How do Hilton treat you as an Elite?

[QF WP]

Just thought I'd create a thread for this - looking back over the last year, I thought I'd done a thread here as well as on Priority Club.

I'm a Gold member.

Friday, 22 May to Sunday, 31 May (yes, 9 nights)
Property: Hilton Cairns
Room booked: King Room
Rate: Travelzoo $135 package rate (included bottle of red wine)
Received: Upgrade to King Suite, card from GM and the wine, obligatory 2 free water bottles per day

Wednesday, 8 July
Property: Hilton Parmelia Perth
Room booked: King Room
Rate: Award room
Received: Upgrade to King Suite, card from GM and the obligatory 2 free water bottles

Thursday, 9 July
Property: Hilton Adelaide
Room booked: King Room
Rate: Award room
Received: Upgrade to Exec Floor, card from GM and the obligatory 2 free water bottles

Saturday, 11 July
Property: Hilton Brisbane
Room booked: King Room
Rate: Met Package (birthday present for Mrs LW, included 2 buffet breakfasts at Atrium Cafe & 2 tickets to Qld Art Gallery for Impressionists Showing from Metropolitan Museum New York - to get some culture)
Received: Upgrade to Exec Floor, card from GM and the obligatory 2 free water bottles

Got some more travel to do to Melbourne this Friday, so hoping to fly down Thursday night to sample the new Hilton.

 

[serfty]

Thursday, 21 May to Friday 22 May

Property: Hilton Sydney
Room booked: KING GUESTROOM PLUS
Rate: Adv Purchase with HPC Discount $166
Received: Upgrade to Kin Executive Spa Suite, Card from GM and the wine, comp water

Friday, 22 May to Monday 25 May

Property: Hilton Cairns
Room booked: King Executive
Rate: Adv Purchase with HPC Discount $172
Received: Gold VIP free internet (@$29 per day) Card from GM and the wine, obligatory 2 free water bottles per day

 

[drron]

Well I have been Hilton Diamond now for 7 years.
This year(my seventh) my profile reads-
Stays-0
nights-0
base points-0
For my last year,with the rolling qualification,ending 9/08 my profile was
stays-36
nights-78
base points-242500
So you might guess they have not been that great in Elite recognition.
In general I have been upgraded to exec floors but in 6 years,about 200 stays have been upgraded to a suite on 3 occasions.
Hilton brisbane on my sixth stay.
Hilton Kuching-recognition here was superb.
Hampton rockville,NY.
Amongst those where not upgraded to exec floor was Hilton Adelaide,millenium bangkok 1 out of 6 stays,brisbane on first stay,sydney.
Particularly poor service at hilton KL-booked exec floor and got smallest room next to elevators when my profile says away from elevators,despite their website showing more availability they would not move us.
-Waldorf Towers,NY-quite simply overrated.Requests ignored-eg for a room service menu,fixing in room safe.Then extra charges after left.Had to involve Hilton head office before resolving it.Just to rub it in they refunded with a US cheque which would have cost me nearly as much to cash as it was worth-sent it back to Hilton in December and no response.

So I status matched to SPG platinum-24 stays so far with suite upgrades at 50%.

 

[somebol]

@Serfty & LW

Did you have to ask for the upgrade.

As a HHG I stayed at Hilton Sydney and no HH amenities given

 

[serfty]

Suite upgrades are not a defined benefit of the HHonors program, but can be nice when they happen.

Note that things changed in August last year and if upgrade is selected as the VIP option, Diamonds are Guaranteed Executive lounge access at properties that have them.

Me? As a gold I'm happy to get Guaranteed breakfast. For me, that is far more useful than a bigger room.

Note I have an upcoming stay in BNE next week and will be selecting Internet access as my VIP benefit as I need to check out of the Hotel at 6am.

 

[serfty]

@Serfty & LW

Did you have to ask for the upgrade.

As a HHG I stayed at Hilton Sydney and no HH amenities given

Not for me at SYD - I have never had to ask. (At Melbourne and Brisbane I have had to ask though - however I've stayed at those places many more times than at Sydney).

Each time I stayed at Sydney I was upgraded and given exec lounge access on check-in. I do not expect it.

At the very minimum an HH Gold can expect complimentary continental breakfast (since August 15th Last year).

 

[StrikersWings]

LW, stay at the airport Hilton, the new one has no pool

However it's looking good and food more than passable !

 

[dajop]

In the last twelve to eighteen months or so have had good recognition as HHonors gold.

