SLH Hotels Offer Extreme Value for Hilton Points and Changed How I Value Them

SLH Hotels Offer Extreme Value for Hilton Points and Changed How I Value Them

This isn’t exactly a new factoid coming from me. I’ve been openly ecstatic about Hilton’s integration with SLH since the day they not just announced the partnership but also confirmed that it would be fully integrated into the Hilton Honors loyalty program.

I’ve written at least a half dozen articles about the integration – the most effusive probably being this one: Is My Thinking About World of Hyatt vs. Hilton Honors Changing Thanks to SLH / Mr. and Mrs. Smith?

Why do I like Hilton points so much more now especially if I’m comparing directly against World of Hyatt, my former favorite hotel point?

• Hyatt lost tremendous footprint internationally. With Mr and Mrs Smith not part of the fixed Hyatt chart and giving you less than 1.5 cents in value per Hyatt point, they essentially don’t exist as far as World of Hyatt goes. The Venetian integration with World of Hyatt is even worse. 
• Hilton gained tremendous footprint internationally. By putting SLH hotels into the same redemption structure as the rest of Hilton Honors (hotels capped by their tier – even though no tiers are officially published – with the highest possible cost for a Standard Reward room topping out at 150,000 points, as well as traditional Honors tier benefits), they effectively just added hundreds (now over 400) of luxury hotels and resorts to their redemption portfolio in a meaningful way.
• Hilton Honors points produce some extreme value at the high end of the SLH portfolio. Even more so than when they were with Hyatt when you consider that Hilton gives you the 5th night free on awards as long as you hold even bottom tier Silver status  and, like Hyatt, waives resort fees on reward nights.
• You can now actually make a case for transferring American Express Membership Rewards points into Hilton during an Amex to Hilton transfer bonus (such as when you can get 2.8 Hilton points per Amex point or a 40% bonus).Since I now value Hilton points at 0.6 cents a piece, up from 0.5 cents a piece (you’ll see why a bit later in this article), that transfer bonus means that one Amex MR point (which I value at 1.7 cents each) would become 2.8 Hilton points – only a slight loss in value on the surface but which will make sense for higher end stays, especially with 5th night free, where you can easily top 1 cent per Hilton point (which would get you value of 2.8 cents per Membership Reward point).

Now, I want to be clear! I haven’t lost all my love for Hyatt nor do I proclaim Hilton the only hotel chain to care about. 

Indeed, only Hyatt lets you book confirmed suites in advance, both with points at booking directly into suites, using cash and points, and using Suite Night Awards, valid for up to an amazing 7 nights in a Standard Suite per SUA (now even bookable online!).

While I have hopes Hilton will add something along these lines one day, they currently have no way to confirm into a suite in advance. So I’m going to continue hoarding both Hyatt points (via Chase Ultimate Rewards) and Suite Night Awards certificates for my family stays. And Hyatt’s top tier Globalists get a guaranteed 4pm checkout (Hilton has no guarantee, though I will say many hotels are generous anyway with Diamonds) and also get free parking with award stays – plus a more extensive breakfast offering.

All of that said, the point of this article is about SLH and that I think that many people still don’t grasp the deep value this partnership brings to Hilton Honors points.

Essentially, you can get extreme (2-4x the “average”) value from Hilton points at many Waldorf Astoria, LXR, Conrad, and now SLH properties and it would be a shame to overlook this.

Some SLH Hotels With Tremendous Value for Hilton Honors Points

Here are some examples of unique experiences and high cent per point values from a sampling of new-to-Hilton SLH hotels:

Calala Island, Nicaragua

This resort got lots of attention when SLH was partnered with Hyatt due to the wow factor of the entire island only having a handful of rooms – 4 beachfront villas to be precise – and that to get there you need to fly to Managua where you will then get on a prop plane which takes you to a small boat (likened to a rowboat with a motor) which you’ll ride the last 1.5 hours of your journey. Certainly not for everyone, but unquestionably unique!! 25 staff members are on hand to take care of (at most!) 10 guests. 

Here’s actual availability I just found for later this month. That price includes taxes, so let’s see what kind of value we are getting for 150,000 points. Note that the minimum stay is 3 nights so maybe book 4 and get the 5th night free?

You’re getting an insane 3.6 cents per Hilton point with this redemption. Crazier yet, it jumps to 4.5 cents if you book 5 nights. This is 7.5X my average Hilton point valuation!!

Holy moly. And if I haven’t said it enough times, you can redeem your credit card Free Night Rewards. Redeem 3 for a completely free 3 night stay worth over $15,000. How’s that for value for your $550 annual fee on the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire® Card and spending $15,000 on the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card?

Topping Rose House, Bridgehampton, NY (The Hamptons)

I wrote about this property back when it was an SLH under Hyatt and we stayed a weekend this past summer just after the Hilton SLH acquisition. There are previous few other ways to stay in the Hamptons (proper) using points and this is, by far, the best one.

Read my review of the Topping Rose House from summer 2024 here.

