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Why are we loyal to Hilton when they hand out Diamond status like confetti?

Why are we loyal to Hilton when they hand out Diamond status like confetti?

Old Apr 7, 2017, 3:25 am
  #61  
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: LHR
Programs: HH D,CC,SPG,AZ: Gold;BA Silver, TK Elite
Posts: 809
I have mixed views on this one:
Granted, giving out status like candy alienates the road warriors who earn their status through stays, but from a company it makes sense in this industry:
At present, there are 187000 hotels worldwide, and 46 chains
(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...d-brand_hotels and https://www.tnooz.com/article/how-ma...s-adding-them/)
In some cities, there would not be much chain presence, but in major cities there is quite a lot of choice. Thus, giving top tier status is a way to differentiate by luring people who would have been elsewhere, and it works:
For the same price in the same town, between a Mercure who does not offer the possibility of a room upgrade, paid breakfast and no late checkout, or a Hilton where you could potentially get an upgrade, have free breakfast and eventually a late checkout, where would you go?
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Old Apr 7, 2017, 2:59 pm
  #62  
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: SEA, but up and down the coast a lot
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Originally Posted by papyPiHi
For the same price in the same town, between a Mercure who does not offer the possibility of a room upgrade, paid breakfast and no late checkout, or a Hilton where you could potentially get an upgrade, have free breakfast and eventually a late checkout, where would you go?
It might depend on location (whichever hotel has better location for my stay, a Hilton in the boonies might not get my business if the Mercure is right where I want to be). I'm not always a breakfast guy (often hotel continental breakfasts, which is what you often get as your guaranteed HH Gold/Diamond benefit, aren't great) and late checkout is not guaranteed by Hilton, even for Diamond status (and I've gotten late checkout with zero status at hotels before).

All things being equal, I'll likely pick the hotel with status just because I'll get more kickback with rewards, but all things are not always equal, in fact they very often aren't.

For instance, I'm skipping Hilton for a weekend trip to DFW because Club Carlson promos that stack will effectively kick back ~$90 of a $165 two night stay at Country Inn and Suites, way above what I'd get with Hilton at a comparably priced Homewood Suites. I have Gold status with Hilton, but this will basically net out to a "buy two nights get one free" stay with Club Carlson, and they have hotels in locations where I can use the points. This is an easy layup to take.

Last edited by eponymous_coward; Apr 7, 2017 at 3:07 pm
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Old Apr 8, 2017, 12:32 pm
  #63  
 
Join Date: May 2016
Location: HK
Programs: IHG Spire Elite Ambassador, Hilton Diamond, Aegan Gold, British Airways Bronze
Posts: 182
The thing is status is a bit of zero sum game, if there are more diamonds then there's less chance of upgrade for a given diamond customer. So I can understand road warriors who are frustrated because of status matches...

For the hotel chain though, it's purely beneficial to have more member with status, the more people have status, the more likely they are to chose to stay at a hilton instead of an intercontinental or another hotel that is not part of the family and, for the hotel chain, the fact that it's less likely for a given diamond member to get an upgrade doesn't affect them at al.

So it's logical for hotel chains to have many different ways of giving status to people and this is why it's given with credit card spendings (which gives money to Hilton too), with status matches and easy challenges. As long as they can give status to people without devaluing said status to much (which is the reason it's not just given directly for free), it's a plus for the hotel chain.

Now, I for one, as someone who doesn't stay often in hotels (I usually prefer renting an apartment through airbnb), I love it when hotel chains give away status like candy. I wouldn't ever get Hilton gold through the normal ways but, because I'm getting it thanks to my credit card, I'm going to buy enough points to go the maldives and will stay for five nights there. In a way, I'm using the system to spend a lot less money than I would normally have to but I also probably would never pay the normal prices to go to the Maldives nor would I spend the amount of nights needed to get gold status otherwise. And I've diverted a part of the money I normally would have spent on airbnb or equivalent towards staying at hotels.

Last edited by milgom; Apr 8, 2017 at 12:50 pm
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Old Apr 9, 2017, 1:32 pm
  #64  
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: not far from MUC
Posts: 6,620
Originally Posted by milgom
(...) if there are more diamonds then there's less chance of upgrade for a given diamond customer.
Many Hilton Diamonds I've spoken to are fully aware their chances of a meaningful upgrade at most Hiltons is already pretty close to zero.

A handful of extra matched diamonds isn't going to make that significantly worse...
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Old Apr 9, 2017, 1:46 pm
  #65  
 
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: UK
Programs: SPG Platinum, Hilton Diamond, IHG Platinum
Posts: 172
Originally Posted by shorthauldad
Many Hilton Diamonds I've spoken to are fully aware their chances of a meaningful upgrade at most Hiltons is already pretty close to zero..
Really? Either I'm lucky or the UK is different because so far I've scored 100% on 15 stays as Diamond since the start of February. I have had 3 suites, and the rest were deluxe or executive rooms.
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