Major hotel chains disclose more than $11bn in outstanding points liability. The chains want those points to devalue. You want them to hold value. Guess who’s winning.
This is what your loyalty looks like on the other side of the balance sheet: a liability the hotel company is obligated to honor someday, in some form, at some rate. They don’t get to write it off. They do get to change the rate, and thus a hotel loyalty program devaluation is 2026’s destiny.
From the hotel’s perspective, this is rational. The liability is real dollars and cents and it’s on the books, but the unit of that liability (the point) is a currency they control. Every devaluation is a balance sheet improvement, and revenue they can recognize when points are redeemed at lower real value, or inflate away over time as dollar inflation erodes what a loyalty night is worth even if the point count didn’t change.
A great solo travel tip spotted this week on Live and Let's Fly.