It’s not yet on sale for this summer, but when we stayed last year the cash rates were around $1,500 a night vs. 120,000 points or the two Free Night Certificates we used. $3,000 in value from two credit card certificates? Yes, please!

Rawah Ranch, an SLH Hotel

Ranch lover? The Riverview Ranch in Montana has gotten a lot of attention with rooms over $,400 a night, though I cannot locate any availability there for the year right now so I won’t use that as an example. 

However, the Rawah Ranch in Colorado does have some availability (I found multiple weeks this summer with 5 night stays).

With 5th night free, you are looking at 520,000 Hilton Honors points or $4,319. At 0.8 cents, this won’t make you blush like some of the others, but it’s nothing to sneeze at.

 

Raiwasa Private Resort, an SLH Hotel – Fiji

One of the best values from the Hilton Honors / SLH partnership is this resort on Fiji.

It’s incredibly difficult to find availability – but find I did (so it exists – it is just in CRAZY demand because of the extreme value).

I could only find a 3 night stay, so no 5th night free, but you could 100% redeem 3 Free Night Certificates from your Hilton Surpass or Hilton Aspire credit cards. Imagine telling people you got over $14,000 worth of free hotel nights from 3 credit card certificates?!

But let’s assume you used points.

Here’s what that looks like:

This is a crazy 3.3 cents per Hilton point. And that’s without 5th night free where it would get even crazier.

Hermitage Bay in Antigua

This is a luxury boutique property on the beach featuring just 30 villas. The Garden suites you can book with Honors points are all steps from the beach (just behind the beachfront villas) and have their own large private plunge pools.

Points rates are 150,000 a night. Cash rates start at just over $1,800 all-in. That is 1.2 cents per Hilton point on one night stays. It jumps to 1.5 cents on a 5 night stay with the 5th night free assuming you have Silver or higher status. If you stay 3 or more nights, they even include round trip transport from the airport. It’s all-inclusive so you can arrive and literally not spend a dime. Tips are already included in your room rate.

The owner of this beautiful property also owns SLH (!).

Watch for a new “Nobu Inn” on neighboring Barbuda (the other island that makes up Antigua and Barbuda) sometime around 2027. 

I was at Hermitage Bay last month, so here’s a bit of info on it as well as some pictures.

First off, it’s secluded. I would say the ideal crowd is a couple looking to “get away from it all for 3-5 days. There’s no town nearby to head into and even the towns not nearby aren’t going to be worth leaving the resort for.

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If you wanted to use Hilton points in Antigua with the family, I’d opt for their sister property, the Inn at English Harbor, which is a bit less pricey both in cash and points (points stays are 105,000 points right now vs cash rates around $1,500 – yet another value of about 1.5 cents per point). It has a decidedly English vibe about it, including afternoon tea.

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Back to Hermitage Bay, you can relax (with full service) at the beach or head to the pool – but I never saw anyone at the pool thanks to everyone except for beachfront villas having their own private pool – and I think most on the beachfront (like my room was) wound up simply walking out the door into the sea…

The food is absolutely delicious and it’s all included – both food and drink, including most liquor (certain high end exceptions apply). If you are ordering appetizers, the portions are small but there’s a super easy solution to that…. order two 😉 

Non-motorized water activities like kayaks are included, so go ahead and get that exercise in if you’d like. Or don’t!

Like I said, this is a place to simply enjoy the food, drink, loungers, and the beach (and perhaps your plunge pool). 

Tip: There is only one oceanfront room in “Standard Reward” inventory (what you can book with 150,000 points or a Hilton Honors credit card Free Night Reward certificate). The rest of the Standard Rewards are the Garden Suites.

I would only book the Garden suites myself for two reasons.

1) As nice as it is to walk right out into the sea, a private plunge pool (and the Garden villas have oversized plunge pools!) is even better in my opinion as it can even be used after dark.

2) Most but not all Oceanfront villas have bathroom areas separated by a door. But a handful do not. Personally, I would not have enjoyed that if I was with anyone. You avoid that risk with the Garden suites which are new and every single one has a fully separated bathroom area. 

And if there is availability at check in, and you do prefer the Oceanfront villa without a pool but only if there is a bathroom door, they will most likely upgrade (again, pending availability) a Diamond member. That said, I was told that many guests that book the Garden villa ask not to be upgraded to the Beachfront villas, owing to the plunge pools.

You can also perhaps ask if they have a Hillside Villa if the view from above is your thing. Below is both the front of a Hillside Villa (with pool) and the view from that part of the hotel. It’s not a Standard Reward room and I’ll add, it’s a tiring walk up there 😉 

And here’s a video of my Beachfront Villa:

(Disclosure: I was a guest of Hilton for a long weekend at Hermitage Bay. This is why I am offering “details” rather than a full review, to avoid bias. That said, I definitely enjoyed my trip!!)

And those are just examples from SLH.

