Phil the Flyer

This might be of interest to some.

On Saturday 19 February 2005, together with my wife and then eight year old son, I checked-in to a two bedroom serviced apartment at the Hilton Cairo World Trade Centre Residences:

http://www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/egy...THI/index.html

Today, exactly ten years later, my wife and I remain in residence (our son is at university in England); and we are in the process of signing-up for an eleventh consecutive year.

On the basis of a twelve month agreement the room rate in 2005 was USD72 per night (inclusive of taxes and service charge); for the coming year the rate will be USD112 per night. To put that into context the property has a HHonors Reward Category 3 rating. I estimate the overall cost of our ten year stay to be approx USD350k.

We chose this property for two main reasons: a) the property has excellent security and, b) the property is very conveniently located for my place of work - the head office of my employer is just a three minute drive away.

Initially ignorant of the HHonors 100k maximum base points per stay rule, after the first year I reached an agreement with the then manager to swap the names of my wife and I on the bill every three months - thereby maximising our points earning potential. So far we've spent upwards of five million of the approximate six million points earned from this and other Hilton paid stays.

Naturally we've both retained Diamond status with ease every year (me since 2005, my wife since 2006). Ironically neither of us yet qualifies for Lifetime Diamond (neither of us having been Diamond for ten years as of 31 December 2014), despite us having a combined total nights history in excess of 3,700 (2,100+ for me, 1,600+ for my wife).

arlflyer

Interesting. At first it struck me as somewhat costly, but about $3400/month for corporate housing isn't exorbitant.

IcHot

Thanks for sharing. Very interesting.

Have they undergone any renovations or improvements over your time there?

pinniped

Have you gotten to know any other residents of the 2-bedroom units? Are you the longest continuous resident or are there others who've been there longer?

Did you consider other properties in the area? When we were in Cairo we did the Marriott: I didn't recall a similar "residence" area of the hotel.

fozziedoggie

Now that your son is an adult, you need to include his name on the lease; each go four months. You'll be a three-Diamond family.

MBS MillionMiler

With, I assume, daily maid service!

Curious how it works when you 'venture out' and use those HH Points...I assume you don't earn additional stay credits nor points on incidentals, as HH would show you booked at the one property already. (Knowing them, annoyingly, they'd give you the 3000 points on the incidentals from your weekend away and deny your points for the month at your 'home').

I find this whole story fascinating, and commend the OP for maximizing their points!

cjd

Amazing! Do you get complimentary breakfast every morning? Nearly spent a lifetime at the hotel but still no Lifetime status!

SanDiego1K

Well done on the negotiations. It's fortunate that you and your wife have individual accounts. A Hilton agent strongly encouraged us to get a spousal membership back when they were offered.

Where are some of the memorable places you've redeemed? Your reports on Conrad Koh Samui were one of the reasons that I then redeemed there. It was everything that you said.

BotB

Good on you Phil ^ That is certainly what one could call a 'stint' in a hotel

When you are back home in the UK, do you try to use the room key to open the doors?

I'm sure you'll get LTD this coming year and you'll certainly deserve it. ^

Thanks for sharing, hope to meet up sometime.

nlkm9

Thats such a cool story

toomanybooks

Are you putting this on the Surpass card for 12x HH points?

dmodemd

I must say that Hilton properties are very good on giving points for long term stays. Marriott for example is abyssmal. Special low earnings on corporate long stay properties and 1/2 point earning on Residence Inns.

I did some long term stays at a Homewood Suites as well as place some of our temporary contractors in from overseas. The manager let me collect points for their stays too. Very generous.

I wish I had a Hilton long term stay option in downtown Houston instead of Marriott being the only chain option downtown.

pinniped

Only advantage Marriott has is that they have apartments all over the place. In Cairo, I get why you want to be in a large hotel compound. In several of the cities where I lived in Marriott apartments, I liked the fact that they were in "normal" buildings with regular residents. Made those cities feel a tad bit more like home.

Sadly, I did all of my Marriott living before there was a regimented system of points and EQN. Our account rep made sure we all had permanent Marriott Gold status and our contract had fixed-point bonuses each quarter, but the EQN never contributed to Plat status nor lifetime night counts.

At the time, I was happy because the units themselves were usually pretty cool. High floor mountain view balcony in LoDo Denver, perfect Rosslyn location for DC work, nice Chicago building that was mostly regular condo owners, etc.

oranjemakker

Wow, great story... and a good size too, 225m2 is bigger than my current house!

I can see how the security would be an important concern given what has happened in Egypt the last few years.

I think when you look at it annually its a really fair rent, and of course your six mill HHonors points are worth over $30k!

ContinentalFan

Great thread. I didn't realize that Hilton had lifetime Diamond status. I wrote to HH about over a year ago, when SPG started its program. I guess I will now go and dig into hilton.com. Thanks!