Hotel elite status can unlock nice perks to improve your hotel stay including upgrades, food and beverage credits, extra points, and early check-in and late check-out.
Hilton Honors has three elite status levels: Silver, Gold, and Diamond.
The elite program is one of my favorites because it is fairly easy to receive Gold or Diamond status with credit cards, which offer valuable benefits such as upgrades, breakfast, extra points, and executive lounge access.
Member (Base) Status
Anyone who creates a free Hilton Honors account is considered a Member, which allows you to collect points, use points for free stays, get free WiFi, and avoid paying resort fees on rewards stays.
Free WiFi
All Hilton Honors members receive free WiFi when staying at Hilton hotels & resorts.
No Resort Fees on Rewards Stays
You can avoid paying resort fees on your “free” stay when redeeming Hilton Honors points for your hotel stay.
10 Points Per Dollar Spent
Members earn 10 points for every $1 you spend on your stay at all of Hilton’s brands except Tru and Home2, which earn 5 points per dollar.
Digital Check-In and Key
All Hilton Honors members can check-in online via the Hilton mobile app, choose their room, and even unlock their room at most hotels with your phone.
Hilton Honors Discount Rate
All members receive a discounted rate of 2% on all eligible bookings, but Hilton regularly runs promotional rates for members to save up to 30% on stays.
Hilton Silver Elite Status
The lowest tier in the Hilton Honors elite program is Silver, which allows members to request a late check-out, earn a 20% point bonus, receive two free bottles of water, and get a fifth night free on award stays.
How to Earn Hilton Silver Elite Status
You can earn Hilton Silver elite status with either:
- 7 nights
- 3 stays
- 17,500 base points ($1,750 in spending).
You can also earn Silver elite status by holding the American Express Hilton Honors Card
Hilton Silver Elite Benefits
Hilton Honors Silver elite members receive the benefits below plus the Member benefits of:
- Free Wi-Fi.
- No resort fees on award stays.
- Digital check-in and key.
- Hilton Honors discount rate.
20% Points Bonus
Silver elite members earn 12 points for every $1 you spend on your stay at all of Hilton’s brands except Tru and Home2, which earn 6 points per dollar.
Late Check-Out
All Hilton Honors elite members receive complimentary late check-out subject to the hotel’s availability. This typically allows you to request a 1 to 2 p.m. check-out.
Fifth Night Free on Award Stays
All elite members get the fifth night free when you redeem your Hilton Honors points.
For example, a 25,000 per night stay for five nights would typically cost 125,000 points, but with the fifth night free it only costs 100,000 points.
For long term stays, this benefit works up to 20 nights, so you would receive free nights for the tenth, fifteenth, and twentieth free night.
Two Free Bottles of Water
All elite members get two free bottles of water per stay at most properties.
The brands that offer this benefit are Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, Conrad Hotels & Resorts, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Curio, DoubleTree, Tapestry Collection, Embassy Suites, and Hilton Garden Inn.
Elite Rollover Nights
All elite members are eligible to rollover any qualifying nights in excess of what is required to qualify for each status level.
For example, if you stay 18 nights this year, 8 nights would rollover to the following year since only 10 nights are required for Silver.
Hilton Gold Elite Status
The mid-tier in Hilton’s elite program is Gold, which gets members valuable benefits such as upgrades, an 80% points bonus, free breakfast or points, and Milestone Bonuses.
How to Earn Hilton Gold Elite Status
You can earn Hilton Gold elite status with either:
- 28 nights
- 14 stays
- 52,500 base points ($5,250 in spending)
You can also earn Hilton Gold status by holding one of these credit cards:
- American Express Platinum, Business Platinum, Morgan Stanley Platinum, Schwab Platinum, or Goldman Sachs Platinum.
- American Express Hilton Honors Surpass Card.
- American Express Hilton Honors Business Card.
Hilton Gold Benefits
Hilton Honors Gold elite members receive the benefits below plus the Silver elite benefits of:
- Free Wi-Fi.
- No resort fees on award stays.
- Fifth night free on award stays.
- Elite rollover nights.
- Two free bottles of water.
80% Points Bonus
Gold elite members earn 18 points for every $1 you spend on your stay at all of Hilton’s brands except Tru and Home2, which earn 9 points per dollar.
Room Upgrades
Gold elite members may receive space-available upgrades to a preferred room up to executive room types or rooms with desirable views or amentities.
This benefit does not include suites and only applies one room, even if you have multiple rooms under a single reservation.
Upgrades: Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, Conrad Hotels & Resorts, Canopy, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Curio, DoubleTree, and Tapestry Collection.
No Upgrades: Embassy Suites, Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton, Tru, Homewood Suites, Home2 Suites, and Hilton Grand Vacations.
