Hilton HHonors “Triple your Trip” 3rd quarter promotion offers double points for Monday-Thursday and triple points for Friday-Sunday nights for stays at participating hotels from July 1 to September 30, 2012.
Triple your Trip promotion registration is required prior to checkout to qualify for bonus points.
There is a huge list of nonparticipating hotels that I estimate is nearly 500 hotels in the U.S. and in California the hotels opting out are about 20% of the state’s Hilton brand properties.
I hope my promotion calculations on Loyalty Traveler are not as confusing for readers as HHonors FAQ for “Triple Your Trip”.
The HHonors Triple Your Trip promotion is pretty straight-forward until you read the HHonors Triple Your Trip FAQ about how bonus points are calculated.
I do not think the example for calculating bonus points earned is correct as shown in the HHonors promotion FAQ for the Triple your Trip promotion.
For the Triple Your Trip promotion, the Bonus Points you earn per night are calculated based on the average nightly folio of your total stay (average nightly folio is calculated by taking the total net folio of your stay during the Promotion Period, divided by the total number of nights of the stay). Triple Your Trip Double Points are awarded for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights in your stay. Triple Your Trip Triple Points are awarded for Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights in your stay.
Example:
US Net Folio: $1,038.38 x 10 pts per $1 = 10,383 BASE Points
10,383 BASE Points / 7* = 1,483 Average Points Per Night
*(replace 7 with total # of nights of the stay within the Promotion Period)
CALCULATION OF TRIPLE POINTS:
- Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights (3 nights) will receive Triple Points
- Triple Points is always 2 x BASE. Therefore, 2 x (BASE) 1,483 = 2,966
- 2,966 (triple points value) x 3 (total nights that are eligible for triple points) = 8,898 (total triple points for 3 nights)
CALCULATION OF DOUBLE POINTS:
- Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights (4 nights) will receive Double Points
- Double Points is always 1X BASE. Therefore, 1 x (BASE) 1,483 = 1,483
- 1,483 X 4 (total nights eligible for double points) = 5,932 (total double points for 4 nights)
CALCULATION OF TOTAL BONUS POINTS AWARDED:
- 8,898 (total triple points) + 5,932 (total double points) = 14,830
http://hhonors1.hilton.com/en_US/hh/landing/tripleyourtrip_faq/index.do
Loyalty Traveler critique of HHonors FAQ
The HHonors FAQ calculation for double and triple points relative to base points makes sense.
The average nightly folio is the part of the HHonors promotion FAQ calculation that does not make sense.
What happens when there is a huge rate difference between weekday nights that earn double points and weekend nights that earn triple points?
Loyalty Traveler Example:
DoubleTree by Hilton, San Jose, California
- Wednesday July 11 = $237 (AAA rate)
- Thursday July 12 = $107 (AAA rate)
- Friday July 13 = $107 (AAA rate)
- Saturday July 14 = 107 (AAA rate)
According to the HHonors FAQ examples:
This 4-night stay folio is $558 and earns 5,580 base points (10 base points/$1).
5,580/4 nights = 1,395 average base points per night.
HHonors FAQ Calculation of double points
Wednesday and Thursday earn double points, therefore 1,395 base points for each night earns 1,395 bonus points = 2,790 total bonus points for Wednesday and Thursday nights.
HHonors FAQ Calculation of Triple Points
Friday and Saturday earn triple points, therefore 1,395 x 2 = 2,790 bonus points per night = 5,580 total bonus points for Friday and Saturday nights.
When using the HHonors promotion FAQ method:
8,370 HHonors bonus points are earned for the 4-night stay spending $558.
Loyalty Traveler Calculation of Triple Your Trip Bonus Points
I highly doubt that HHonors bonus points will be calculated for the “Triple Your Trip” Promotion as shown in the HHonors FAQ example. The method of averaging the total stay folio for an average nightly rate does not make sense and is unlike any promotion bonus I have ever seen in the past decade of analyzing bonus point promotions.
Here is how I think the points will actually be calculated for this offer.
Wednesday night = $238 rate = 2,380 base points + 2,380 bonus points (double points).
Thursday night = $107 rate = 1,070 base points + 1,070 bonus points (double points).
Friday night = $107 rate = 1,070 base points + 2,140 bonus points (triple points).
Saturday night = $107 rate = 1,070 base points + 2,140 bonus points (triple points).
7,730 bonus points are earned for this 4-night stay spending $558 when the double and triple points are actually calculated by the weekday nights and weekend nights for double and triple points. points. Total bonus points earned for the 4-night stay spending $558 = 2,380 + 1,070 + 2,140 + 2,140 = 7,730 bonus points.
