GentleGiant

Read again about those who do not stay at Hiltons being given Diamond status until 2019 via emails sent today or yesterday!!

Whereas those of us who have been diamond earned by staying have to make the required number of night or stays to retain it just to 2018 and not 2019!

Very disappointed in Hilton.

Would like a response from Lauren as to why loyalty stands for nothing.

Baze

I agree. I have been staying ~130-150 nights a year for the last 4 years and been some kind of status between Gold and Diamond about the last 20 years. And I have to actually earn it every year. very frustrating.

pinniped

Wait...don't you have to log 8 stays in 90 days to actually keep the status? If so, that's actually a bit tougher of a challenge that most chains do. Flyertalker can, of course, find the fastest/cheapest 8-stay hotel-hopping hack to the status, but to most regular business travelers that's actually a substantial challenge.

Granted, Hilton has always given away Gold for completely free or close to it, and you can get Diamond just by using their credit card for a few months, so I certainly won't try to claim they defend Diamond for just the true road warriors.

But this particular challenge isn't worthy of the outrage. Marriott's common Plat challenge was usually 12 nights in 90 days, something your typical Mon-Thur biz traveler can knock out in a month. When I got SPG Plat the first time, it was a full-on comp. (What the merged MR/SPG are doing this year, I don't really know.) In that light, Hilton's current challenge is actually kind of tough.

arlflyer

It's a corporation targeting what it feels might be valuable customers in an attempt to gain their business. We can live with it or walk. The house makes the rules; we play by them. Anyone who is staying that many nights with Hilton can choose to take all, or even half, of them to a competitor to gain and enjoy top-tier status there.

GentleGiant

8 stays?

no


(1) 30 stays in a calendar year, or
(2) 60 nights in a calendar year, or
(3) 120,000 Hilton Honors Base Points in a calendar year

No other alternative

zachary

As I understand it, the current status match offer only provides status of 90 days. If you are matched to Diamond, you have to have 8 stays in 90 days and then you get to keep status until 2019

Hilton's been doing the status match thing for a while now. They obviously think it's working, or they wouldn't keep offering it. I guess it's like the cable/satellite TV providers that offer better pricing to new customers than existing, loyal ones.

pinniped

To those who hate the idea that Hilton offers challenges, why not throw a few of your stays to Hyatt or MR/SPG to diversify?

150 nights could easily be HH Diamond, SPG/Marriott Platinum, and one of the top 2 Hyatt tiers.

Maybe more if you jump on their comps/challenges.

An 8-stay challenge is a pretty high bar: that's almost two months of a full-time business traveler. In other words, a pretty "legit" Diamond type guest.

IcHot

Some of the responses tell me the status hook is deeply embedded in the psyche of some of our peers.

Measure the perks, ditch the emotional manipulation, friends.

navelfluff

As one of those given Diamond for free I am disappointed to see that you are unhappy and that you consider people like me unworthy. I do up to 120 hotel nights a year, which I guess is why I'm consider a good bet by Hilton for a freebie to buy some of that revenue for themselves. Hotels are businesses after all, not clubs.

Perhaps it's time for you to respond to the perceived slur on your good custom and status-match out to another hotel loyalty programme. If you do, please be a good chap and close the door to the exec lounge as you leave.

eponymous_coward

No kidding. If hotel chains trying to solicit business bruise your ego enough that the deal you were and are offered doesn't seem worth it, then feel free to walk.

Just because a large corporation gives you a shiny card with a precious gem's name on it doesn't mean it's anything other than a series of mutually acceptable business transactions. If the benefits aren't worth it, knowing that this large corporation is happy to solicit business from others via status matches... then walk, but realize the benefits are largely the same. Hilton gives Gold out if you can fog a mirror (including a four stay in 90 day match), and has for a long time. It's not exactly shocking to see an eight stay in 90 day status match to Diamond.

Often1

Threads such as this make the marketing people really happy. There are people who really do believe that these programs are there to reward them for their past loyalty rather than to generate future loyalty, e.g. revenue.

Hilton makes this offer to people it believes will, if they get a bit of a "taste" will stick around and spend a good deal more. Growing the customer base is what management is supposed to be doing.

hugolover

Because on the Top Customer list they have 0 stays and the premium ones among us have hundreds of stays. The hotels use this to prioritise upgrades. A hotel in which I have stayed many times will simply not upgrade a status matched Diamond if inventory is limited. Hotels are fully aware of this.

Remember, Diamond (and Gold) is being handed out left, right and centre to corporates. Accenture is one which comes to mind in Poland.

It's all cyclical. When I am (shortly) LTD then I can hop over to Marriott or whatever. Truth be told, I am very happy with Hilton for the moment.

pinniped

I'm somewhere in the middle: close to 20 years of actual Hilton stay activity, would be a mid-Gold most years if it was just based on stays and there was no credit card path to Diamond. I can assure the road-warrior Diamonds that I am *not* getting suite upgrades, like....ever.

I have no real complaints. The modern HHonors isn't really an upgrade program to me. It's lots of properties, some decent promos, breakfast and Wifi when I need it, and some decent return in the form of awards. (Although it was easier two or three devaluations ago when it you earned fewer points per dollar with higher value per point.) There are far fewer bogus benefit exclusions like there are at Marriott resorts, Courtyards, and an increasingly-long list of regular city hotels. With Hilton, I know that at pretty much anything I regularly see except W=A, I have the basic Diamond benefits.

Adding more Diamonds, especially below me on that "Top Customer" list, simply doesn't affect me.

ozztraveller

My regular Hilton experienced alot of status matched diamonds over the christmas period but as you say when it comes to upgrades they know who to upgrade first. The only downside I found is the lounge can get quite busy.

The only group I see suffering is those who earn Gold and may be pushed out of exec. room upgrades due to the high number of diamonds who are status matched or compted another year with less stays than them.

pinniped

Aren't overcrowded lounges mainly an issue at a short list of very specific hotels?

Granted, I've been on a run lately of Doubletree stays with no lounges, but even when I'm in a Hilton with a lounge, it's almost empty at night and maybe a few people in there in the morning.

Internationally, the lounges are both bigger and more crowded (thanks to better evening food and booze), but I suspect they're less-populated with status comps than they would be in the U.S.

The worst crowds in the Hilton system are at Embassy Suites because it seems like many of them were originally designed with the seating and buffet throughput of a traditional hotel restaurant, not one where the entire property has access included with their room rate.