The past year was particularly rough on Hilton award pricing, so why not look at another potential change and see what’s happening?

The Hilton award pricing story up until now

In case you’ve been living under a rock this year, hotel inflation financier Hilton Honors has gone through a number of changes in one year:

• For years, Hilton hotels were capped at 95,000 points (or 120,000 for a small handful).
• The first major devaluation came in December 2024, where the limit went to 150,000 points.
• The second major devaluation happened in May 2025, where the limit moved up to 200,000 points.
• And then the third devaluation was in September 2025, where the limit exploded to 250,000 points.

That’s an increase in award pricing of over 100% for some hotels. Cash prices might have gone up via inflation over that time, but certainly not to the same extent. That’s an intense devaluation pattern that we haven’t seen since… Hilton moved to this award methodology in the first place. (We miss the old GLON and AXON rates that offered nights nearly anywhere for 40,000 points.)

Reddit and others say there’s now hope

So, imagine our surprise when Reddit reports came out that Hilton award pricing changed yet again. But at least this time, the pricing seemed more optimistic.

It links to a Thrifty Traveler article that dives into detail that some of the award pricing from the latest devaluation is rolling back. Specifically, the article dives in a few hotels to illustrate the new pricing:

• The Grand Wailea is now as low as 110,000 points/night.
• Hermitage Bay is now at 230,000 points/night (down 20,000 points).
• Conrad Orlando is at 90,000 points/night (down 15,000 points).
• Canaves Oia Suites is now as low as 175,000 points/night.

That certainly seems optimist. Seeing some revisions certainly brings up the idea that Hilton came to their senses. Drastically changing award rates as their did in such a short period of time could absolutely wreck prospective bookings. Could that have been enough to make them change their mind?

It brings to mind the ultimate warning for any loyalty program. While it might sound great that we can get wrapped up in collecting points, the reality is that once you have points, your money is trapped there and it’s subject to whatever the program operators do. You’re buying shares in the company to be redeemed at a later date, but not allowed to exchange those shares back into cash. Yes, trust is important, but there is real money at risk when you jump into this world.

Don’t jump into any loyalty program too heavily or you’re liable to get burned.

But what Hilton award pricing are we seeing?

Now that you feel optimistic about Hilton award pricing, let’s go back to the same handful of hotels we’ve been tracking.

We’re seeing some relief, but not nearly enough to change our valuation of Hilton points. A few important nuances:

The Grand Wailea

Our tracking of points has generally been to look at the max price in a given year for a standard room. That’s because we’re interested in the points cap that each hotel is subject to. By that definition, we’re seeing the max pricing for the Grand Wailea is down to 175,000. It was previously at 210,000, but that’s a sizeable drop.

Outside of the peak season, the cheapest nights at the Grand Wailea previously priced at 160,000 Hilton points per night. After this latest revision, the cheapest night drops to 110,000 Hilton points/night.

It goes without saying that if you previously booked a room at the Grand Wailea in Maui, you’ll want to rebook it now.

Roku Kyoto

We’re seeing the rates for the Roku Kyoto jumping to 200,000 Hilton points/night for sakura season (when the cherry blossoms bloom in late March). Outside of that one period, award pricing remains the same at 140,000 points/night.

If nothing else, it seems to show that Hilton is perhaps in the process of really diving into peak vs. non-peak pricing on top of max pricing. In other words, there’s a peak max price and a non-peak max price. How confusing.

Canaves Oia Suites, Santorini

Let’s take a look at one more that Thrifty Traveler found. Well, there are only two months of rates available to book at this time with points (April and May 2026). Yes, there are some (as in a small handful) of rates in April 2026 where 175,000-point nights exist. But the vast majority of nights are priced at 240,000/night. So that’s what we’ll call the rate.

There really isn’t much change

At a micro level, yes, there are some hotels that are changing in price. That seems to be the case more for hotels found in North America than anywhere else in the world. We’re not seeing much change at all for international destination pricing. Our approach has been to track pricing specifically at aspirational luxury properties because that’s where we would want to stay with our Hilton points. Cheaper properties might not hit the max, and Hilton points are simply worth less when the max is not reached.

It’s unclear what the underlying motivation is for the change in North America. Your guess is as good as ours: an indicator of the US economy? The political situation? A need to get Hilton points off the accounting books? All are certainly plausible, but we’ll never know for sure on the rationale. Hilton has not operated in good faith to its members with award pricing, and there’s no reason to believe that will change now.

Still, it’s unequivocally a good thing that award pricing is at least down somewhere.

What do you think of the latest edit to Hilton award pricing?

Suggested reading:

• The Value of a Hilton Elite Night
• Good for Hilton Loyalists: A Review of the Grand Wailea
• Review: Hilton Boston Park Plaza