20 of the best Hilton hotels in the US bookable for 20k points or less per night
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
Each traveler uses their hotel points differently. Some redeem large amounts of points to unlock aspirational hotel stays while others redeem their points slowly on modest redemptions.
In the Hilton Honors program, award night prices vary based on your dates and location. But, you can expect to pay between 5,000 and 120,000 points per night when redeeming Hilton Honors points for a standard room reward.
ENTER HERE: Win $5,000 toward your dream escape with Hilton Honors
You can earn Hilton Honors points on stays booked directly with Hilton Honors. And, you can also buy Hilton Honors points or transfer American Express Membership Rewards points. However, signing up for a new credit card and earning the welcome bonus is one of the easiest ways to earn Hilton points.
Sure, you could use most or all of the bonus on one night through a luxury Hilton Honors redemption. But, today, I'll focus on my preference: redeeming Hilton Honors points at hotels that allow me to stretch my Hilton points across many nights. Specifically, I'll describe just how many Hilton Honors nights you can get from the current welcome bonuses on several travel rewards cards. I'll also discuss some of my favorite domestic Hilton Hilton properties that cost 20,000 points or less per night.
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Redeeming Hilton Honors points for free nights
The Hilton Honors program doesn't have award charts. But, you can use the Hilton Points Explorer tool to see the minimum and maximum point values that Hilton Honors members have redeemed at each property for a one-night stay in a standard room. Unfortunately, the Points Explorer tool uses historical values instead of current values. So, you may see a different award night cost when you go to book a particular property.
As I mentioned above, standard room award nights in the Hilton Honors program range from 5,000 points per night to 120,000 points per night. However, I didn't find any properties in the U.S. for less than 10,000 points per night. And, most properties cost 20,000 points or more per night.
In this guide, I focus on Hilton Honors hotels with a maximum point value of 20,000 points per night or less according to the Points Explorer tool. TPG's most recent valuation pegs the value of Hilton points at 0.6 cents each, so 20,000 points are worth about $120, 15,000 points are worth about $90 and 10,000 points are worth about $60.
Finally, Hilton offers every fifth night free on award stays of five nights or longer to Hilton Honors Silver, Gold and Diamond elites. You only need four stays, 10 nights or 25,000 base points per year with Hilton to earn Silver status. Hilton Honors elite status also comes as a perk of some Hilton Honors credit cards, The Platinum Card® from American Express and The Business Platinum Card® from American Express.
Related: 8 ways to maximize redemptions with the Hilton Honors program
How many nights can you get from welcome bonuses?
Signing up for a travel rewards card and earning the welcome bonus can net you many points. So, in this section, I'll consider how many Hilton Honors award nights you could get from the current welcome bonus on several Hilton Honors credit cards as well as two Amex Membership Rewards cards.
However, in this section, I make the following assumptions:
- Ignore the points you'll earn while meeting the minimum spending requirements
- Assume you'll use your points for award stays in increments of five nights to get each fifth night free
- For the Amex Platinum and Amex Business Platinum, I assume you'll transfer the welcome bonus to Hilton points at the standard 1:2 ratio
Now, let's look at the current welcome bonuses and the minimum number of award nights these bonuses can get you.
| Card | Welcome bonus | Annual fee | Elite status provided by the card | Maximum 10k award nights from bonus | Maximum 15k award nights from bonus | Maximum 20k award nights from bonus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hilton Honors American Express Card | Earn 80,000 bonus points after you spend $1,000 in purchases on the card in the first three months of card membership. | $0 (see rates & fees) | Silver | 10 | 6 | 4 |
| Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card | Earn 130,000 Hilton Honors bonus points after you spend $2,000 in purchases on the card in the first three months of card membership. | $95 (see rates & fees). | Gold | 16 | 10 | 7 |
| The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card | Earn 130,000 Hilton Honors bonus points after you spend $3,000 in purchases on the card in the first three months of card membership. | $95 (see rates & fees) | Gold | 16 | 10 | 7 |
| Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card | 150,000 Hilton bonus points after you spend $4,000 in purchases within your first 3 months | $450 (see rates & fees) | Diamond | 18 | 12 | 8 |
| The Platinum Card from American Express | 100,000 Membership Rewards® Points after you spend $6,000 on purchases on the Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. | $695 (see rates & fees) | Gold | 15 | 10 | 7 |
| The Business Platinum Card from American Express | 120,000 Membership Rewards® points after you spend $15,000 on eligible purchases with the Business Platinum Card within the first three months of card membership. | $595 ($695 if application is received on or after 01/13/2022) (see rates and fees) | Gold | 18 | 12 | 8 |
The information for the Hilton Aspire Amex card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
The number of nights you can get from just one welcome bonus is pretty exciting. But, let's be honest: most of the Hilton properties bookable for 20,000 points or less in the U.S. aren't aspirational. And, most aren't in popular tourist destinations.
So, many of these properties are better suited for visiting friends and family or taking a road trip. But, if you set your expectations appropriately, you may find some hidden gems. With this mindset, let's take a closer look at some of my favorite options for stretching your Hilton Honors points in the U.S.
Related: 5 ways Hilton Honors should improve its loyalty program
Domestic Hilton hotels bookable for 10,000 points
There are only 14 properties in the U.S. with a maximum nightly rate of 10,000 Hilton points in the Points Explorer tool. Here are a few of the best-located properties.
