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Hilton recently announced some changes to its Hilton Honors loyalty program. These included some new awards as well as the introduction of a new, top-tier status known as Diamond Reserve. Along with these positive changes, Hilton Honors has made another round of changes to its loyalty program and this time the adjustments will directly affect how many points members earn at some brands. Specifically, Hilton is cutting base points earning by 50% at two brands: Spark by Hilton and Homewood Suites.
The shift brings these properties in line with Tru, Home2 Suites, and LivSmart Studios (all of which already earn reduced points compared to Hilton’s traditional 10x per $1 structure. Under the new policy, Spark and Homewood Suites guests will earn just 5x points per $1, rather than the current 10x. Stays at LivSmart Studios remain at 3x per $1, which is the lowest in the portfolio.
The change is particularly notable for Spark as this is Hilton’s fast-growing conversion brand, which launched with full 10x point earning despite being positioned at the lower end of the chain’s offerings. Resetting Spark to 5x points suggests Hilton may have overestimated where the brand should sit within its loyalty framework.
Homewood Suites, traditionally a core extended-stay brand, is also being moved into the 50% earnings bucket. The reasoning behind that adjustment is less clear. Importantly, Hilton’s dynamic award pricing means that many of these properties, regardless of how many points they award per dollar spent, often have similar redemption rates. That creates a mismatch: guests at reduced-earning brands will now accumulate points far more slowly while still needing a comparable number of points for free nights. For many travelers, that could make earning enough for meaningful redemptions significantly more difficult.
Lower earnings at extended-stay and economy brands are not unusual in the loyalty world. Marriott, IHG, Hyatt, and others use similar structures. Still, cutting earnings at two established brands, especially one as prominent as Homewood Suites, underscores the broader recalibration underway within Hilton Honors as it prepares to introduce new elite tiers and benefits.
As these changes roll out, Hilton members who frequently stay at Spark, Homewood Suites, Home2 Suites, Tru, or LivSmart Studios should expect slower points accumulation and may want to reconsider how they plan toward redemptions in the future.
Anthony’s Take: I hate when hotels play with the earnings. At least they are counting nights toward status still and not taking that page from Marriott in offering half nights.
(Image Credits: Hilton.)
(H/T: Loyalty Lobby.)
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Advertiser & Editorial Disclosure: The Bulkhead Seat earns an affiliate commission for anyone approved through the links above This compensation may impact how and where links appear on this site. We work to provide the best publicly available offers to our readers. We frequently update them, but this site does not include all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities.
