(EXPIRED) Hilton flash sale: up to 50% off rooms in Japan, Korea, and Guam

Hilton Honors is offering a flash sale good for “up to 50% off” room rates in Japan, Korea, and Guam for bookings by May 24th and stays through September 30, 2019. While I often find these types of sales to be kind of gimmicky and not really as good as advertised, this one actually looks like it might be quite good (even if not exactly 50% off). If you’re interested in traveling to the region between now and the end of the promo period, it’s definitely worth checking out rates through this sale. Not quite all properties are participating, but the list is pretty extensive nonetheless.

The Deal

• Hilton Honors flash sale offering 50% off room rates at select properties in Japan, Korea, and Guam
• Direct link to this promo

Key Details

• Limited availability at the discounted rates.
• Offer is subject to availability at all participating properties in the Hilton portfolio across Japan, South Korea, and Guam for stays booked between 20 May 2019, 12:00 JST and 24 May 2019, 16:00 JST, and completed between 20 May 2019 and 30 September 2019.
• Blackout dates may apply and vary by property.
• Rates are valid for single/double occupancy and are exclusive of all taxes, incidental charges, gratuities, and resort fees where applicable.
• Discount is 40% off Flexible Rate (BAR) or Bed and Breakfast Rate (B&B) across all participating properties. Hilton Honors members will receive an additional 10% discount. Hilton Honors Membership is required to book the Hilton Honors Members rate.
• BAR and B&B are specific rate types that vary depending on time of purchase, are unrestricted, non-qualified and excludes discount rates.
• Full non-refundable prepayment required at time of booking. Your credit card will be charged immediately for the total amount quoted for the entire stay as reserved and refunds or credits will not be issued unless otherwise indicated by local law.
• Booking cannot be changed.
• See promotion page for full terms

Quick Thoughts

As noted at the top, I don’t usually pay much attention to sales like this as they rarely turn out to be all that good. However, this time around the deals do look strong. For example, the Hilton Tokyo Bay, which has views of Tokyo Disneyland and is one of the “official” Disney hotels (it has a complimentary shuttle to the Disney monorail, etc), is on the list. Rates through this sale drop the hotel below $100 on some summertime dates.

As you can see, the “Members 100Hrs Sale” rate of 10,750 JPY (about $97.78 before tax & service charge) is indeed almost half off the Honors Discount rate of 20,425. You can also book a room with breakfast for the same sort of discount if you don’t already have Hilton Gold status or better (and note that there are 100hrs sale rates that are “40% off” for non-Hilton Honors members — or get “50% off” as a Hilton Honors member).

However, the “catch” here is that these 100Hrs sale rates are nonrefundable. That’s generally a non-starter for me as I value flexibility too highly to accept a nonrefundable rate. However, if your plans are firm, the discount here might certainly be worth considering. Just note that they are of course playing games with the marketing on this. While the sale rates are about 50% off the flexible rate, they aren’t actually half off the nonrefundable rate. For example, here’s that same date shown above compared against the Hilton Honors advance purchase (nonrefundable) rate, shown at the bottom of this screen shot:

As you can see, the Hilton Honors discount advance purchase rate is 17,910 JPY. The 100Hrs sale rate without breakfast included on the same date was 10,750 JPY. That’s not really half off — though it is still a 40% discount. While I’m not generally interested in advance purchase rates, that amounts to a difference of $65 per night. A substantial savings like that can certainly add up over multiple nights and make this sale worth considering if you’re pretty firm on your plans.

Note that although Hilton’s points prices can be somewhat revenue-based, I did not find this sale to affect the rate in terms of Hilton Honors points in my searches. Also key: the sale ends at 4pm JST on May 24, 2019. The countdown timer is not necessarily accurate — this sale will end in the early morning hours of 5/24 for those of us based in North America.

Don’t forget that you could start out through a shopping portal and stack a bit more savings. Overall, this looks like a good deal if you can accept the nonrefundable nature of the rates.

H/T: Loyalty Lobby

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