What are Hilton Honors hotel points worth?

This article is our attempt to decide what Hilton Honors points are worth. How should you value them?

Valuing miles and points is a thankless job. We have always published articles on what Avios points are worth, but that Avios article is so complex that it simply proves my point.

In the face of constant reader requests, however, I wrote this series of articles on how we value each of the major hotel points currencies. We are updating the series this week.

You can buy Hilton Honors points here.

The reason I changed my mind about publishing valuations after all these years was that I found a methodology that worked for me. It takes a subjective valuation and then explains the boundaries around it. Or, in plain English:

• I will tell you (without justifying it) what I think a Hilton Honors point is worth

• I will tell you, on the upside, how far wrong I can be (which is good news)

• I will tell you, on the downside, how far wrong I can be (which is bad news)

• I will tell you what Hilton Honors points are worth if you turn them into something else – usually airline miles – which effectively locks in a floor value

Why I think ‘range’ is important when valuing hotel points

When we look at using Avios for business or First Class flights, the ‘cash alternative’ is often a poor comparison. Most HfP readers don’t want to, or simply can’t afford to, pay cash for business or First Class flights. Their choice is Avios or nothing. Even if you can afford to pay, what are you comparing with? A cheap non-refundable sale flight? A pricier flexible ticket? The cost of an indirect flight, not on BA?

Hotels redemptions are different:

• you stay in far more hotels each year compared to the number of premium cabin flights you take, so you can be selective about when you use points

• you can usually afford to pay for a hotel if you choose not to use points

• there are far more options in the hotel market than in the flight market – most people only have a lot of miles in one airline programme, whereas you are likely to hold hotel points in multiple schemes

It is easy to sit on hotel points until you get a good deal

The net result of the three facts above is that it is easy to turn down a hotel redemption when it doesn’t seem like good value. You can pay cash or redeem via another hotel scheme instead.

Here is the crux of what I am trying to say. If you compare two hotel schemes:

• scheme A usually gets you 0.3p per point but if you are lucky you can get 1p

• scheme B usually gets you 0.4p per point but if you are lucky you can get 0.6p

…. scheme A may actually be the best.

Most people who try to ‘value’ hotel points don’t take this into account.

If you redeemed points for every stay you did, regardless of the cash price, scheme B would be the best. No-one does this though. In reality you can pay cash for your stays in scheme A until the day when a bumper redemption arrives and you can get 1p.

Here’s a real example. I value Marriott Bonvoy points at 0.5p as our article will show in a few days. If you do 20 Marriott hotel stays and use Bonvoy points for all of them, I think you will average 0.5p, give or take.

However, in Summer 2023 I spent five nights at the JW Marriott Resort & Spa in Venice, reviewed here. We booked two Junior Suites for 594,000 points in total. I got 1.0p per point, and this was a ‘real’ saving – I have stayed in these rooms before at this hotel and would have paid cash if needed.

Three years ago, I booked three nights at the Al Maha desert resort in Dubai. This got me 1.5p per Bonvoy point vs my 0.5p valuation.

In Summer 2024 I booked The Bodrum EDITION in Turkey where I got 1.5p per Bonvoy point. Admittedly this is not a ‘real’ saving as I wouldn’t have paid the stupendous four figures per night cash price ….

These redemptions justified all of the Marriott stays where I paid cash rather than redeem for 0.5p per point.

What are Hilton Honors points worth?

With our methodology out of the way, let’s take a look at what Hilton Honors points are worth.

To keep things simple, we do not adjust for the fact that you would earn points back if you paid cash instead. This can have a noticeable impact when generous bonuses are running.

On the upside, Hilton Honors waives resort fees, where they exist, on redemption nights which must be paid on cash nights. Elite members also get ‘five nights for the points of four’ when redeeming.

The HfP average valuation of a Hilton Honors point:

0.33p

We are not justifying this valuation, except to say that I have looked at enough Hilton redemptions over the years to be happy with it. Anyone who knows Hilton Honors should know that this feels right.

A £250 4-star hotel will usually be around 80,000 points. In most cases, hotels do not go beyond 150,000 points which would be £500.

The maximum cap for a Standard Redemption (not a Premium Room Reward) now seems to be 190,000 points which would be around £650. Only a couple of hotels exceed this.

Since there are many luxury properties in the Hilton portfolio which cost substantially more than £650 per night, you can immediately see that a lot of upside is available.

How high can value go on the upside?

High, which is good.

Each Hilton Honors hotel has a points price cap. These are not published but can be worked out by trial and error.

Conrad Maldives Rangali Island, for example, will never go higher than 140,000 points. Waldorf Astoria Maldives, pictured below, is capped at 200,000 points.

