John

We’re in NY later in year and just booked a Hampton Inn. At least the breakfast is free.
I cannot be bothered with this dining credit (instantly cancelled out by that urban destination tax). It seems Diamond benefits are virtually non-existent over there.
That’s why I maintain they need a level up from these credit card diamond freebies and actually recognise people that continuously stay loyal to Hilton through paid stays (30 stays/60 nights a year).
It’s no wonder Diamond is going down the pan.
I have also never been offered a 200,000 point bonus for staying at xxx hotels by xxx for example. Only their usual meagre point promos.

RTA

HH points are only worth 0.4 or 0.5 cents anyway. That is how they can offer up to 180,000 HH points with a credit card. Sounds great but just gets you 2 nights at a decent London property.

Hyatt points are worth more like 2 cents each, but harder to earn of course.

Sam

Using those credits is a hassle though due to the way they are structured. And I am not a resort kind of guy.

The free night is valuable, although can only be booked by phone, which is annoying.

Given that you get free breakfast with Gold, the only Diamond perks worth anything to me are the free night and the lounge access, although that latter requires me to stay at a pricier property anyway.

Granted my experience has been mainly US based but I have received perhaps only one room upgrade and a couple of basically high floor upgrades. Late checkout is rarely beyond 1 or 2pm. Hilton points are increasingly worthless, I was looking at some hotels in Japan and was lucky to get 0.4 cents (not pence) per point.

Meanwhile as Globalist I’ve had room upgrades in almost every hotel I’ve stayed, a category 7 stay in NYC in a room that was $900 a night for nothing, a category 4 stay in NYC in a room that was $350 a night for nothing and was upgraded to a suite that was going for $1100 a night at the time. The free breakfasts have generally been $25-35 a time (over a two week stay that’s quite a saving!) and at the NYC hotel was $70. Hilton will give me $15-18 credit a day (which doesn’t even cover breakfast these days) and even less in HGI. Yipee! I know the deal is better outside of US.

The aforementioned Japan trip I just booked a hotel going for $500 a night at 2.5 cents per point. Sadly Hyatt’s footprint is smaller than Hilton.

Moving on to Marriott I’ve had a few upgrades but they are hit and miss and their breakfast offering varies a lot between hotels. A Westin I’ve stayed in has had excellent breakfast for free and occasionally I get a suite but others I’ve had nothing. Lounges with all chains are diminishing, especially US side.

IHG I’ve had a couple of suite upgrades, at HI Express of all places, but nothing anywhere else. I’ve only recently become diamond so we’ll see on some upcoming trips in London and Boston how much difference that makes. There can occasionally be some good spots with IHG points and even Marriott once in a while, but Hilton have some outrageous redemptions lately, Hyatt still largely stick to a reward chart and some of the higher category hotels you can do very well. If I wanted to burn more points I found one hotel doing $1600/nt rooms in Tokyo for 33k points/nt almost 5c/pt value

Tom

Look at all the other benefits that come with it. A free reward night + $400 Hilton resort credit to name a couple. That makes it a relatively small fee to me!

Russell Gowers

At the better lounges the food can be substantial enough to skip dinner. I recently had 5 nights at the Hllton Bankside, and only felt the need to dine in the restaurant once.

Between that and the free breakfast (for two) I reckon I was saving £100 a day.

Sam

The HS Hilton Aspire card does not have that small a fee. It just went up to $550 a year!

Adam

No they just haven’t updated their list of Hiltons so none of the recent builds and recent joiners work. If you stay at a property which used to be a Hilton but isn’t any longer, you may still get the 3x points

BBbetter

I thought they closed their lounge and I believe they stopped free parking for diamond (though they aren’t the only one)

Louise K

Don’t bother with Hilton in the US

Ryan

Part 2 tomorrow uses the term ‘preferred’ room which is what Hilton calls the Gold benefit.

I agree that the wording here was a bit strong, but both our recent Hilton review stays (Trafalgar, Berlin) which were cash stays were upgraded. Rhys as Diamond got a suite at Trafalgar, Conny got a one level in Berlin as Gold. I got a suite as Diamond at Hilton Bournemouth in October. We just call it as we see it.

Rob

So why are you offered rooms next to the elevator on lower floors at online check in stage?

There is no ‘Guarantee’ of any type of upgrade at Hilton for Diamond members, and to suggest there is, is disingenuous.

As a Diamond member(and possibly gold I don’t know) , you can set room preferences to be either close or further away from elevators so these room types are certainly not ‘upgrades’.

Tom

I stayed at the DT West End this week and it was much nicer than some Hiltons I have stayed in!

aseftel

Hilton Southampton is also good.

Chris

Check you have opted into direct marketing from Hilton. I wasn’t till December so only received bare minimum booking confirmation emails.

Tilly

The Hilton Leicester is by far the absolute worst Hilton property I’ve stayed at in all the years staying at Hilton’s. The Northampton one is a close second.
Shoddy dated rooms and very stingy on the diamond perks. Barely recognised.
Awful experience.

Robert

The issue with Diamond is the devaluation of it. I blame them aspire credit cards which can give anyone in the US Diamond status for a relatively small fee when you consider the other perks offered with the card, ie the ridiculous 200,000 sign up bonus.

There needs to be a level above which actually recognises status earned exclusively from paid stays at Hilton properties – probably never gonna happen though.

Roger C

I think you get Honors Silver just for having the card. This becomes Gold if you spend £10k in a calendar year (I think, rather than your card anniversary year).

aseftel

I am finding that booking a room with points a great benefit. But I don’t seem to get the email asking if I want to get a standby upgrade for £xx. Is this just me?

Aston100

Depends on your travel arrangements. On our summer holiday we had either an 11 or 12am checkout – our flight home wasn’t until after 10pm and hotel pickup wasn’t until about 7 – thankfully the hotel was equipped and allowed us use of a room for half an hour at 6pm to get showered and changed but a late checkout would have been ideal.

RussellH

I used the card for Hampton in Stansted and Torquay – never got extra points. I assumed they ditched extra earnings long time ago.

Chris

I had perpetual Gold for years in the 2020s from holding the Amex Platinum for just one year… seems to be a Hilton thing.

Robert

Couldn’t disagree more – lounge access is a huge bonus for me. Particularly on reward stays – if we get a hotel with a lounge we will have 1-2 drinks each before dinner, maybe some snacks as well. If we were in a bar we’d easily run up a £40 bill per night stay. Everywhere except London I also find that you get a substantial upgrade as a diamond member.

YMMV though I guess.

Robert

“Lifetime diamond requires 10 years and 1000!! Nights. That last requirement is double from what Marriott requires”.

No, it isn’t. Lifetime Platinum with Marriott is 600 nights. (And Lifetime Titanium when it was offered was 750 nights.)

*Free breakfast is a good and diamond benefit.
*Lounge access, when available, most lounges offer very limited choices.
*Late checkout almost never after 2pm and anyone can get this since 3pm is the normal check in time.
*Upgrades, are virtually non existant, hotels play the game by renaming room types and basically giving you an identical room, adding bathrobes and calling it executive or premium.
*Lifetime diamond requires 10 years and 1000!! Nights. That last requirement is double from what Marriott requires

Aston100

Yes, the late check-out is rarely useful to me. The ability to check in early is more useful if, say, I have flown into London from the US and arrive at LHR at 8 am. I can kill some time in the BA arrivals lounge but being able to check in at 11 or noon is great.

Hotels want to turn rooms over around lunchtime, I understand why that is.

Interesting that some DoubleTrees have an Executive Lounge (e.g. Angel, Cromwell Road, Tower Bridge), whilst many London Hiltons do not.