Hilton made some major changes to the program early this year, including eliminating their award chart! So are their points still worth buying? The truth is, there is still value to be had in the Hilton program, but it does take some work to find it. In the post I will show you the five best uses of Hilton points.
And now through 10/4/17 – you can earn 100,000 Hilton points by signing up for the Hilton Honors™ Surpass® Card from American Express card – see top hotel credit card offers here
So, let’s take a look at the 5 best uses of Hilton points
Stretch your points longer at low-level Hilton Hotels
There are some low-level Hilton properties that require only 5,000 or 10,000 points per night. Unfortunately, most of these hotels are located outside of U.S. Here are a few examples:
- Hilton Garden Inn Foshan, Guangdong, China – 5,000 per night
- Hilton Garden Inn ZhongShan, Guangdong, China – 5,000 per night
- Hilton Foshan, Guangdong, China – 10,000 per night
- Doubletree Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – 10,000 per night
- Doubletree Johor Bahru, Malaysia – 10,000 per night (PWaC Dan stayed here during his 2016 Southeast Asia trip and loved it!)
- Hilton Petaling Jaya, Malaysia – 10,000 per night
- Hilton Garden Inn Vienna South, Austria – 10,000 per night
- Doubletree by Hilton Bratislava, Slovakia – 10,000 per night
- Hilton Garden Inn Guatemala City, Guatemala – 10,000 per night
- Hilton Garden Inn Panama, Panama – 10,000 per night
- Hampton by Hilton Panama, Panama – 10,000 per night
Brand new Hampton by Hilton Panama is centrally located in downtown Panama. It requires only 10,000 per night, representing a value of about 0.8 cent per point.
Loyalty Traveler has a list from 2016 for both category 1 & category 2 hotels. But the list has not been updated for 2017 since Hilton eliminated its award chart this year. Pricing for some of the hotels has gone up but most stay at the old level of 5,000 or 10,000 points per night.
Best use of Hilton points — high-end hotels & resorts
Chapel at Grand Wailea Maui
Hilton’s high-end properties often require 80,000 points to 95,000 per night, and availability is usually pretty hard to find. Nightly cash rates are often high at these properties, especially during summer peak season or holidays. Using points can save you a lot of money at these properties, even if the points were purchased. The key to finding available nights is to check frequently as availability comes and goes!
Grand Wailea, the most popular Hilton resort in Hawaii, is known for difficult in finding award nights. Using the flexible date calendar, I found a few nights in June for 95,000 points per night. If using points purchased at 0.5 cent each, the cost would be $475 plus the $30 resort fee. The lowest rate available is AAA rate at $535, with fees and taxes, the total for one night is $641. Using points purchased would save me $166 for one night, or about 26%.
Use Hilton points for expensive destinations
A great example is New York City, where hotels are always expensive. My family is heading there at the end of July. I want to stay within walking distance of both Times Square and Central Park. After much debate, I settled on the Hilton Garden Inn Central Park South, and used 70,000 points for one-night instead of paying cash.
Another example is Ocean City Maryland, a very popular summer beach destination, especially for folks living on the East Coast. At the Hilton Ocean City Oceanfront Suite, the one-bedroom oceanfront suite has a kitchen, separate living area, and accommodates up to six people! One night would cost you $540 plus taxes, or just 80,000 points.
Another best use of Hilton points – special events
Want to go to New York City on New Year’s Eve and join millions of people in Times Square for the ball drop? Well, if you want to stay around Times Square, it will cost you some pretty penny, and it might make you think twice about the plan. Here’s the price for New Year’s Eve at two Hilton hotels in the area.
But if you have Hilton points, you probably would book the room right away! Instead of spending $1600 or $3,000 for one-night, you can use 70,000 or 95,000 points!
If you are a college football fan, you would know prices of hotel near stadiums on game days could be expensive. For example, Alabama will be playing Mississippi in Tuscaloosa on September 30. A quick search on Hilton website yield no availability for Saturday night only, but for two nights, Hilton Garden Inn Tuscaloosa is available at $445 a night before taxes, or just 50,000 points!
[SEE ALSO:How to score Super Bowl hotel deals (even at the last minute!)]
[SEE ALSO: How to score World Series hotel deals (even at the last minute!)]
The very best use of Hilton Points – 5th night free
Like Starwood and Marriott Rewards, Hilton offers 5th night free when you book a five-night award stay. Among the best uses of Hilton points, the 5th night free benefit is perhaps the very best, especially when you stay at expensive Hilton properties.