Hilton Syd - no exec floor rooms avail, given choice of $35 F&B credit or hilton hhonors bonus
Hilton Bris - exec floor
Millenium BKK- 4 out of 4 upgrades to exec floor
Conrad BKK - upgrade to exec floor
Hilton KL - 2 out of 2 upgrades to exec floor
Hilton Petaling Jaya - breakfast after requesting.
Hilton Kuching - upgrade to exec floor
Hilton Cebu - upgrade to exec floor
Hilton Singapore - 2 out of 2 upgrades to exec floor
Conrad Singapore - 1 out of 4 to exec floor, others to "business" floor with free brekky
Hilton Seoul - upgrade to exec floor
Hilton Frontenac St Louis - upgrade to executive rooms/floor
Hilton Montreal - free breakfast
Hilton Tokyo - upgrade to exec floor
Hilton Narita - free breakfast
Hilton GI Times Square NYC - free breakfast & water, top floor
Doubletree Chelsea NYC - free breakfast, high floor
Hilton GI 35th St NYC- free breakfast, high floor
Hilton London Metropole - exec lounge access

 

[Homer]

I hardly ever stay at Hilton hotels but I'm a Gold VIP courtesy of American Express. On our last DONE4 a few months back I did stay at a couple of Hiltons and they were quite comfortable and reliable even if they didn't set your hair on fire. I really liked the Hilton Tower Bridge for its location and modern feel (it's only about two years old) and the staff on the executive floor really made us feel at home for the five days of our stay.

Anyway, using Lindsay's format, here's the short summary:

March 2-5
Property: Hilton Buenos Aires
Room booked: Queen Room
Rate: USD 254
Received: Full buffet breakfast in lieu of upgrade plus 2 free water bottles each night

March 7
Property: Hilton Buenos Aires
Room booked: Queen Executive Room
Rate: USD 339 (included breakfast on executive floor lounge)
Received: Upgrade to King 1- Bedroom Suite, 2 free water bottles

April 10-15
Property: Hilton Tower Bridge, London
Room booked: Double Hilton Deluxe Room
Rate: GBP 209 (room only rate but breakfast was provided on the executive floor)
Received: Upgrade to Executive Floor Deluxe Room, note card from GM accompanied by platter of strawberries with chocolate sauce (must have thought we were honeymooners) and 2 free water bottles each night

 

[QF WP]

Did you have to ask for the upgrade. As a HHG I stayed at Hilton Sydney and no HH amenities given

Hmm, I have never stayed at Sydney and have no desire to eiher, so I guess I'll never know how they would treat me as a Gold. I'm not a fan of the property, too many negatives for me. At all other properties, I am usually greeted with "Mr Wilson, we have ugraded you...", but I have good stay history with PER and ADL dating back to 2002. So being Gold and a regular guest probably helps me.

Like serfty, I update the "My Way" page in my profile for every stay where applicable.

Choose Your On-Property VIP Benefits
As a current Gold or Diamond VIP, you can choose from a variety of on-property VIP benefits to enjoy at Hilton Family hotels

then when you opt for Hilton Hotels, it will then bring up a screen:

Receive a space-available room upgrade, including breakfast.*
You will be upgraded to an Executive Floor room (where/when available) at time of check-in. If an Executive Floor room is unavailable, you will be upgraded to the next best available room from the room type booked. Upgrades exclude suites, villas and specialty accommodations. At hotels with Executive Floor lounges, if an Executive Floor room upgrade is available, you will also receive access to the lounge. In addition, you will receive complimentary Continental breakfast for you and up to one additional registered hotel guest each day of your stay.
Enjoy complimentary high-speed internet access, each day of your stay.
At hotels that already offer a choice of a standard or higher-speed connection, you will receive access to the higher-speed connection at no cost. If a hotel does not offer high-speed internet connectivity, simply choose another option.
Earn 1,000 Hilton HHonors® bonus points per stay.
A great way to maximize your points earnings.

For me, I choose either the Upgrade with breakfast or internet access (generally the former), so I suppose that is also how my upgrades have been coming through.

stay at the airport Hilton, the new one has no pool . However it's looking good and food more than passable !

No desire to stay out there. My appointments are all within easy walk of the new South Wharf property and start at 8.30am. Plus another AFF'er is staying there tonight and we are catching up.

Will be interesting to see how they treat me. A virgin stayer at the property, booked King Deluxe Room on Best Available Rate $275 ( -20% HPC discount, so $220). Hope to get the upgrade to Exec Floor, as my friend said he was the only person in the Exec Lounge for breakfast until he was leaving (around 9am).

