NM

To my thinking, this is going to be point of interest. I have found that every time I have used vouchers, I have not been able to use them for more than one night (ie two consecutive nights), even though I had sufficient vouchers. This includes using a $55 Welcome to Hilton voucher for one night, and a $120 voucher for a second night, or using two $120 vouchers for two consecutive nights. I have always had to pay under the normal 20% discount off best rate for the second night.

I have also had trouble getting availability on the $55 voucher. Need to give plenty of notice and look for a time that is not going to be busy at the hotel. I have found weekends to be best availabilty so long as there is not a conference or convnetion or mardigras or major sporting event or similar in town that week. I tried to use the $120 vouchers in Perth and could not get a single room over a two week period - any day of the week - with 4 weeks notice.

I have had reasonable availability in Brisbane, but these have tended to be quiet periods and always weekends. So I use my membership for family stays rather than business stays, using them to celebrate things like wedding aniversary and birthdays. Mrs NM's b'day is just before Christams and they are always quiet in the few days before so no problem there, and its a great chance to spend a night or two shopping for last minute Christams gifts.

Note that the $55 voucher stays are booked directly with the hotel. When you call the 1300 number, you are asked if redeeming a $55 Welcome to Hilton voucher and press 1 (or whatever the number is). Then asked to enter a number for the specific hotel you want to use. That puts you directly to that hotel's reservations desk. When using any other Diamond Club stays (vouchers or standard 20% discount) you end up at the Diamond Club reservations Dept and they make the booking for you. My experience is that the hotels reservations dept make the decision on availability etc for those vouchers.

By way of example, when using a $55 voucher last December for Brisbane Hilton stay, I wanted to use a $120 voucher for a second room on the same night. Oh, I'm sorry sir, only one room is available at the rate for those vouchers, would you like that room and we can offer a second room at $xxx less 20% (can't remember exact rate). And because I wanted adjoining rooms, they insisted that I had to "upgrade" to the Deluxe room level for an extra $12 per room, even though as a HH Diamond member I would normally get an upgrade for free. And was also told they do not have adjoining rooms on the executive levels.

Well guess what, when we check-in the desk agent says they are very quiet and less than 50% occupied and can't understand why there would have been only one voucher-rate room available. And on my stay last weekend booked through the Diamond Club reservations desk (not direct with hotel since not using the $55 voucher), I am not asked to pay to upgrade to the Deluxe room type in order to get adjoining rooms, and we get upgraded to an adjoining suite/double on the exec floor - the tyoe of room that the hotel reservations agent said did not exist!

These are just a few of my experiences with using the Diamond Club vouchers. But I will likely renew one membership next year (not two as for the last two years). It was great when the Welcome to Hilton voucher was for a free stay rather than a $55 stay. But the free stay was only at your "home" Hilton, and the $55 is for any Australia/NZ Hilton. Lets hope they don't increase that to $75 to cater for the higher cost of the Sydney Hilton next year.