Originally Posted by
FlyerGoldII
This answer to this question, from my perspective, is not as obvious as it seems.
On the HHonors web site, it does state what type of stays are not eligible for such credits? Obviously, the issue of opaque travel booking sites, such as priceline or hotwire, comes to mind.
It is not clear to me whether one does or one does not get full credit (and also the benefits of top tier HHonors status, if one has that status - such as myself - I have HHonors gold status) if one books a stay at a Hilton family of hotels either via a travel agent, or via a "transparent" travel booking site like expedia.
All right! I'm now able to confirm. This is a bit technical, so I'm going to list it out as simple as possible:
Stays booked through third party/opaque sites- Guests do not earn points or stay/night credit
- Guests do not earn on-property benefits automatically, but if they let the hotel know they are an HHonors member, they may be able to get these benefits. Ultimately though, this is up to the individual hotel's discretion to add or allow benefits on that ineligible rate
Stays booked by travel agents on behalf of the member- This means that the booking is made by the travel agent on HHonors.com, but it is treated as if the member booked their own reservation
- Guests receive points, stay/night credit, and on-property benefits
Stays booked by paying a travel agency for the booking- This means that the booking was made by the travel agent on behalf of the travel agency, and the member paid the agency for that booking
- There is no way for guests to earn points or stay/night credit as this is considered a tour operator package which is an ineligible rate
- Guests do not earn on-property benefits automatically, but if they let the hotel know they are an HHonors member, they may be able to get these benefits. Ultimately though, this is up to the individual hotel's discretion to add or allow benefits on that ineligible rate
The "Accrual of Points" portion of the
HHonors terms goes into more detail around which types of rates are considered eligible.
Hope this helps!