Hilton’s Points Explorer Tool Guide

How can you use Hilton’s Points Explorer Tool to help you make the most of your points? For Pointsters who love to travel, keeping up with the value of your rewards is crucial. You’ll certainly want to learn how these can be turned into free nights. Back in February, Hilton launched a new tool to make planning out your vacations a lot easier.

We took a better look into Hilton’s Points Explorer tool to figure out exactly how it works. When it comes to redeeming your points, it’s important to be certain you’re making the most of your benefits. Here’s what we already know: standard award nights may be redeemed for as little as 5,000 points per night and no more than 95,000 points per night. However, Hilton’s new tool conveniently breaks down all of the details for you.

How Does Hilton’s Points Explorer Tool Work?

Hilton’s tool works by giving you an estimate of the points needed for a redemption at a given hotel. By using a historic range of data from other Hilton Honors members, the tool displays the lowest and highest number of points that have recently paid for a specific hotel. In order to view actual pricing, members will still need to go to Hilton’s website to either search for personalized dates or use the Flexible Dates check box to compare costs on various nights of the year.

To test out Hilton’s Points Explorer Tool for yourself, you’ll need to visit the Points Explorer page. You will have the option to specify a single property, or if you don’t have one in mind, you can view availability in an entire city. You can toggle the tool by dragging the points meter back and forth. There is also an option to filter through available hotels by brand. You might even find it helpful to sort through the results by arranging them from either high to low maximum points, or vice versa. It’s just as easy as it sounds.

Does It Really Work?

Hilton’s Points Explorer Tool is fairly accurate when it comes to estimating redemption values. It will show you exactly at what rates other Hilton Honors members have recently booked hotels for. This might work out in your favor, but it also might not. Rooms aren’t always available at the lowest award rate, but you might find rooms available for fewer points than the minimum listed by the tool.

How To Earn Bonus Hilton Honors Points

The easiest way to earn points for your account is to stay at a Hilton property. However, if you’re looking to speed up your earnings, you might want to consider applying for one of Hilton’s cobranded credit cards. Here is a breakdown of the card options to choose from:

• The Hilton Honors Card from American Express will earn you a 90,000-point bonus upon spending $2,000 on purchases within the first three months of opening. The annual fee is $0.
• The Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card will earn you a 130,000-point and one-free-weekend-night bonus upon spending $4,000 on purchases within the first four months of opening.  The annual fee is $95.
• The Hilton Honors Aspire Card from American Express will earn you a 150,000-point bonus upon spending $4,000 on purchases within the first three months of opening. The annual fee is $450.

Therefore, the best way to earn fast points is either by applying for a card, or even transferring your American Express Membership Rewards points to Hilton. The transfer rate is 1 Amex Membership Rewards point to 2 Hilton points.

Poinsters who are just starting with their vacation research will find Hilton’s Points Explorer Tool to be useful. It will definitely provide you with a great picture of how your points can pan out. However, you’ll find that reward rates won’t precisely line up with what’s currently available, so that’s where you might have to do some work on your own.