How do Hilton treat you as an Elite?

[drross]

HSP, booked Standard King, received Relaxation Room - loving the views! First stay here, read on the welcome note that there's a $10 charge for breakfast at the restaurant. Is this applicable to Diamond guests as well? What about coffee tax? Appreciate if someone could shed some light on this. Thanks.

Hi Aeolus. last visit we only ate in the lounge though there wasn't any notice about a $10 fee if breakfasting in Salt. Previous stays had breakfast downstairs 'tax-free'

 

[Deleted member 29185]

HSP, booked Standard King, received Relaxation Room - loving the views! First stay here, read on the welcome note that there's a $10 charge for breakfast at the restaurant. Is this applicable to Diamond guests as well? What about coffee tax? Appreciate if someone could shed some light on this. Thanks.

Hi Aeolus....that room is our favourite. Far better than the odd relaxation suite IMHO.

We've never been charged for breakie in Salt, and in fact never been charged the coffee tax in Salt. Please post an update about the 10 buck bit......I'd be interested in hearing of any (detrimental) changes!

 

[DC3]

... note that there's a $10 charge for breakfast at the restaurant. Is this applicable to Diamond guests as well? What about coffee tax? Appreciate if someone could shed some light on this. Thanks.

Aeolus, I can't tell from your profile what's your HHonors status. Were you booked in as Diamond for this stay?

I've stayed at HSP many times, although not in the past six months. No up-charge for the Salt breakfast. Coffee tax was removed when I mentioned the Diamond bit.

 

[Aussie_flyer]

As a gold I've been told to upgrade from continental to full at salt was $10 surcharge at hsp

 

[CJEMNMAC]

After reading a few hundred posts on here, the feeling is a bit flat.

I am Gold via VA benefits and only activated it last year at the tail end of a USA trip. My wife stayed without me and had EL access with H LAX no questions asked.

We now have 16 stays booked ranging from 1 night to 5 nights over June, July and August in the USA this year. Despite the quality varying greatly between the different brands I have still found the product fairly reasonable for reward cat 4 - 6

Some properties have no lounge, but will be interesting, as it covers about 10 different hotels. This trip is price sensitive, but I feel that $120 - $190 usd seems good over summer. Looking forward to seeing how "Gold" is treated.

 

[Aeolus]

Pleased to report back, no $10 nor coffee tax for Diamond at HSP. That welcome note must be for guests who booked the exec rooms w/o status. Also met the Front Desk manager who was really pleasant, turns out she was transferred from my usual haunt HSYD so we shared a few good chats. I absolutely fell in love with the views from the relaxation room - come to think of it, that was the longest time I've ever spent in a room just watching the world go by. I was also a bit amused with the relaxation room classification when there's no bathtub installed. The bathroom clearly have more than enough space to put one in - it would definitely make the "relaxation" go a little further if a bath is available (and I would probably not come out of the room at all if so, LOL!). A small annoyance was the lack of bedroom slippers and the need to call Magic on the day of checkout to request for extended checkout (apparently they couldn't commit until the day itself) and it took a good 5-10 mins for Magic to answer the call. On the positive side, Magic gave me a call not long after I checked in to make sure everything was ok, etc. which I thought was a nice touch.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Pleased to report back, no $10 nor coffee tax for Diamond at HSP.

Yeah to that! I was starting to get worried!

I absolutely fell in love with the views from the relaxation room - come to think of it, that was the longest time I've ever spent in a room just watching the world go by.

I cannot agree more! That view is the best available from HSP.

I was also a bit amused with the relaxation room classification when there's no bathtub installed.

Say what?????

The relaxation rooms that we'd had (the corner of the Orchid Tower, fronting Surfers beach and Cavill Ave), certainly has a bath. I honestly cannot remember if it was a spa bath, but it was a bath....with a separate shower and a separate toilet (just with no door).

 

[Aeolus]

Swanning_it, the one I had was on the same floor as the exec lounge, the 01 room. I'm sure there's no bath unless it's in a hidden room I missed?

 

[wannabeinvestmentbanker]

Recent stay at HSYD as a Diamond

Booked: King Hilton Deluxe room (cheapest)
Received: Relaxation Room

Upon arrival at around 10.30am was offered an Executive room which would be available immediately. On the way from the airport I checked the app and saw there was plenty of rooms available so asked for a relaxation room. Was told this should be ok but come back closer to guaranteed checkin at 3pm. Was my first real upgrade at HSYD and had to ask for it but was well worth it in the end. Moral of the story is always check room availability to ask for better upgrade.

Have my first stay at Hiltons in the US next week. I have relatively low expectations as most of my stays are in Asia but hopefully I will be pleasantly surprised.

 

[drross]

Recent stay at HSYD as a Diamond

Booked: King Hilton Deluxe room (cheapest)
Received: Relaxation Room

Upon arrival at around 10.30am was offered an Executive room which would be available immediately. On the way from the airport I checked the app and saw there was plenty of rooms available so asked for a relaxation room. Was told this should be ok but come back closer to guaranteed checkin at 3pm. Was my first real upgrade at HSYD and had to ask for it but was well worth it in the end. Moral of the story is always check room availability to ask for better upgrade.

Have my first stay at Hiltons in the US next week. I have relatively low expectations as most of my stays are in Asia but hopefully I will be pleasantly surprised.

