Hilton reward category changes - a crying shame about Goa
Hilton HHonors recently rolled out changes to its rewards categories. Its India properties, haven't seen much action in this round of changes - likely because Hiltons are still setting up their presence in India. They currently operate in NCR (Delhi and Gurgaon; Noida was closed and reopened as Holiday Inn), Mumbai, Chennai, Goa, Bangalore, Shillim, Pune, Trivandrum and Vadodara.
Of these, the best value for money was the Goa property, located in North Goa near Baga Beach. At 5,000 HHonors points a night, this was a steal in virtually every sense of the word. However, all that's now history. With the recent changes to rewards categories, Hilton Goa is now a category 3 hotel, up from category 1.
What this means, is that one will now have to fork out 20,000 (that's right, 20,000) HHonors points, up from 5,000 points earlier, for a night at the Hilton Goa. That's four times what it used to cost! I've not had a chance to visit this hotel yet, and so I don't know if it is still worth spending 20,000 HHonors points on. But with an average price in the region of Rs 4,500 a night for a base category room, 20k HHonors points sure does seem like a lot. All I can say that it was a good deal while it lasted, at 5,000 points a night.
You can almost cry when you see a good deal like that go away in a flash.
In other news, two new Hilton hotels, both in Bangalore, are now available for redemption against HHonors points. These are DoubleTree Suites by Hilton, Bangalore and Hilton Bangalore Residences, Bangalore. Both will be category 5 properties, which means they will cost between 30,000 and 40,000 HHonors points a night. Worth it? I don't know yet.
Of these, the best value for money was the Goa property, located in North Goa near Baga Beach. At 5,000 HHonors points a night, this was a steal in virtually every sense of the word. However, all that's now history. With the recent changes to rewards categories, Hilton Goa is now a category 3 hotel, up from category 1.
What this means, is that one will now have to fork out 20,000 (that's right, 20,000) HHonors points, up from 5,000 points earlier, for a night at the Hilton Goa. That's four times what it used to cost! I've not had a chance to visit this hotel yet, and so I don't know if it is still worth spending 20,000 HHonors points on. But with an average price in the region of Rs 4,500 a night for a base category room, 20k HHonors points sure does seem like a lot. All I can say that it was a good deal while it lasted, at 5,000 points a night.
You can almost cry when you see a good deal like that go away in a flash.
In other news, two new Hilton hotels, both in Bangalore, are now available for redemption against HHonors points. These are DoubleTree Suites by Hilton, Bangalore and Hilton Bangalore Residences, Bangalore. Both will be category 5 properties, which means they will cost between 30,000 and 40,000 HHonors points a night. Worth it? I don't know yet.
Ok, I literally cried when I heard about this devaluation.. There went my very long vacation plans..:(
ReplyDelete@Varun: Cash rates still seem quite low for some dates. You may want to try out either that, or cash+points
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