Hilton Honors is one of the world’s largest hotel loyalty programs with over 5,000 properties and one of my favorite programs for earning and redeeming hotel points. Hilton Honors allows members to earn points for every dollar they spend on hotel stays. These points are redeemable for free award nights. To get the most value from Hilton Honors, you need to be familiar with the terms of the program. That’s why in this article, I cover the most important parts of the program to give you a better understanding on how points can be earned and redeemed.
If you don’t have a Hilton Honors account yet, you can sign up here.
Hilton Honors Elite Status
Before I will explain how to earn and redeem points, I want to start with the introduction to elite status as this can be very valuable during your stay. Hilton Honors has 3 elite tiers: Silver, Gold and Diamond. Elite status can be earned by spending a certain amount of nights in the program within a calendar year. While elite status also can be earned through credit cards in some countries, I have listed the qualifications for each status below.
Each tier will give you and one companion some extra benefits during your stay. Note that you will receive already some benefits like a late check-out by just becoming a Hilton Honors member! While Silver status is not that valuable in my opinion (you’ll only get a 20% bonus points, 2 bottles of water and the 5th night free on award stays), both Gold and Diamond status will give you complimentary breakfast, space-available upgrades and a good percentage of bonus points.
However, this depends also on the hotel brand you stay. For example, at Garden Inn, Gold and Diamond members can choose between complimentary breakfast and 1,000 bonus points. Diamond members will get executive lounge access anyway while Gold members need to receive an upgrade to get access to the lounge. Diamond members also get access to space-available suite upgrades.
Silver
Silver status can be earned after just 4 stays, 10 nights or 25,000 base points in a calendar year. Like I said before, Silver status isn’t that valuable. You’ll receive the following benefits during your stay:
- 20% bonus points
- 5th night free on award stays
- 2 bottles of water
- Late check-out
Gold
After 40 nights, 20 stays (which is the most common) or 75,000 base points, you receive Gold status and will get the following benefits:
- 80% bonus points
- 5th night free on award stays
- Space-available upgrades
- Complimentary breakfast (or a 100-1000 bonus points)
- Executive Lounge access but only when receiving upgrade
- 2 bottles of water
- Late check-out
Diamond
Diamond status is for the real frequent traveler, although after just 30 stays (most common), 60 nights or 120,000 base points, you already get this status and will receive the following:
- 100% bonus points
- 5th night free on award stays
- 48 hour room guarantee
- Space-available upgrades, including suites
- Complimentary breakfast (or a 100-1000 bonus points)
- Executive Lounge access (if present)
- 2 bottles of water
- Late check-out
I value complimentary breakfast and access to the executive lounge very high and especially when traveling together. Assuming you stay for 5 nights at Hilton, you save already $ 200 as most Hilton hotels charge no less than $ 20 per person for breakfast. You and your companion are also granted access to the executive lounge with unlimited food and alcoholic beverages during dinner time. In most cases, you also get an upgrade to an Executive Room or even to suites when having Diamond status. And with these bonus points, you’re already a step closer to that next award stay!
Rollover nights
Rollover nights will provide you a faster way to earn elite status and are starting at Silver. All nights you stayed in excess of those required to qualify, will count towards your elite status for the following year. For example, you reached Silver status this year but stayed 30 nights, 20 nights will roll over into the following year. This way, you only need to stay 20 nights to qualify for Gold.
Earning points
At most Hilton brands, you’ll earn 10 base points per dollar spent, except at Tru by Hilton and Home2Suites where you earn 5 base points per dollar. As you can see below, Silver members earn a 20% bonus points, Gold members a 80% bonus and Diamond members even a 100% bonus.
Hilton Honors runs several promotions throughout the year. This allows members to earn a certain amount of bonus points on their hotel stays. I’ve seen all kind of promotions over the past few years. The current promotion Power Up Your Points allows Hilton Honors members to earn double (or even triple) points for all paid stays until January 5, 2020. I will keep you updated with further promotions.
