Every quarter Hilton announces what properties will be changing award category (and assigning an award category for new properties), these changes were due to be displayed tomorrow but View From The Wing & The Gate has the list early. These go into effect on January 11th, 2017 and will be displayed on this page here.
Quick Stats:
- 11Â hotels will be changing category
- 11Â will have their category increases
- 0Â will have their category decreased
- No new properties added
The List
- Hilton Urumqi (Urumqi, China) – New Category: 3 / Previous Category: 2
- Hampton by Hilton Newport /East (Newport, United Kingdom) – New Category: 2 / Previous Category: 1
- Doubletree by Hilton Newark – Fremont (Newark, California) – New Category: 5 / Previous Category: 4
- Hilton Oakland Airport (Oakland, California) – New Category: 6 / Previous Category: 4
- Embassy Suites Hotel Tampa / University South Florida / Near Busch Gardens (Tampa, Florida) – New Category: 5 / Previous Category: 4
- Hampton Inn Cornelia (Cornelia, Georgia) – New Category: 3 / Previous Category: 2
- Hampton Inn & Suites Meridian (Meridian, Idaho) – New Category: 4 / Previous Category: 3
- Embassy Suites Hotel Baltimore / Washington International Airport (Linthicum, Maryland): New Category: 5 / Previous Category: 4
- Hampton Inn Bar Harbor (Bar Harbor, Maine) – New Category: 9 / Previous Category: 7
- Hilton Santa Fe Buffalo Thunder (Santa Fe, New Mexico) – New Category: 5 / Previous Category: 4
- Hampton Inn & Suites Dumas (Dumas, Texas) – New Category: 4 / Previous Category: 2
Our Verdict
Pretty minor changes, obviously it’s never good when no properties are decreasing an award category but at least only 11 are increasing in category (and 8 of those by a single category and 3 by two categories).
Also it’s worth noting that Hilton has flexible award chart from category four onwards, where they are allowed to charge a range of 10,000 points, The award chart can be viewed below:
| HOTEL CATEGORY | HHONORS POINTS REQUIRED FOR ONE FREE NIGHT |
| 1 | 5,000 Points |
| 2 | 10,000 Points |
| 3 | 20,000 Points |
| 4 | 20,000 to 30,000 Points |
| 5 | 30,000 to 40,000 Points |
| 6 | 30,000 to 50,000 Points |
| 7 | 30,000 to 60,000 Points |
| 8 | 40,000 to 70,000 Points |
| 9 | 50,000 to 80,000 Points |
| 10 | 70,000 to 95,000 Points |
It’s a good idea to have a quick glance through the list to see if there are any properties you might be staying at in the near future and if so thinking about booking those before they increase in price.
First blog out with this list was “The Gate” in Boarding Area, just fyi.
Added the gate post as well, I thought this originally but when I searched on Google Gary’s post was 10 hours old and The Gate 4 hours old, I think Gary republished his post?