Hotel Promos Galore – Including Hilton’s 24-Hour Sale Today

You may have noticed that there are suddenly a lot of hotel promotional sales. If you subscribe to the various hotel loyalty programs, then your email box, like mine, is overflowing with these notifications and offers.

A good summary of the current sales (though constantly changing) can be found on Loyalty Traveler on the Boarding Area here.

Hilton, in particular, has been announcing a lot of sales recently, some of which are eligible for “stacking.” One such sale, is a one-day sale via a Facebook link that begins today at noon. It is the “Hilton 24-Hour, Any Weekend, Anywhere Sale” in which Hilton Honors members can save up to 33% off of Hilton stays (but more typically 20 – 25%) and earn a bonus of an additional 2,500 bonus points per booking (up to a maximum of 10,000 points).

Details and the mechanics of this promotion can be found on Loyalty Traveler here and on Points, Miles and Martinis on the Boarding Area here. 

Analysis:

If you find a good hotel price and you are certain to be going to the event, then great – book it!

This happened last year, when Hilton ran a similar sale, and I was able to book the Doubletree Hotel in Overland Park, Kansas for the Gobblers’ Grind Marathon for $60 per night!

However, in my experience, when my plan is to travel to a larger-scale marathon or other similar event in a larger city, sales such as this may not prove helpful.

Here are some reasons or considerations.

1. the sale is non-refundable.

2. if you are eligible for a special rate – such as a government, AAA or AARP rate, it might be less than the sale rate, and it would be refundable.

3. I have noticed that often hotels are excluded from the sale for the weekend of the city’s marathon.

4. Even if a hotel is not excluded from the sale on a marathon weekend, I would still want to first check as to whether the event’s host hotel(s) are better priced, or otherwise, better suited for my needs – does the host hotel offer a late checkout, a shuttle to the airport, and/or a shuttle to or from the marathon start or finish.

Having said that, I am going to now check the Hilton sale for any weekends I’m planning to travel to check on prices and availability.