Originally Posted by
belynch
After spending the past five years "mid-tier" with just about every major hotel program I decided to make a run at Hilton Diamond this year. Between a network of hotels with corporate contracts, a few coworkers who are devoted to Hilton that I often travel with, and a honeymoon in MLE this August, focusing on Hilton just made sense to me.
I achieved Diamond and after three stays at full service properties (1 Tree Tree and 2 Hiltons) I have to ask myself if Diamond status is really worth anything.
Case in point: Stayed at the Hilton FLL Marina last night. Gorgeous property, convenient location, and except for the raping on the self-park, a very nice hotel. But what did Diamond get me? Seemingly nothing. My rate included breakfast so the front desk agent told me "next time, don't pre-buy breakfast." Thanks.
My room was on a floor that had "HHonors" outside the elevator. Whoopdie freaking do. There was no lounge that I could find. The room itself was a standard room. No free internet. I did however enjoy my free bottle of wine from Hyatt out on my balcony.
I called down this morning to inquire about a late check-out and was told "sure. We can extend your room until 1p." I asked if I could hold the room until 4p, as I'm accustomed to from SPG and was told there would be a charge equivalent to half my room rate. I politely mentioned that I'm Diamond and I thought, if available (which obviously it was) a late check-out was supposed to be extended to me, gratis. The response was "yes, we've offered to let you keep your room until 1p. That is a late check-out. We offer this to all guests who ask." Fair enough but a big load of
.
At the other Hilton I received my comp. breakfast (after asking for my chits) but no upgrade in the room or lounge access. At the Tree Tree, I got a load of nothing.
When I try and access my "my way" preferences I get stuck in a loopty loop of being asked to login. Although I'm not really sure what I'd change them to. I try and avoid snack foods / sodas / candy and I have an air-card for places with wifi for a charge. And I think I'd rather invest in Zimbabwe dollars rather than hoarding HHonors points.
So, I have to ask -- what am I missing? Is Hilton Diamond worth anything besides the occasional free bagel?
Or is the real value in the easy comp. over to SPG?
Diamond means much more if you are an Intl traveler.
I stayed at Hilton Frankfurt on an award at the beginning of May. After partying all night, I stopped at the front desk in the wee hours of the morning of the check out day and asked if I could sleep until 3 pm, as my flight back to the US was not until later evening. I was told "No problem, sir", and that was it. I had my
free breakfast, which was already being served when arrived back at the hotel, before going to bed and woke up at 3 pm. No annoying calls, nothing. Of course, I had been upgraded without asking and had access to all my on-property perks even though this was an award stay. As a HHonors D, I have stayed at Hilton Shanghai (see my recent trip report:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/13857298-post177.html), Hilton Stockholm Slussen, and am heading over to Hilton Singapore and Hilton Budapest in June and July, respectively. But so far, it's been great being Diamond...but then again, I might not be as demanding as you might be...