HHonors FAQ method shows the bonus points earned as 8,370 points while applying double and triple points to the actual room rate for each day only earns 7,730 points.
I doubt HHonors will be generous enough to give members an extra 640 points for this hotel stay as shown in the promotion FAQ.
Another example of HHonors FAQ calculation using average nightly rate for entire hotel stay.
Assume Thursday night Hilton brand hotel rate = $238.
Friday night = $107.
Total folio = $345 = 3,450 base points/ 2 = 1,725 average nightly base points.
- Thursday ($172.50 average rate for stay) = double points = 1,725 bonus points.
- Friday night ($172.50 average rate for stay) = triple points = 3,450 bonus points.
According to HHonors FAQ the member earns 5,175 bonus points for this two-night stay.
My Loyalty traveler analysis is double points actually applies to Thursday night’s rate ($238) and triple points applies to Friday night’s rate ($107).
Then the HHonors member earns:
- Thursday = double points = 2,380 bonus points.
- Friday night = triple points = 2,140 bonus points.
Bonus points = 4,520 bonus points when the actual room rate for Thursday night earns double points and the room rate for Friday night earns triple points.
I bet that the scenario shown for this two-night stay will actually earn 4,520 bonus points for the $345 stay rather than 5,175 bonus points as calculated using the HHonors “Triple Your Trip” FAQ example.
These two examples show HHonors giving members a more favorable scenario of bonus points for these stays. Remember that my example is for a hotel rate with a higher weekday rate than weekend rate.
HHonors FAQ calculation is less favorable if weekend hotel rate is higher than weekday rate.
Reverse the rates to a hotel where the Friday to Sunday rates are higher than the weekday rates and the situation will result in the HHonors member earning fewer points by the HHonors FAQ method than by my Loyalty Traveler calculation.
Example:
5 night hotel stay.
Wednesday and Thursday = $100 hotel rate. Friday/Saturday/Sunday = $200 hotel rate.
HHonors FAQ bonus points calculation = $800 folio for 5 nights = $160 average rate.
- Wed = 1,600 bonus points
- Thu = 1,600 bonus points
- Fri = 3,200 bonus points
- Sat = 3,200 bonus points
- Sun = 3,200 bonus points
- Total bonus points = 12,800 bonus points.
Loyalty Traveler bonus points calculation = $800 folio for 5 nights. No average rate is used. The actual rate for each night is used to calculate bonus.
- Wed = 1,000 bonus points
- Thu = 1,000 bonus points
- Fri = 4,000 bonus points
- Sat = 4,000 bonus points
- Sun = 4,000 bonus points
- Total bonus points = 14,000 bonus points.
Higher weekend night rates in this example mean the HHonors FAQ method actually results in the HHonors member receiving 1,200 fewer bonus points on this $800 hotel stay than should be earned based on the promotion terms of receiving triple points for Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.
Are you confused yet?
Just wait until I show you some room rate anomalies for the San Jose Doubletree I found while researching this post. In my next post I will show how one guest booking the San Jose Doubletree on a AAA rate could end up paying $400 more for the same 4-night stay as another guest booking AAA rates for the same dates.
Bottom Line: HHonors Triple your Trip promotion offers a good weekend bonus for Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights that will give members 35 points per dollar when earning Points & Points. Elite bonus points and credit card points can raise the earn rate up to nearly 50 points per dollar for this summer. That is a huge bonus offer.
If the bonus points calculation example shown in the HHonors FAQ for this promotion is correct, then this is the weirdest calculation of bonus points I have seen in all my years of analyzing hotel loyalty promotions.
P.S. P.S.
Post shower, post script (15 minutes after publishing this post)
As often happens after publishing my first post of the day I took a shower and came up with an additional thought.
I’ll assume the FAQ example is accurate in calculating the average nightly rate to determine bonus points earned with the Triple Your Trip promotion.
The reason to come up with an average nightly rate for a stay is to simplify the calculation of bonus points for HHonors and not for the member’s benefit. The HHonors program can take the total eligible spend for a 6-night stay and come up with an average nightly spend rate and easily apply double or triple points based on the hotel stay dates.
Average nightly rate is a benefit to Hilton HHonors to simplify the calculation of bonus points.
For the consumer who has a stay where both weekday and weekend nights are part of the stay it is important to remember that if your weekday spend is higher than your weekend spend, then you will benefit from average nightly rate in calculating bonus points. But if your weekend spend is higher than your weekday spend, then you will actually earn fewer points than you should for double or triple bonus points when the average nightly rate is calculated for your total stay.
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