 

[StrikersWings]

Let us know how you go! True, exec lounges are empty thesedays which is great for us; some peace and quiet! It's the only time I get it!

 

[straitman]

Let us know how you go! True, exec lounges are empty thesedays which is great for us; some peace and quiet! It's the only time I get it!

We have stayed at South Wharf on three occasions now. Twice as Gold and once as Silver. We got the appropriate upgrades each time as Gold and still got looked after quite well as Silver.
ie upgraded to Exec Lounge once as Gold.
Paid for Exec Lounge once and got a Relaxation Suite as Gold &
Got a minor upgrade as a Silver.

 

[QF WP]

Thursday, 16 July
Property: Hilton South Wharf Melbourne
Room booked: King Room
Rate: $275 Best Available rate (-25% of course!)
Received: Upgrade to Exec Floor, no card from GM but got the obligatory 2 free water bottles

A wonderful property, but a little walk from Southern Cross station. Was advised at Check-in that I had been upgraded to Exec Floor. Met IainF in the bar and proceeded to have a couple of drink each. He picked up the tab, they'd only charged us for 2 drinks. Not sure whether they had a 2-for-1 offer we didn't know about, or they stuffed up. Needless to say, he signed for the 2 drinks and we walked.

The Exec Floor lounge is fabulous, we were the first two there at 6.45am (they opened early for us - normal is 7.00am). Great view watching the sun come up. The outdoor deck will be fantastic on a summer afternoon for canapes and drinks. Will definitely be going back there.

 

[serfty]

Hilton Brisbane

Was never going to need Executive lounge drinks in evening nor breakfast so as a gold requested free internet as my VIP benefit.

On check in was upgrade to exec floor and advised along the lines of "we note you have selected complimentary internet as your preference - it will be free, just have it taken off your bill on checkout. However, we have upgraded you to the executive level anyway due to your status"

Nice room - I could not use exec benefits as I needed to check out at 6am and was elsewhere during the coughtail (6:00pm-8:30pm) time.

 

[drron]

An interesting blog on how Hilton see their customers-
View from the Wing Blog Archive Inside Hilton’s CRM Strategy
So some of us are more valuable and some of us are really pains in the neck :shock:

 

[QF WP]

drron, you did note that the blog was 5 years old...is the information still relevant??

 

[Keith009]

Experienced the Hilton Tokyo 4 times as a Gold in the last 2 yrs. Each time I've gotten an upgrade to a Club level room with free brekky vouchers and free broadband internet. Naturally I've not managed to use the brekky vouchers even once.

Not v sure what I'd get as Silver which I got downgraded to recently, other than bonus points. I stayed at the Hilton KL (due to the recent AP 241 promo) and didn't notice anything special. I also seemed to have been allocated one of the smallest standard rooms. The 3000 BMI miles are handy though.

 

[drron]

drron, you did note that the blog was 5 years old...is the information still relevant??

Yes it is and discussed on FT.
Client Value Star Rating on OnQ - FlyerTalk Forums

 

[Danger]

Friday 6 November
Property: Hilton Singapore
Room booked: King Hilton Deluxe
Rate: HHonors reward 25000 points
Received: upgrade to executive floor; no welcome card but the usual two bottles of water.

One thing I was curious about: I didn't receive the usual welcome letter for executive floor guests. From previous experience I thought one of the benefits was pressing of a garment so I enquired at the executive lounge desk. The lady asked my room number and after typing it into the computer she said "I'll check on that for you". Later, when I found out that pressing is indeed an executive floor benefit, I began to wonder if the hotel holds back some of these benefits either (i) for reward stays or (ii) for HHonors upgrade recipients (ie. you don't get the full host of benefits unless you are on a fully paid rate).

 

[esquire]

Even as silver HH I have always received an upgrade at Adelaide, as well as Perth (on quiet nights).

Best upgrade (HH Gold) was Adelaide once where my cheapest government room was upgraded to some over-the-top suite with champers and chocs etc. Very nice.

Also received a good upgrade at Hilton LAX recently (the lounge is quite nice actually, although having to pay hotel prices for average drinks was a bit steep).

I usually stay with Hyatt now when as I can (Diamond member) as the privileges (free internet, club access, upgrades and targeted promotions with bonus points) tend to be the most useful to me. (Although with Hyatt now gone in Adelaide , its back to Hilton!)