I can easily show you many examples where you can get over $1,000 a night from a Free Night Certificate, both domestically and abroad, in locations like the LXR Oceana in Santa Monica, CA (Review), the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills (Love their rooftop pool/jacuzzi and house Rolls Royce Phantom!!), the Waldorf Astoria Pedregal in Los Cabos (Review), the Waldorf Astoria in the Maldives (crazy hard to find standard reward space but it happens and that’s an easy 2 cents per point), the Waldorf Astoria in the Seychelles, the LXR Zemi Beach House in Anguilla, and on and on and on.

There are three SLH properties in Turks and Caicos which all give redemptions exceeding 1 cent per point.

My point is this: If you are someone that only ever plans to stay at Hampton Inn or even standard Hilton brand hotels, you’ll probably net a Hilton point value of somewhere in the 0.4 to 0.5 cent per point range (5th night free for Silver and higher members still factors in to the tune of 20%).

You are not who I wrote this article for.

If you are at all like me, where all of the excitement in miles and points lies in having experiences I would not otherwise pay for like a $20,000 First Class flight or a $2,000 a night hotel, then you would be remiss to overlook the value of Hilton points.

Of course, Hyatt points are still super valuable to me as well! But I think that it’s commonplace in the points world to talk about Hyatt as the end-all, be-all of hotel programs and I think you need both Hyatt and Hilton points in your virtual wallet the same way I believe you need multiple transferable point currencies. It’s almost exactly the same reason, actually…. just like you need Amex points to transfer to Cathay Pacific but only Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer to United (and you could need points on either for a particular booking). In some countries or cities, SLH will be far and away your best luxury option. In others it may be a Park Hyatt or similar. So stack both.

My personal strategy for acquiring Hilton points?

Hilton Credit Cards

Of course you’ll want to get welcome bonuses on the Hilton credit card that appeal to you. Personally I think a strategy of holding both the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire® Card and the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card is ideal. You get an annual Free Night Reward certificate with the Aspire both after approval and each year at renewal. And you get a Free Night Reward certificate on the Surpass each year after spending $15,000 (calendar year). Even if you had to pay estimated tax to get that $15,000, you’d be in for $262.50 in tax payment fees for a certificate easily worth $1,000). But that’s a last resort anyway. 

If you are in two player mode, you can double up on this strategy. You each have both cards and earn four certificates yearly. Use those four certificates for a long weekend somewhere nice!! Or, combine one or more certs with a 5th Night Free redemption. 

Transfers from American Express Membership Rewards

Beyond that, I would not hesitate to transfer points from American Express Membership Rewards cards, but only during a transfer bonus of at least 30% and preferable 40%. As you can see on our Transfer Bonus History page filtered to Hilton Honors, this happens 2-3 times a year on average.

I went into detail at the start of this article on how that keeps the points roughly equal to the estimated value of an Amex point, but of course you’ll be redeeming for a multiple of the value of a Hilton point anyway 😉 If you transferred 100,000 Amex points to 280,000 Hilton points and got 1 cent per point in value, you still got 2.8 cents per Amex point. That’s awesome!

Buying Hilton Points

Lastly – there are times when buying Hilton points can be more than worth it! (I rarely if ever say that about buying points).

You can buy up to 160,000 in a calendar year per person (so you and a P2 can team up for 320,000 total – transfers are quick and easy). But – and this is very important – only buy when you can buy for around 0.5 cents a piece. This is during 100% bonus on points promotions.

If you are seeing 1 cent per point, I would NOT buy unless topping off for an award AND don’t have any transferable point to top off with.

If a hotel was 80,000 points a night and you bought the maximum between 2 people and combined, you’d get 5 free nights. If the cost of the 5 free nights well exceeds the cost to purchase the points, it’s a win. And with some of these redemptions I’ve described above, the math can really work out.

Bottom Line

I think that Hilton points are often overlooked by the miles and points community. It’s a funny thing… I think that sometimes people see 150,000 points for a redemption and compare it to maybe a Hyatt at a 45,000 point redemption and think Hilton points aren’t worth it – without realizing you can earn Hilton points at least 3 times as fast! And only Hilton has the uncapped credit card reward nights, which really are insanely valuable (I hope that can last!).

I once, a long time ago, wrote an article called “A point is not equal to a point… or a mile” which is all about how points in various programs are worth wildly different amounts.

Generally, there is some sort of correlation in how easy it is to earn (a point worth 4x as much as another point is often, but not always earned at *very roughly* 25% the rate). IHG points are an exception in that they are not earned wildly quick, at least on credit cards, yet have an abysmal value of (in my sole opinion) just 0.4 cents each. 

The bottom line is this: Hilton points, without question, got much more valuable since the integration of SLH if you value luxury stays. I’m not going to give you any argument if you primarily stay at low to mid-range hotels and don’t care about SLH, LXR, or Waldorf Astoria stays. But I do 😉 And so for that reason, if you are at all like me on that, I think that you shouldn’t be sleeping on Hilton points.

Thoughts?

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