I don't know the difference but here's a weird situation I'm in. Recently booked this hotel for an upcoming stay. As I think was mentioned upthread, the price on the Virgin Hotels website is significantly cheaper than hilton.com. I called a Hilton reservationist and tried to get them to find the same rate, but after 30+ minutes of trying they still couldn't do it. I went ahead and booked through the Virgin website. Today I call the Diamond Desk to ask them to add my reservation to my Hilton Honors account. The CSR put me on hold and after 4-5 minutes came back on and said that should couldn't connect the reservation and I wouldn't be getting any points for the stay because I booked through a third-party. I said I booked directly with the hotel. She apologized and said that's just how it works. If I didn't book with Hilton.com I wouldn't get HHonors points for the stay, there's no way to connect my stay (at a Hilton property!) to my HHonors account.

Any suggestions?