- Hampton Inn Miami, Oklahoma: Located on Route 66 near historic Ribbon Road (an original section of scenic Route 66)
- Hampton Inn Deming, New Mexico: Located just off I-10 but there are two local wineries within five miles of the hotel and Deming hosts the Great American Duck Race during the third weekend of August each year
- Hilton Garden Inn Tulsa South, Oklahoma: Located in southeast Tulsa
- Hampton Inn & Suites Center, Texas: Located just off Highway 96 in Texas' Piney Woods area
- Hampton Inn La Junta, Colorado: Located on Highway 50, just an 11-minute walk from the Arkansas River
Related: 5 epic road trips across America
Domestic Hilton hotels bookable for 20,000 points
230 Hilton properties in the U.S. have a maximum nightly rate of 20,000 Hilton points in the Points Explorer tool. There are also two properties with a maximum nightly rate of 15,000 points. So, now let's take a look at some of the best domestic Hilton hotels bookable for 20,000 points per night.
Hotels for outdoor trips
Especially as socially distinct outdoor trips grow in popularity, hotels near outdoor destinations may have high cash rates but low award night rates. This is the case for the properties below, which offered relatively good award availability for the dates I checked.
- Hampton Inn Alamogordo, New Mexico: Located 15 miles from the White Sands National Monument visitor center
- Hampton Inn Lagrange near Callaway Gardens, Georgia: Located in southwest Georgia near Callaway Gardens (a large wilderness resort)
- Hampton Inn & Suites Los Alamos White Rock, New Mexico: Located close to the Los Alamos National Laboratory as well as the Bandelier National Monument
- Hampton Inn Santa Rosa, New Mexico: Located on Route 66 near the Blue Hole, which is a spring-fed lake popular with scuba divers
Related: Earn easy Hilton points by eating at your favorite restaurants
Hotels for city trips
You can't stay centrally located in most popular tourist destinations with 20,000 Hilton points or less per night. But, you can sometimes find properties on the outskirts of large cities, or in the heart of less popular cities, that won't break the bank. Here are a few examples I found:
- Hampton Inn Atlanta/Stone Mountain, Georgia: Located near Stone Mountain just east of Atlanta
- DoubleTree by Hilton Decatur Riverfront, Alabama: Located on the edge of Historic Downtown Decatur overlooking the Tennessee River and Steamboat Bill Memorial Bridge. The property is west of Huntsville, so the U.S. Space & Rocket Center is only 20 minutes away. Plus, you can book river view rooms for no surcharge.
- Homewood Suites by Hilton Atlanta-Peachtree, Georgia: Located in Peachtree Corners just 30 minutes from downtown Atlanta
- Home2 Suites by Hilton Atlanta Norcross, Georgia: Located northeast of downtown Atlanta
- Home2 Suites by Hilton Knoxville West, Tennessee: Located just off interstate 40 west of Knoxville
- Hampton Inn Bowling Green, Ohio: Located across from Bowling Green State University
Related: How to redeem points with the Hilton Honors program
Hotels near airports
Hotel prices around some airports can be sky-high. So, using hotel points for these stays can be incredibly valuable. Here are a few hotels near airports that may also be attractive for a more extended stay if you're visiting any of these cities. Plus, all of these hotels offer a free airport shuttle.
- DoubleTree by Hilton Columbus, Georgia: Located just off interstate 85 right across from Columbus Airport
- Hilton Kansas City-Airport, Missouri: Located about 15 minutes outside downtown Kansas City; the free airport shuttle will also take you anywhere within five miles of the hotel, including Zona Rosa
- Hampton Inn Dulles/Cascades, Virginia: Located on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., near Washington's wine country and Dulles (IAD) airport
- Hampton Inn Knoxville-Airport, Tennessee: Located between Knoxville and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park
- Hampton Inn Montgomery-South-Airport, Alabama: Located outside the downtown Montgomery area in quiet Hope Hull
Related: How to earn and redeem points with Hilton Honors partners
Bottom line
Unfortunately, there aren't any amazing Hilton sweet spots in the U.S. that cost 20,000 points or less per night. However, this doesn't mean that Hilton points aren't useful if you want to stretch your points while traveling domestically. Using the hotels in this guide, and some of the other Hilton hotels costing 20,000 points per night or less that didn't make the list, could easily facilitate a cross-country road trip.
I've also written similar guides for other hotel loyalty programs. So, be sure to check out my guides to the best U.S. Category 1 Hyatt hotels and best IHG hotels in the U.S. bookable for 10,000 points. Plus, if you like the Marriott Bonvoy program, you'll enjoy my guide on how to get up to 25 award nights from 100,000 Marriott points.
And, once you're ready to travel internationally again, take a look at the top Hilton hotels overseas bookable for 10,000 points or less, the best international Category 1 Hyatt hotels and the best international IHG hotels bookable for 10,000 points.
Related: Flash sweeps: Win $5,000 toward your dream escape with Hilton Honors
For rates and fees of the Hilton Honors Amex, please click here.
For rates and fees of the Hilton Honors Surpass Card, click here.
For rates and fees of the Hilton Honors Business Amex, click here.
For rates and fees of the Hilton Honors Aspire Amex, click here.
For rates and fees of the Amex Platinum card, click here.
For rates and fees of the Amex Business Platinum card, click here.