Hilton No Notice Devaluation
Within the last 48 hours or so Hilton seems to have changed points prices of some standard awards for my beloved Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal. An interesting part of this Hilton no notice devaluation is that the calendars have changed pricing, but the initial search does not seem to have been edited yet. We spot checked some other Hilton resorts to see if this is more widespread and noticed something interesting with standard award pricing. I'll also discuss why all hope is not lost with the Cabo rate increase below as well.
Increased Award Rates At Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal
Let's dive into this Hilton no notice devaluation at the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal. When you do the initial search for the property nothing seems amiss.
The initial search still shows the standard room award rate at 120,000 points a night. That is where it has been for a while now, but the problem comes into play when you go to pay. I wonder if it just hasn't been updated properly yet on their backend, since the calendar search feature shows the new prices accurately.
Here you can see that standard room rate as listed at 140,000 points a night on the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal calendar search. This is also what you will see once you get past the initial award search page and go to book the hotel for a night. That is an increase of over 16% in points cost per night. Another way to look at it is that this hotel will now cost you an additional $80 – $100 in points a night (depending on how you value Hilton points).
The Silver Lining Of This Change
The good news is that the same free night certificate will cover the room even after the increase. If it will cover the outrageously expensive new Waldorf Astoria NYC hotel price, then it will cover this too! You can still earn the free night certificates by spending $15,000 a year on your Hilton Surpass card, or by paying the annual fee on the Hilton Aspire card. Unfortunately, Amex and Hilton decided to neuter the free night certificate option on the Hilton Business card.
Another Interesting Change We Noticed?
We did some searching at other premier Hilton resorts and noticed something interesting at a few of them. The standard award rates seemed almost dynamic. Take a look at this calendar shot of the Conrad Bora Bora Nui. It is normally 120,000 Hilton Honors points a night for a standard award room, but the calendar shows both 120K standard award rates and 130K rooms. They are on back to back nights too.
I thought maybe this was just them moving to a higher award rate, but the 120,000 a night points rate can be found later next year too. Maybe this is what is happening with the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal too? Maybe it will have dynamic standard awards that go from 120K a night up to 140K a night? Although, we could only find 140K nights throughout the 12 month calendar search.
Has Hilton rolled out a new system where each property will have multiple standard award room rates? That is what it seems like right now to me. It would be a decent trade off if this meant more availability, but it seems likely that it is just a way to get higher rates during busier times of the year. Our fight against this award inflation is the free night certificates. They should still cover all levels of the dynamic standard rate spectrum.
Hilton No Notice Devaluation: ToP Thoughts
This Hilton no notice devaluation will cost us more and hurts a bit. Many people opt to combine certificates with a points stay to get a longer vacation at the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal. It could make trips more expensive at other popular properties when paying with points too. If you notice these dynamic standard awards at other Hilton hotels be sure to let us know in the ToP Facebook Group. Otherwise, start racking up those Hilton free night certificates to fight against this Hilton devaluation.