We're having our first Mexican Hilton experience next month...absolutely no idea what to expect!!

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Hilton Singapore
Booked: Standard King
Received: Executive King Plus
Rate: Points with rates at $600+/night (thus hotel receives >90% of $600)
Status: Diamond

Couldn't check in until ~6pm due to no rooms/high occupancy.
Was denied check out later than midday. Eventually had extended til 3pm.

I contrast to Singapore Hyatt the night prior: Huge suite, beautiful check in and check out experience. Highly recommended.
Hyatt will be my go to Singapore property moving forward.

 

[JessicaTam]

Pleased to report back, no $10 nor coffee tax for Diamond at HSP.
<snip>

I stayed there a week ago and when I asked about breakfast downstairs was told that it was $10. Even for a diamond. I am there in a couple of weeks again, so maybe I should turn up. Thoughts?

 

[kermatu]

I stayed there a week ago and when I asked about breakfast downstairs was told that it was $10. Even for a diamond. I am there in a couple of weeks again, so maybe I should turn up. Thoughts?

Definitely. If a charge is flagged I'd simply walk away and let them (and the GM) know why.

 

[AnnaB]

I am looking at booking Hilton in Melbourne. Two questions for you who know, would they honour the Gold status even though it was booked through a third party (like Agoda) and thus giving you free wifi, breakfast etc, and which Hilton would you stay at?

Haven't really made up my mind on accommodation yet, but flying in mid October.

 

[straitman]

I am looking at booking Hilton in Melbourne. Two questions for you who know, would they honour the Gold status even though it was booked through a third party (like Agoda) and thus giving you free wifi, breakfast etc, and which Hilton would you stay at?

Haven't really made up my mind on accommodation yet, but flying in mid October.

HSW is infinitely better than the DT though often dearer. They are pretty good with the upgrades and by recent experience of a fella AFF'er they don't tax coffee for HH Golds in the main dining room at breakfast. Assuming you get EL access the setup and offerings there are quite good.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I stayed there a week ago and when I asked about breakfast downstairs was told that it was $10. Even for a diamond. I am there in a couple of weeks again, so maybe I should turn up. Thoughts?

A few weeks ago I was at H-DRW for the first time, so I decided to ask the front desk about the restaurant breakfast in lieu of the lounge. I was told lounge only but I decided to have breakfast in the restaurant regardless. Each morning I was marked off the pre-printed sheet and on the 2nd morning the restaurant staffer even said "oh your breakfast is complementary as you're diamond". I was not charged for breakfasts for any of the six days I was there, so that told me that sometimes the staff don't know the individual properties policy for diamond breakfast. At HSP, I'd at least try it one morning, just to see the outcome. Seems Aeolus' experience has confirmed that diamond at least, still gets it as complementary.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I am looking at booking Hilton in Melbourne. Two questions for you who know, would they honour the Gold status even though it was booked through a third party (like Agoda) and thus giving you free wifi, breakfast etc, and which Hilton would you stay at?

Haven't really made up my mind on accommodation yet, but flying in mid October.

I have a late October booking and HSW was cheaper than the DT (by a reasonable amount). I doubt anyone can say for sure about the Agoda effect on treatment (strictly by the Ts&Cs the answer would be no), but most reports are that the in-hotel status benefits still apply, just not the accrual of points/nights/stays....but like anything, YMMV.

May I ask why you want to make the booking through Agoda? If it's to earn VA points, you can select your Hilton "Myway" benefit to give points and miles which will give you VA points. If it's to "shop around" for a good deal, there are ways to get a good rate direct. My Oct stay at HSW is for $230/night (DT was $279).

 

[hummel]

Can anyone explain the upgrade policy with Hilton gold?

I was at Hilton Foshan again the last few days and was speaking to the exec lounge staff who are wonderful.

They explained last time i was there (3 weeks ago) I technically didn't have exec lounge access as they had upgraded me to a suite. I didn't think twice of it and just used the lounge as normal.

This past stay just gone I didn't get a suite but no problems in exec lounge.

I'm not a huge exec lounge user as just use it for breakfast and the occasional hour or so for work. If I'm not allowed access to the lounge I'll just continue to have my breakfast in the restaurant which has 10x variety....

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Can anyone explain the upgrade policy with Hilton gold?

I was at Hilton Foshan again the last few days and was speaking to the exec lounge staff who are wonderful.

They explained last time i was there (3 weeks ago) I technically didn't have exec lounge access as they had upgraded me to a suite. I didn't think twice of it and just used the lounge as normal.

This past stay just gone I didn't get a suite but no problems in exec lounge.

I'm not a huge exec lounge user as just use it for breakfast and the occasional hour or so for work. If I'm not allowed access to the lounge I'll just continue to have my breakfast in the restaurant which has 10x variety....

I think for Golds that exec lounge is only included when you are upgraded to a room with exec lounge access. I also think there are suites at some hotels that do not automatically have exec lounge access.....as ridiculous as that sounds.

 

[oh_lol]

What swanning said pretty much.
Golds only get lounge access if you are staying in an executive room. Diamonds get access no matter what.
Found out when I was once upgraded from an executive room to a suite (when I was gold status), then when I went to use the lounge was told I wasn't allowed to! (Although they caved in when I said I'd like to cancel my stay and will go to their sister property down the road).