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So far we’ve seen the 1Q 2018 promotions from IHG Rewards, Marriott and Starwood and now Hilton has released its first quarter promotion which it’s calling “Points Unlimited”.
The promotions released to date have been mixed (to say the least!) – there’s a pretty good promotion from IHG (for some people) and two woeful promotions from both Marriott & Starwood – so I’ve been waiting to see what Hilton reveals with keen interest.
Hilton Points Unlimited Promotion
- Offer valid January 1, 2018, through April 30, 2018 at any hotel or resort within the Hilton Portfolio excluding Hampton by Hilton Hotels in Mainland China.
- Hilton Honors members must first register at HiltonHonors.com/PointsUnlimited prior to completing a stay within the Promotion Period.
- Registered Hilton Honors members will only receive Bonus Points for nights completed during the Promotion Period, regardless of a check-in date before the Promotion Period begins or a check-out date after the Promotion Period ends.
- Registered Hilton Honors members will earn:
- 2,000 Bonus Points per stay during the Promotion Period
- An additional 10,000 Bonus Points for every 5 stays completed during the Promotion Period.
- There is no limit to the total amount of Bonus Points that may be earned during the Promotion Period with this offer.
Thoughts
The positives:
- Unlike with the Marriott and Starwood promotions Hilton is awarding bonus points from the very first stay.
- The only properties excluded in this promotion are the Hampton properties in mainland China and I don’t expect all that many people to be put out by this.
- There’s an added bonus for staying numerous times with Hilton – no such bonus from Marriott or Starwood
- There’s no cap on the number of points guests can earn via this promotion – Marriott has a cap of 50,000 points.
The negatives:
- 2,000 points per stay isn’t exactly generous – I value Hilton Honors points at around 0.4 cents each so this promotion is effectively offering a rebate of $8 per stay.
- No bonus for longer stays or for more expensive stays.
There’s good and bad in this promotion but one thing is very clear straight away – IHG is still offering the best promotion of the quarter.
An $8 rebate per stay isn’t exactly enticing me to book more stays at Hilton properties let alone enticing me to move any existing bookings over to Hilton….but I guess it’s still better than nothing.
I like the fact that, once again, the overwhelming majority of Hilton properties are participating in the 1Q promotion (Starwood should learn from this) and I really like the fact that there’s no cap to how many points you can earn in this promotion (Marriott should learn from this).
“Points Unlimited” clearly favors guests making multiple short and cheap stays as there’s no incentive for stays longer than a night and there’s no bonus for spending more money on a room. That suddenly makes the lower-end Hilton properties a lot more attractive while offering no incentive for bookings at the likes of Conrad or Waldorf.
As I mentioned when discussing the other promotions yesterday, I was hoping that the 1Q promotions would help me make up my mind on where to stay at on my upcoming trip to Bangkok….but I’m still no closer to deciding.
I was torn between the options offered by Marriott, Starwood and Hilton before IHG came along with a very tempting Accelerate promotion that brought its properties into play. None of Marriott, Starwood or Hilton have introduced a promotion that’s pushing me to book with them and IHG properties are considerably more expensive – the indecision continues! 🙂
Bottom Line
Is the Hilton 1Q promotion exciting? No, sadly not….but you should still register. It’s free, registration takes less than a minute and you never know when you may find yourself staying at a Hilton property unexpectedly – it would be a shame to miss out on points just because you couldn’t be bothered to register.
