Ways round ‘dynamic pricing’?

[HughM]

I’m not new to Hilton Honors, but the auction-style pricing is new to me. Yesterday I checked out the price of a room at the Hampton, Torquay (46,000 points). I was 16,000 short, so I went to buy extras (8,000 paid + 8,000 free = USD 80). Half an hour later, I went back to the room, to find 55,000 now needed. I had the same experience last time: you check out the room price, come back, and it has shot up. The room is for mid-September, hardly a last-minute choice. Are there any ways round this (wait a week, try another computer, I don’t know, bright ideas?). Thank you.

[NorthernLass]

Points prices are all over the place at the moment, September is fairly last minute with the current high prices and low availability in popular destinations.
On a general note, it feels like you paid a lot for the 16k points top up compared with the cash price of the room, I never redeem for less than 0.6p per point and prefer nearer to 1p to feel like I’ve got real value from an award booking (easier on a 5 night booking if you qualify for the 5th night free).

[Andrew.]

You might be underestimating demand for mid-September.

Oldies who have spent the summer holidays looking after their grandchildren will be making an escape. As are those of us who choose not to take time off during the school holidays.

It’s a great time of year for a wedding. Doesn’t clash with family holidays, off-peak, should be great weather for the photos. Not forgetting coach parties.

Plus, would you rely on short-haul flights running normally in September?

[HughM]

NorthernLass wrote:

Points prices are all over the place at the moment, September is fairly last minute with the current high prices and low availability in popular destinations.
On a general note, it feels like you paid a lot for the 16k points top up compared with the cash price of the room, I never redeem for less than 0.6p per point and prefer nearer to 1p to feel like I’ve got real value from an award booking (easier on a 5 night booking if you qualify for the 5th night free).

I agree that the ‘free points’ offer price is hefty. It was still less than the £74 + 25,000 points for the room. Half an hour later, it went pear-shaped.

[HughM]

Andrew. wrote:

You might be underestimating demand for mid-September.

Oldies who have spent the summer holidays looking after their grandchildren will be making an escape. As are those of us who choose not to take time off during the school holidays.

It’s a great time of year for a wedding. Doesn’t clash with family holidays, off-peak, should be great weather for the photos. Not forgetting coach parties.

Plus, would you rely on short-haul flights running normally in September?

You’re right about the wedding, Andrew: it’s our anniversary. Plan is to hire a car. But the same happened at Hilton London Kensington on 5 May: 10,000-point mark-up between looking and booking. That’s why I was points-skint this time.

[CarpalTravel]

I was booking for September pre-pandemic and being flexible was trying various weeks. I actually found that the last week of August was far (like, 30%) cheaper and was very surprised. That is until I thought about that I was doing is exactly what a great many others do, which is wait for the school holidays to be over.

I imagine by the last week of August, most families are focussing on returning to the school routine, rather than booking to go away. We ended up pushing into October as we couldn’t make August work, but then of course you start getting near half-terms…

[HughM]

Thinking this through a bit more, I looked at Tripadvisor: all sources, booking.com etc. not to mention Hilton themselves are offering the standard room at £128. Only my own Hilton Honors (silver) has bumped the price up to £164.

Pay cash to Hilton through Tripadvisor and save £36 for the night. I’m sure seasonal demand is one factor, but am I wrong in thinking that the loyalty scheme is being used as a rip-off opportunity? (You are loyal, so pay up).

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[CarpalTravel]

If you are booking via alternative routes, make sure you use the relevant “portal” first, to make sure you are optimising your point or financial returns. If you get my drift.

[slidey]

How are there two different prices with hilton? ie 128 and 164?

[HughM]

CarpalTravel wrote:

If you are booking via alternative routes, make sure you use the relevant “portal” first, to make sure you are optimising your point or financial returns. If you get my drift.

Yes, thank you, that’s a good idea.

[HughM]

slidey wrote:

How are there two different prices with hilton? ie 128 and 164?

Last week I booked a King room through my Hilton Honors membership, and paid entirely with points (46,000). Yesterday I went back to my Honors account, to book a room for my son, and saw the same prices (both in cash and in points, 46,000) displayed. I then logged out of Honors, and on to the Hilton “free” points provider, which uses a log-in code. I spent 80 dollars on the necessary 16,000 points top up, logged in to Honors again to find the tariff upped to 55,000, i.e. still out of reach (and the room price up to £164 – steepish for a Hampton). That’s what they’re calling ‘dynamic pricing”! It seems unreasonable to me, and way above the market asking prices for the same room. I am confident I would be knocked into touch if I rang Sofia to ask what Hilton are playing at.

[Rob]

Hilton has a Best Price Guarantee so there shouldn’t be a difference. Are you sure you’re not, for example, searching for 3 which means it doesn’t show you base rooms? Or you are searching for 2 but the headline price is for a single room?

[HughM]

Search is for one adult in a twin room (as small as it gets).

[NorthernLass]

We usually stay at the Hilton MAN the night before an early flight, though since the pandemic (and the change to DT) it’s become ridiculously expensive and started charging for overnight parking and the transfer bus. On one of our last stays the price on hotels .com was about £40 cheaper, though non-refundable so not technically eligible for price match. I called the hotel out on it anyway and they said book it on hotels .com and we’ll honour all your status benefits. They even awarded me the points! (We’d booked another room direct and got double points for that one).

In fact the DT MAN is really taking the proverbial atm, on some nights it’s more expensive than the Hilton Deansgate! My next 2 airport stays are at the HIE and CP, which were much more reasonable.

• This reply was modified 54 years, 4 months ago by .

[slidey]

I just tried this for the hampton..

Go to hilton site without logging in, pick random date of sep 16-17 and its king room, says book from £135. Actual price is 135 non-canx for hh members, 143 non-canx for non members. Flex is 160 for hh and 169 for non-hh

Tick book with points option (still not logged in) and it now says book with points from 55000 and quick book 169, with ‘more rates from 135’ below it, clicking that then shows the same prices as above.

Tripadvisor shows 152 for the same night, which is a non-canx rate. Id say that you just happened to be booking at the point that the price went up.