Food and Beverage Credit
Hilton replaced free breakfast with a daily food and beverage credit in 2022 for hotel stays in the United States.
For stays outside the U.S., Gold and Diamond members still receive a free continental breakfast.
The food and beverage credit varies by hotel brand with higher credits at luxury hotels.
The amount is also higher $3 per person for Hilton, Signia, DoubleTree, Curio, Tapestry, Canopy, and Motto hotels in Boston, Chicago, the District of Columbia, Key Largo, Key West, New York City and San Francisco, Los Angeles County, and the state of Hawaii.
Milestone Bonuses
Hilton Gold member earn Milestone Bonuses for reaching a certain number of nights per year:
- 10,000 bonus points for 40 nights
- 10,000 bonus points for 50 nights
For 2021, you will instead earn:
- 10,000 bonus points for 20 nights
- 10,000 bonus points for 30 nights
Hilton Diamond Status
Hilton Diamond status is the top-tier of the Hilton Honors elite program. Diamond members receive a 100% points bonus, upgrades to suite, executive lounge access, premium WiFi, and can gift elite status.
How to Earn Hilton Diamond Status
You can earn Hilton Diamond elite status that hard way with either:
- 42 nights
- 21 stays
- 84,000 base points ($8,400 in spending).
Or you could earn Hilton Diamond status the easy way by holding the American Express Hilton Aspire card, which automatically gets you Diamond elite status without meeting those high nightly requirements.
- Earn 180,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points with the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card after you spend $6,000 in purchases on the Card within your first 6 months of Card Membership. Offer ends 1/17/2024.
- Hilton Honors Diamond Elite Status
- 14x Points at Hilton Hotels and Resorts
- One Free Night Award at Any Hotel
- $550 Annual Fee and No Foreign Transaction Fees (rates & fees)
The last option to reach Hilton Diamond status requires spending $40,000 per year on the American Express Hilton Surpass Card or the American Express Hilton Honors Business Card.
Hilton Diamond Benefits
Hilton Honors Diamond elite members receive the benefits below plus the Gold elite benefits of:
- Food and beverage credit (U.S. stays) or continental breakfast (outside the U.S.)
- No resort fees on award stays.
- Fifth night free on award stays.
- Elite rollover nights.
- Two free bottles of water.
100% Points Bonus
Diamond elite members earn 20 points for every $1 you spend on your stay at all of Hilton’s brands except Tru and Home2, which earn 10 points per dollar.
Upgrades to Suites
Diamond members may access space-avaliable upgrades to preferred rooms a junior, standard, or one-bedroom suites.
Upgrades exclude executive suites, villas and specialty accommodations/floors/towers.
Upgrades: Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, Conrad Hotels & Resorts, Canopy, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Curio, DoubleTree, and Tapestry Collection.
No Upgrades: Embassy Suites, Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton, Tru, Homewood Suites, Home2 Suites, and Hilton Grand Vacations.
Executive Lounge Access
Diamond members are guaranteed executive lounge access at Conrad, Curio, DoubleTree, Hilton, LXR Hotels, and the Tapestry Collection hotels.
These lounges may serve breakfast and sometimes offer an evening reception with snacks and alcoholic beverages.
Milestone Bonuses
Diamond members earn Milestone Bonuses for staying a certain number of nights:
- 30,000 Hilton Honors points when you reach 60 nights
- 10,000 bonus points for every 10 nights after 60 nights.
For 2021, you will instead earn:
- 10,000 bonus points for 40 nights
- 10,000 bonus points for 50 nights
- 40,000 Hilton Honors points when you reach 60 nights
- 10,000 bonus points for every 10 nights after 60 nights.
Premium WiFi
Hilton Diamond members receive premium high-speed WiFi during stays to allow you to stream video.
48-Hour Guaranteed Room
Diamond members are guaranteed a room made 48 hours prior to arrival on paid stays as long as the hotel isn’t completely oversold.
Gift of Elite Status
Diamond members can gift Gold status when reaching 60 nights within a calendar year.
This status will be automatically upgraded to Diamond when the member reaches 100 nights.
For 2021, Diamond members can gift:
- Gold status at 30 nights
- Diamond status at 60 nights
Diamond members have until January 31st of the following year to gift elite status, which lasts for 365 days from the date of the gift.
[This benefit does not apply if you received Diamond status through credit cards.]
The Verdict
Hilton Honors’ elite program offers nice benefits to its loyal customers, and it is great that you can achieve top-tier status by holding the Hilton Aspire card.
Although, I wish Hilton added a few benefits for Diamond that Hyatt offers their top-tier elites such as suite upgrade certificates, 4:00 p.m. late check-out, and early check-in.
