Hilton Honors has introduced an app booking bonus for 500 points that is valid for stays all the way until the end of 2017. Only reservations that are made using the app are eligible for these bonus points. If you book using the App you won’t get any cash back by using a site such as Ebates to get 2% or more. Which is one of the reasons the hotels want you to book through the app so they can get everything direct.

Here are the T&C’s of this offer:

Offer valid February 7, 2017, through December 31, 2017 (“Promotion Period”) at any hotel or resort within the Hilton Portfolio. Hilton Honors™ members must first register at HiltonHonors.com/AppBonus prior to completing a stay within the Promotion Period. There is no limit to the total amount of Bonus Points that may be earned during the Promotion Period with this offer. However, there are restrictions on the amount of Base Points that can be earned on a single stay at certain brands. See Hilton Honors Terms & Conditions for more details. Bonus Points earned on Base Points do not count toward tier qualification. Please allow six to eight weeks from completion of your stay for points to appear in your Hilton Honors account. Go Hilton Team Member and Family & Friends rates are not eligible for this offer.

The last time we check on booking through the Hilton’s website we found the following Cash Back offers below. You will see that earning cash back is far superior than a few hundred points using their app. Say your stay is $800 and you only get 500 points which is worth less than $3 in Hilton Money. Hilton points are only valued at less than stay is 0.57 cents per point. With the Cash Back site you would get at least $16 back for this $800 stay. You can also be aware of cheaper alternatives to your room rates booking online.

 7% Top Cashback cashback shopping Top Cashback $10 Signup Bonus 
3.5%  Ebates $5 Signup Bonus

It will also earn 2% or 2x cash back on sites such as Swagbucks or the Plenti Marketplace when you book using the Hilton.com site by clicking through their links first.