But even at mid-tier Hilton hotels, you can find great value using points with the 5th night free benefit. For example, the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki generally requires 60,000 points per night. Using Hilton’s flexible date calendar, I found a five-night award stay for 240,000 points in July at the Kalia Tower. The room would cost $1,475 plus 230.24 taxes for a total of $1,705.24. If you purchase 240,000 points at 0.5 cent per point, you will be paying $1,200 instead, a saving of $505, approximately 30%! The $30 daily resort charge will be required on both paid or award stay.
Conclusion
Despite the recent changes in the program, there is still great value to be found with Hilton points. But it does take some effort, and you do need to crunch numbers each time to see if it make sense to purchase points for an award stay. Besides buying points, Hilton points are pretty easy to accumulate since American Express and Citibank both offer two different Hilton cards. Of course, free points are always better!
Now that you know five best uses of Hilton points, are you planning to purchase some?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Distressed locations like Istanbul and Cairo (for example) can be a real steal with Hilton points.
I think 95,000 hotel points is too high for just about any Hilton property but that’s just my opinion.
Also if you’re Hilton Diamond you can sometimes find better weird Diamond rate deals at various properties.
I have not seen special Diamond rates, but I have found available room at sold-out properties thanks to the “diamond guarantee” benefit.
I’m with you mate, 95k is crazy for anywhere.
Heading to Cairo Wednesday, 6th trip this year, 10k per night, always get the Diamond upgrade, so very good value.
Was twice in IST last year same thing.
But opposite to this, Veracruz tomorrow, $47 USD per night + taxes or 19k per night at HGI so I go with the money and pick up a few extra points including the UA/HH bonus
Does anyone know buying Hilton points with Barclay Arrival Plus World Elite
card would be treated as Travel category?
The purchase of Hilton points through Hilton is processed by Points.com and I doubt would be treated as Travel by Barclay Arrival. But the Daily Getaway Hilton packages might be classified as Travel (they were by Chase Sapphire Reserve and Sapphire Preferred cards).
Bratislava is in Slovakia not Austria.
Oops, fixed. Thank you!
Compared to other chains, Hilton charges more points per night. Therefore, not good value.
I tried as much as I could not to blast this comment, but I couldn’t resist.
If you could buy a car for USD100,000 or JPY1,000,000, which is the better value? The Japanese one is the equivalent of about USD10,784, but according to you logic the US one is better value because you have to spend way more yen.
Hilton points and spg points are two different currencies just like JPY and USD. You can’t just compare nominal point prices to see which is more valuable.
Hilton gives out points like candy. Other chains do not, especially SPG. Normal math skills do not apply.
I thought the Resort fee was waived if you pay with all points. Not waived on points plus cash though.
Looks like you just made the case against getting the card. I haven’t been a fan ever since the serious devaluation several years ago.
While there are some good values out there (as mentioned above), 50,000 points for Tuscaloosa Alabama?? LOL. That’s what I paid at the Hilton San Francisco Financial District several years ago.
50K points can save you $400-$500 on a Saturday night in Tuscaloosa when there is a home game! Hilton SF now cost 60-70K per night and perhaps save you <$400 on a weekday. Value is all relative and entirely depends on how you use the points.
And now, you could get the San Francisco Hilton Financial District on a Saturday in November for 46,000 points, so I guess that the program must have revaluated? Just because you would prefer to be in San Francisco rather than Tuscaloosa doesn’t mean everyone would.
I am looking at the 5th night free option at many Caribbean resorts – Individually each night is 45K points per night, however when you search for 5 nights together I am getting 41K per night (also if you search for 4 nights you get 41K per night) and not the 36K I should be expecting (45K * 4 nights / 5 nights). Hilton appears to arbitrarily increase point values on the 5th night free deal.
Can you clarify? You said that if you search for 4 nights, it is 41,000 points per night (164,000 points total) and if you search for 5 nights, it is still 41,000 points per night (205,000 points total)?
I was able to replicate your exact scenario at the Hilton Barbados from Oct 15-20. Any single night was 45,000 points, Oct 15-19 was 41,000 points per night (164,000 points total), and Oct 15-20 showed 41,000 points per night, however, when I clicked through to book it, it was 164,000 points total for 5 nights or 32.800 points per night. I think you might have been mislead by it showing 41,000 points per night without continuing to find the total for the 5 night stay. If this is correct, then you will only have to pay 164,000 points for a stay that you thought you should have to pay 180,000 points for.