 Honors points @ 0.67¢/point
Hilton Garden Inn Bali Ngurah Rai Airport
When flying to the far side of the Pacific, the last thing you want is to be arriving at the airport only to have to keep traveling for hours to reach your hotel. We have stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn Bali Ngurah Rai Airport both when arriving in Bali, before moving inland to Ubud the next day, and also for a night before departing Indonesia as somewhere to wind down by the pool before our flight out. At only 5,000 points, it’s one of the best value transit hotels in Bali.
Category 1 Hilton Hotel pricing at $60.65 per night or 5,000 Honors points @ 1.21¢/point
DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Springfield
Why would you want to stay at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Springfield? For a road trip down nostalgia lane! The DoubleTree Springfield is one of many fantastic stops for travelers traveling the iconic Route 66.
Category 3 Hilton Hotel priced at $133.99 per night or 20,000 Honors points @ 0.67¢/point
Hilton Garden Inn Hanoi
Hanoi is one of my all-time favorite destinations, and the Hilton Garden Inn Hanoi is parked right in the thick of all the action near Hoan Kiem Lake. Surrounded by the classic architecture of the French Quarter and bordered by fantastic shopping and sightseeing, you will be looked after by friendly locals that speak excellent English for an absolute steal at 10,000 Honors points per night.
Category 2 Hilton Hotel for $98.18 per night or 10,000 Honors points @ 0.98¢/point
Hilton Tokyo Narita Airport
The Hilton Tokyo Narita Airport makes the list as one of the best transit hotels we have visited. After three days of buses, ferries, taxis, and flights, this hotel was a welcome respite. A great staging hotel to charge electronics, enjoy some local Japanese cuisine, and ready yourself for the sensory overload a trip to Japan always provides.
Category 3 Hilton Hotel at $151.40 per night or 20,000 Honors points @ 0.76¢/point
Final Thoughts
Hilton Hotels has made a name for itself globally as a luxury hotel chain, and an initial look at the awards chart with its seasonal pricing gives the impression that award stays will be expensive, but there’s a significant portion of the Hilton portfolio that offers great value to budget-conscious travelers.
For rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card (Rates & Fees)
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Excellent advice.
What is the average credit score needed for these. Or type of credit
We don’t have that information, however we’d suggest 700+ to ensure your approval.
Any list or suggestions for other US destinations like New Orleans, Savanah, Austin, San Antonio, etc.
Any Midwest destinations you’d recommend?
Is Narita always 20,000 or does it change seasonally?
rates with Hilton are variable.
I’m in the middle of planning my vacation and this is very useful, since I have a lot of Hilton points!
I just stayed in the DoubleTree at The Entrance in Orlando two weeks ago. Recently remodeled lobby, still a few more changes to make (enlarging the on-site Starbucks, for example). I am headed back there in April for a conference, at the on-site convention center. Nice property, but next time I won’t pop for the extra 10,000 points/night for a view of Universal. Word to the wise.
What is the minimum value you would consider redeeming Hilton points for a room versus paying cash?
Unfortunately only $.004 or .4 cents per point
great list! thank you
I have just learned from Hilton Customer service on Twitter that event points can vary day-by-day, so there is no fixed award category anymore.
Take that information with a grain of salt. You’ll find standardized pricing still out across most of their properties.
As someone who tends to prefer unflagged/independent/boutique properties I feel like I don’t get a lot of value out of Hilton for as infrequently as I stay there. My last 6k points I burned for half a cent each on Amazon.
Great tips! I’m always looking for more ways to spend my Hilton points
Thank you for the heads up on where to look for the best (and highest) use of Hilton Points!
‘Other end of the spectrum’ describes me. Thanks for the leads.
Me too. I’m glad I’m not the only one!
I assure you, you’ve got lots of company!
Me too! For a vacation geared around sightseeing rather than a tesort destination, I try not to spend too long in my hotel room anyway and better value equals a longer trip for me.
Often use my Hilton points when I need, more than want, a room somewhere. May not get the most value but every little bit helps. Hotel options in many locations make them useful.
The Hilton Garden in Hanoi sounds like an interesting redemption. I’ll definitely keep it in mind when I head to that part of the world. I find much better value from my other programs in so many locations that I find it hard to find a good redemption for my Hilton points.
Thanks much for this interesting information!
Normally rewards at 5000 and 10000 have great value for your points. E.g. Hampton at Mexico City, normally quite pricey, was excellent for 10000 points/night , two blocks from El Zocalo.
I tend to find a lot of good value in the lower categories. Not just with Hilton, but other chains too.
A good redemption is at Hilton Salalah Resort.
Just 5000 points!
I love Hilton, mainly because they have lots of properties that are close to where I want to stay. I didn’t know they had a property close to Universal. That will be helpful once I’m ready to take my kids to Universal.
Great tips! I guess I should look into HH more closely…
This is an awesome article and some great comments. I would like to see more like this catering to the lower teir of properties as I am a big bargain guy. I happen to have a lot of HH points and have just been hoarding them for years. It’s time to start using them before they lose even more value though.
The Doubletree in Kuala Lumpur is also a great point redemption property.
I believe it’s 10K points per night there.
I’ve been using points to stay in hotels while doing a home remodel. This post offers some great ways to get decent deals when I need it most! Thanks
Good to make note of worthwhile redemptions.
I live near Springfield. I don’t need a Hilton there even for low points lol.
we look for low end hilton by airports to make next morning flight easier – Atlanta Garden Inn 20000 points worked well around Xmas
My best redemption was the Hampton by Hilton in Krakow, Poland. At 5,000 points with a free breakfast it was hard to beat. It has just recently doubled in price to 10,000 points a night, but I still think it is good value, even at that.
I agree, it was an exceptional value 5000 points for the Hampton in Krakow.
We stayed at the Krakow Airport Hilton Garden In the night before an early morning departure. All we had to do was walk across the street to the terminal. The rate was and still is 10K on a $133.00 room rate and I received my way points and bonus points for reserving on the Hilton app.
Redemptions in Turkey are excellent value too.
Istanbul in Turkey has quite a few 5000 point hotels so would be a great place for a status run switching between hotels each night.
Very interesting.
I will need to reassess which chain of hotels to use in 2018
I’m surprised Phu Quoc, VN isn’t on here. I’ve been hearing so much about this hotel’s redemption reward!
We tried to keep it to lower category levels. The Phu Quoc in Vietnam is a Cat 5 — prime for a Hotel + Air package redemption! https://awardwallet.com/blog/marriott-travel-packages-hotel-air-amazing-value/
A very nice list of options. The Hilton Garden Inn Bali Ngurah Rai Airport looks really nice.