Let’s use my previous Hilton stay as an example to see how many points can be earned as a Diamond member with registration for a points promotion. I normally would earn only 3,948 base points for spending € 357.60 (about $ 393.82), but as a Diamond member I not only got a 100% bonus of 3,948 points, I also earned a 1,000 points as a MyWay bonus. Plus I earned another 3,948 points because I was registered for the 2019 Go More Get More promotion. The total of points I earned was 12,844, already enough for a free night! More about this later.
Buy points
Another way to generate Hilton points is to buy points. Hilton sells 1,000 points for $ 10 but has several buying points promotions running throughout the year where you earn bonus points on your purchase. Buying points can be beneficial in some cases. For certain hotels, it’s cheaper to first buy points to then redeem them, rather than paying the normal rate. I will mention some of these hotels in a later article. Personally, I would only buy points if I directly know a good way on how to redeem them.
Milestone bonuses
Milestone bonuses allow members to earn a fixed amount of bonus points after achieving a certain number of nights in a calendar year. Hilton Honors realizes that it is pretty easy to earn status with a credit card. That’s why these milestone bonuses where introduced to reward those who stay more frequently. Members earn 10,000 bonus points for every 10 nights they stay, starting when reaching 40 nights in a calendar year. An additional 30,000 bonus points will be awarded to those who reach 60 nights.
Redeeming points
Once you have collected a bunch of points, you can spend them in different ways. Although you can transfer them to miles in several frequent flyer programs (there are also promotions to earn bonus miles), I would not recommend to do this with Hilton Honors points. You’d better redeem them for free night awards. Hilton Honors used to have 10 award categories but changed to more dynamic pricing due to seasonal demand.
However, most hotels are still using these old categories ranging from 5,000 to 95,000 points per night. Making a points redemption is not that difficult. You just select ‘points’ when searching for hotels in a specific city and then you see how many points you need. Not every redemption is a great deal and it requires some knowledge to know which hotels are interesting for paying in points.
It is hard to say the exact value of one Hilton Honors point. However, to get a good value out of your points, a good redemption of 10.000 points, for example, should cost at least $ 75 and $ 100 in my opinion. With this being said, almost all hotels that costs 5,000 or 10,000 points per night are a great deal in my opinion. You can find a full list of these hotels here.
Examples of redeeming points
Let’s have a look at the Hilton Garden Inn Guatemala City for our example. As you can see below, the lowest rate for the cheapest room I found is the Honors Discount Advance Purchase at $ 115 per night, excluding taxes. I also can book the same room for 10,000 points, including taxes. That’s a incredible value in my opinion!
Remember that breakfast for 2 is included for Gold and Diamond members. As I mentioned above, all elite members get the fifth night for free on award stays. This means that 5 nights would normally cost me a total of $ 575, excluding taxes. But I only need 40,000 points for the same room and even can get an upgrade as a Gold or Diamond member. 10,000 points are worth $ 143,75 in this case and that’s an incredible value!
Myself I stayed at several hotels using Hilton Honors points. Hilton Kuching, Hilton Hurghada Resort, Hilton Salalah and DoubleTree Resort by Hilton Penang are just a few of them. While hotels for 5,000 and 10,000 points per night are a great deal most of the time, it’s also worth to have a look at more expensive hotels.
Last year, I stayed at the Conrad Bora Bora Nui for 80,000 points per night which would normally costs me no less than $ 700, an incredible value! I will mention more interesting hotels to get a good value out of your points in a later article.
Hilton Honors points expire after 12 months of inactivity on your account. This means that earning or redeeming points will reset the clock and prevent expiration. You can always transfer points from or to another account in case you’re not staying at Hilton hotels once per year. Read more about transferring and pooling points in a later article.
Conclusion
In this article, I have covered the most important parts of Hilton Honors, one of the most popular hotel loyalty programs worldwide. The program offers some interesting and easy ways to redeem points. I personally often take advantage of the fifth night free on award stays. The thresholds to earn elite status are relatively low compared to other hotel loyalty programs, especially with rollover nights.
While Silver status is not that valuable, both Gold and Diamond status will give you complimentary breakfast and executive lounge access in most cases. Myself, I try to reach at least Gold status and if possible Diamond status every year. In a later article, I will go more in-depth about the Hilton Honors program.
What is your experience with Hilton Honors? Let me know your thoughts and questions in the comments below.
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