Hilton Honors, everything you need to know about staying for free at Hilton Group hotels
The definitive guide to knowing in detail everything you need to know about the Hilton Honors program
Worldwide there are over 6,000 hotels, in Italy just under thirty, but more are expected to be added soon. To read our reviews of Hilton hotels, in Italy and around the world, we have set up a dedicated home page.
In this article:
Without a doubt, the loyalty program called Hilton Honors is one of the best, if not the best, available in the global hotel industry.
Before going into detail some clarifications:
- HH points never expire, while statuses last for one year
- Points are earned based on the cost of rooms and services used (dining, spa, conference) always and only if booked directly on site/app, not through OTAs
- It is possible to take advantage of credit cards to speed up the accumulation of points
The view of the river from the Doubletree Amsterdam
I Brand
The insignias belonging to the Hilton group are as follows:
- Hilton Hotels & Resorts
- Conrad Hotels & Resorts
- Doubletree by Hilton
- Embassy Suites Hotels
- Canopy by Hilton
- Curio Collection by Hilton
- Signia Hilton
- Tapestry Collection by Hilton
- Tru by Hilton
- Hampton by Hilton
- Hilton Garden Inn
- Home2 Suites by Hilton
- Hilton Grand Vacations
- Homewood Suites by Hilton
- Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts
The statuses
There are 4 levels of the collection, each providing different privileges.
HH Member
Just be registered and you immediately get your virtual card and number that will allow us to be identified, the benefits are laughable:
- Free wifi
- The room price also includes a second guest at no extra charge
- Reserved rates for room and stay reservations
- Ability, in facilities that have this service, to check in via APP, choose your room and usare the digital key, that is, entering the room using the cell phone as a key
For every dollar spent, you earn 5 HH points at Tru and Home2-branded hotels (there are no facilities in Italy from these chains) and 10 points for all other hotels in the Hilton portfolio
HH Silver
To obtain the first of the three exclusive levels, it is necessary to stay at least 4 times or alternatively 10 nights or collect a total of 25k HH always within one year.
The moment you reach one of these milestones you are immediately upgraded to the silver level and get the following benefits in addition to the basic ones:
- 5 free nights when you book a stay using HH points
- A bonus of 20% on the base points earned for each stay (so that you will earn 6 or 12 points for every dollar spent in the various facilities)
- Two bottles of water in many of the facilities
- Extra nights are not lost and remain valid for status the following year.
HH Gold
This is definitely the most interesting and convenient level. It is obtained upon reaching 20 stays or alternatively 40 nights or 75k base points.
The benefits that are in addition to those of the silver level are:
- Option to choose whether to get extra points for each stay or free breakfast for one person staying in the same room. The choice can be made directly from the APP thanks to the My way section, where you can set all your preferences, such as room location or bonus
- Category upgrades based on availability
- Extra bonus of 10k HH for every 10 nights over 40 nights
- A bonus of 80% on base points earned per stay (so that you will earn 9 or 18 base points for every dollar spent in the various facilities)
As can be seen, this level allows for significant benefits that can translate into very important savings when staying often, or even just for a vacation, in Hilton hotels.
Free breakfast for two people can save 30 to 70 € per day, besides that thanks to the generous extra bonus getting the points needed for free sleep is very easy.
Holders of some American Express credit cards can obtain gold status for free because of the benefits attached to their card:
- American Express Platinum
- American Express Platinum Business
HH Diamond
It is the TOP level in the Hilton loyalty program, and to obtain it you have to collect 30 stays or alternatively 60 nights or 120k basis points within a year.
The benefits are even more exclusive:
- Upgrade up to the Suite if available
- Executive lounge access
- Extra points and free breakfast for two people
- A bonus of 100% on the base points earned for each stay (so that you will earn 10 or 20 points for every dollar spent in the various facilities)
- Guaranteed booking within 48h, thanks to this status even in very high season periods you will have the opportunity to book a room up to 2 days before arrival.
- Ability to gift Gold status to a friend/family member if you reach 60 nights in a year.
The benefits of this level are really worth several thousand, especially if you book a basic level of room, but then we are assigned a suite.
Unfortunately, there are no credit cards in Italy at this time that allow for Diamond status as of right.
Stays, nights and points: everything you need to know
As mentioned at the beginning, only reservations made through APP, website, call center generate points. This is why it is important not to use OTAs or other channels.
The statuses are obtained upon reaching one of the three targets within one year (January-December):
- Stays: that is, the number of bookings
- Nights: the total number of nights spent in the hotel
- Points: the total base points earned net of bonuses, promotions and extras
Silver status can then be obtained with a single 10-night reservation and Gold by staying 20 times for one night.
Hilton also allows you to earn points when you book a second room, such as for a colleague/friend, in which case the holder will be awarded all points related to the second booking as well.
When you stay at a hotel in the group you must always, I ALWAYS repeat, charge all costs to your card account. Parking? coffee at the cafe? no matter how small the expense is, every euro/dollar spent can become 10 points, so better not to waste anything.
Use HH points to stay for free in Hilton facilities
Whether it is the Maldives or Venice, London or Lecce it will always be possible to book a room using points or a combination of points and cash.
Unlike other chains, Hilton does not publish a categorization of its facilities, so to find out the cost for an award night, it is necessary to search via site/app and look up the cost, which ranges from 5k HH to over 100k points per night.
It is also good to remember that thanks to the possibility of taking advantage of the 5 night free, it will be enough to have the points to pay for 4 nights and also stay an additional night at no extra cost.
A few examples: staying in Milan in December can cost between 18k and 29k points per night, while a night at Molino Stuky in Venice starts at 47k HH, in New York it starts at 25k and goes up over 110k for the most exclusive insignias.
Hilton has provided its customers with a very useful tool that allows them to search for the ideal property, or more simply that we can afford, in our chosen destination.
Thanks to Points Explorer https://pointsexplorer.hiltonhonors.com/ just enter destination and budget, and we will be offered the various catalog availabilities.
Transfer points
One of the other options to collect more HH is to transfer points from credit cards by converting Amex Membership Rewards, for example, but given the low value it is a practice we do not recommend unless we are missing a handful of points to get the 5 free night at some super exclusive facility.
Similarly, it is possible to transfer HH points to airline point collections. Again we feel we discourage this practice for the same reasons, the exchange rates are negligible and the value obtained can be without too much effort spent otherwise, saving the points for stays or Hilton-branded experiences.
Buying points
As is the case with airlines, Hilton, too, sells points to its customers. Again, this makes little sense except during some special promotion that discounts the cost of the points.