Hilton added 400 Small Luxury Hotels of the World properties to its website last year and some go for huge cash sums. I wrote here about how you can book a 240 sq m overwater bungalow at Milaidhoo Maldives (website here) costing $2,500 for cash for 170,000 points (was 150,000 points). This is over 1p per Hilton Honors point.

Leading city centre hotels such as Conrad New York Downtown – an all-suite hotel – can get you 0.75p based on 95,000 points given that the hotel sells for $1,000 on peak nights. I have a booking for the Waldorf Astoria New York in October for 150,000 points, with a cash rate of over $2,000.

Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam is so pricey – €1,000 on peak dates – that you can easily get 0.7p based on 120,000 points. Admittedly, reward nights go very quickly here although they are often available at short notice.

Over Christmas 2020, I got 1.0p per point at Waldorf Astoria Dubai The Palm. It was such a good deal that I bought most of the points and still made a huge saving as this article shows.

Do be aware that Hilton has been increasing the points caps at hotels with no notice. Conrad Maldives was capped at 120,000 points a year ago (now 140,000) whilst Waldorf Astoria Maldives was 150,000 points (now 200,000). Small Luxury Hotels properties have also shot up.

For this reason, I am reducing my ‘high end’ valuation to 1.25p from 1.5p per point.

Two ways of getting even more value

Hilton Honors offers ‘5-4-4’ on standard room redemptions. Book for five nights and the cheapest night is free. This adds 25% to the value per point, assuming you stay exactly five nights and all are priced equally.

Hilton Honors redemptions do not attract ‘resort fees’. This can save you substantial sums ($30+ per day) at hotels in North America. It is the only hotel loyalty scheme to waive resort fees on redemptions for all guests.

Don’t forget Hilton Experiences too

Hilton’s ‘Experiences’ platform has had some great offers in recent years.

This year we saw a VIP package for the British Grand Prix sold for just 175,000 points for two people which was an astonishing deal.

This year I used 115,000 points for two VIP tickets for the Caraboa Cup Final at Wembley. Hilton uses the OneTwenty Club which is the highest tier of hospitality available at the stadium.

These are ‘money can’t buy’ events but any realistic valuation usually gets you an impressive ‘pence per point’ rate.

How low can value go on the downside?

Not very low, which is good.

The great thing about Hilton Honors is that whilst the points cost is capped on the upside, it is NOT capped on the downside.

When cash rates fall, points prices fall. You will receive around 0.30p based on tests I ran this week.

You can also use points to part-pay ANY cash rate, irrespective of points availability, if Premium Rewards are showing. In this scenario, you receive around 0.20p per Hilton Honors point.

You can’t get much worse than 0.20p per Hilton Honors point, which is what you get from a Premium Room Reward. If standard reward availability is there you won’t do much worse than 0.30p.

It’s worth noting that 0.30p and 0.20p are comparing the points price to a non-refundable room. You can add at least 10% to that if you would normally book cancellable cash rates.

If Hilton Honors devalues hugely tomorrow, what is my escape route?

This is our floor price. What can you do with your points if Hilton Honors devalues massively overnight?

With Hilton Honors, the best value is to convert your points to airline miles:

• with Avios, the rate is 10,000 Hilton points to 1,000 Avios

• with Virgin Points, the rate is 10,000 Hilton points to 1,500 Virgin Points

If we assume an airline mile is worth 1p, then you are getting 0.1p (Avios) to 0.15p (Virgin) in the worse case scenario.

The list of Hilton Honors airline partners is here.

In summary …. what do we think Hilton Honors points are worth?

• on average: 0.33p per point

• on a very good day: 0.45p-0.5p per point in cities (occasionally 0.75p+), up to 1.25p for the very top resorts at peak times

• on a bad day: 0.30p per point (value of a point when the hotel has reward nights available and is not at its category cap) or 0.20p (if a hotel has no reward nights showing and you use points to pay for a cash room via Premium Room Rewards)

• if you transfer out to airline miles in a worse case scenario: 0.1p to 0.15p per point

As to how this should impact your behaviour:

• if you tend to visit prime hotels in prime locations at prime times of the year, it makes sense to reject redeeming your points until you can achieve a redemption valuation of 0.5p or more per Hilton Honors point (those who may visit uber-luxury resorts should hold out for nearer 1p)

• if your travel style is more about travelling off peak and staying in mid range hotels, or you are worried about long-term devaluations, any Hilton Honors redemption which gets you above 0.33p per point is worth taking

If you want to buy additional Hilton Honors points from Hilton, the link to buy is here.