I just booked for December as we are going with Friends

In terms of points vs cash, it was a debate for me.

400,000 points for a 7 night stay or $239 per night + resort fees came out to $2,000

It ma be just me, but 0.005c per point didn't seem like a great deal. Of course, I could use points and cash but 200,000 points was saving me less than $1,000

I decided to grab the cash rate and apply my Amex points, which at 1000 per $10 works out to 200,000 points which seams like a better deal and I will get full Hilton Points + I will roll over to another 10,000 points for 50 nights.

That said, the new HH benefits there are disappointing to be sure

Just came back from a stay last week and resort fees were, in fact, waived on our points stay.

I am trying to book this hotel for May 2020, and cannot find any rooms at any rate after April 30. Am i just early? Or this hotel closing for reno or leaving Hilton?

No posts or info online.

from what I read on TripAdvisor they dont open bookings exactly 12 months in advance

Mrlasssen
 

Hi Mrlasssen,
I have stayed at this property 3 times over the last few years. A few years ago we booked a room in the Aruba Tower on one of the executive HH floors which gave us lounge access (I was gold at the time). Since then, they have changed the lounge from a traditional HH executive Lounge to "The Palm Beach Lounge." This means that unless you are booked in the "Palm Beach" section of the hotel, there will be no lounge for you, even if you were a diamond member.

They have also changed the breakfast to be a simple room credit for the number of days that you are booked. They used to give coupons for Laguna's restaurant, but the full breakfast buffet there is something like $28 or $32 dollars per person. We did much better at the coffee shop that has breakfast sandwiches, yogurt, muffins, etc. If you still have a food/beverage credit, Gilligan's is great for a casual lunch and they will not apply any of the unused credit to your room rate, so be sure to use it up on food.

There are plenty of restaurants within easy walking distance of the property. Salt & Pepper is one of our favorites (across the street, turn left from the hotel).

Also be sure to visit Victor and the birds in the aviary. Usually at 11:00 a.m. everyday they have the birds out for photo ops and handling/feeding. Definitely one of the highlights of the property. On Tuesdays at 5:30 p.m. there is the Manager's Reception. In April of this year they still had it, but they didn't advertise it much. We only knew because of past year's experience. Free beer, wine fruit punch and snacks.

Although the HH benefits at this property have declined over the past few years, this is still on of our favorite HH properties. Points are the way to go, so that you can sidestep the exorbitant resort fees.

Feel free to come back with any additional questions!

-Goat

Thanks for the info goat, on the bright side if you couple the $250 resort credit with the $25 per day incidental credit that gives you $75 a day towards breakfast, lunch, drinks, etc. Do you know how big the fridges in the standard rooms are?

The fridges are the taller versions of a standard college dorm room fridge that resemble a cube. They are built into the dressers that have the TV on top of them and are approx. the full height of the dresser(s).

With the $250 resort credit from an AMEX card you could indeed have a sizable F&B budget. I would advise anyone with both credits available to research what purchases qualify for each credit. For example, I'm fairly certain that the AMEX credit can be used at the Concierge Desk for tours & excursions, Spa visits, etc, The breakfast credit may be more limited to food and gift shops. When we checked out, the daily breakfast credit applied to food but we had to pay for the server's tips directly on our credit card. Come to think of it, I had to remind the Front Desk to apply the breakfast credit to our bill when we checked out. That's when we learned about getting billed for the tips, even though we had some $ left over!

-Goat

yes the food and drink credit is for golds and diamonds. The $250 credit is a benefit for holding the hilton aspire credit card.

out of curiosity did you end up taking the club room at $118 upgrade or were you able to negotiate?

Hilton Aruba
 

I am at the Hilton Aruba through next week, anyone needed some current info?

Might be best to post here:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hilt...asino-abw.html