escape4

I see what you mean. The beauty is that with Starwood and Hyatt, you get both the individual point of contact, and the pool of experts as well. When something is not urgent, I always use my ambassador/concierge. When it's urgent, you are right they unfortunately do not work 24/7 so then you have access to their colleagues to help out.

Having the ambassador/concierge is the key differentiator between service levels at Starwood+Hyatt vs Hilton in my personal experience. I still stay at Hilton quite a bit so it's not a deal killer, but more benefits at the top tier from Hilton would increase in interest in staying more at the expense of other hotel chains.

Abidjan

Hilton Executive Diamond - with spend requirement. Putting my marker down.

htran88

I'll never be able to achieve it but there needs to be more distinct benefits from gold to diamond...or maybe another tier. I like the idea of parking benefits, maybe 50%, 25%, 15% off valet/self parking fees for top tier to bottom tier.

flyou10

Yes, either add a tier, or make a hard line between Gold & Diamond.

Get real tangible benefits like Marriott has.
*Guaranteed 4pm checkouts
*Real room upgrades
and so on.

formeraa

Perhaps you go to the airline model and put a spend requirement on it...but with a diversity of brands and geographies, that would be VERY difficult.

SFOdelayed

evergrn

30 stays / 60 nights may be easily achievable for corporate travelers, but it's practically unachievable for most of us who pay out of pocket. So my guess is that most folks who achieve Diamond on "real money" are corporate travelers. But the Aspire card is a means by which leisure/personal travelers can achieve such status. One might argue $450 is chump change, equivalent of only 2 nights stay, etc. Well, to me, it's a pretty hefty fee. And given the nature of the Aspire card, the $450 annual fee is only worthwhile if I stay a lot at Hiltons, esp Hilton/DT/Conrad, most esp those with EL, but certainly not Hampton/Homewood.

I spend 35~40nights a year at hotels, ~90% personal travel. Ever since I got Diamond via status match, >2/3 of our hotel stays have been at Hilton. As my Diamond status was about to expire, along comes the Aspire card. It's not an easy decision to throw down $450... well, the sign-on bonus makes it easy for the first year, but I plan on renewing barring major changes to Hhonors. And because of this investment, I'm going to continue prioritizing Hilton and will end up staying 25-30 nights a year with them... some might scoff at that number, but methinks that's significant loyalty. I'm sure the Aspire card drives similar behavior from many other non-corporate travelers like me. I would think that's mutually beneficial to us and to Hilton. But if Hilton decides to add some super tier above Diamond, well then that will almost certainly lead to downgrading of Diamond status and then I will then need to rethink my loyalty to Hilton.

On the other hand, the Gold status seems too good to be true, esp considering the marginal difference in benefits vs Diamond (particularly in the US where most properties don't have EL) and the low cost (was it like $100?) to achieve it. I'm not sure how much longer that tier will continue to exist with its current benefits.

Amelorn

I would agree with this. The minor marginal differences (better upgrade priority - in theory; guaranteed EL benefit) aren't worth keeping diamond beyond 31 Dec 2018 (for me). US ELs suck, to me, and I'd rather have my breakfast in the restaurant (better quality and selection). The latter isn't guaranteed as a diamond if there is an EL offering. Hence, I just got the auto-gold credit card.

geekboy

Maybe a status that is so difficult to get, they'll call it Unobtanium.

Delectatio

I (actually 'we' because we a are couple usually traveling together) have managed to reach Diamond purely on leisure stays for the last 4 years in a row (everything paid out of our own pocket).
It does take some planning I agree (loads of 1 night weekend stays, twice a year a 'mattress run' somewhere involving some hotel-hopping and some 1 night stays on points). We live half an hour from Brussels and we are lucky enough to be within a 2 hours drive away from some decent Hilton properties with executive lounges that are worthwhile. Both of us have 'normal' jobs with 'normal' salaries so we don't spend a huge amount of money to reach this Diamond status. Definitely doable...
As long as the Diamond benefits continue to be worth it (to us) we will try and extend it year after year...

evergrn

Yes, I don't doubt that there're some leisure travelers like you who're able to reach Diamond based on stays. If you live in Vancouver but visit Seattle 2-3 weekends a month for whatever reason and stay at a Hampton or HGI each time, then yes you could reach Diamond status for probably $4500/year or less. I'm just saying there won't be very many people with situations that allow them to do that. As a leisure traveler who travels more than average, but otherwise has a fairly conventional family life and travel pattern/purposes, I will probably spend >$6000 + some points each year only to come out with something like 10 stays / <30 nights for the year.

As I write this, it makes me further realize (at least in theory) why it behooves hotel chains to take care of leisure travelers. And perhaps the credit card (eg, Aspire) is their way to drum up more loyalty from leisure travelers. When I used to travel heavily for work, most of my stays were 1 night, max 2 nights, usually basic rooms at Hampton, Courtyard, Radisson type places. Now that I'm a primarily leisure traveler (ie, each stay tends to be multiple nights) with a credit card that incentivizes me to stay at their higher-end properties (has EL, potentially more rewarding if upgraded, better breakfast that's not free to the masses), I'm actually probably forking over more $ per year than a lot of business travelers who reach Gold or even Diamond status on stays.

flyerbaby19

I stayed at a homewood last week and needed a 3pm checkout and was denied. took begging and pleading to get 1:30. i won't go back to that property, but it did make me miss SPG.

i had an ambassador for 2 years. the first one was horrid. absolutely terrible. i asked her to do some research on which properties had a rollaway bed, and she said i could look on the website to find that info. ok, so i had my admin do it, but i thought that was the point of the ambassador. she never got me additional suites or anything like that even when it was a special occasion.

my second ambassador was super excellent. unfortunately, before i even started with her, i decided i'd take that year and move to hilton. a few months in, i reconsidered comign back to SPG as my primary, but I was too vested and lifetime status matteres a lot to me and since i already had marriott platinum for life, i decided to stay w hilton to go for lifetime. but that ambassador was awesome. she even sent me a present on my birthday and that year i probably did 10 stays at an SPG property. such a sad waste of a good ambassador. but one of the stays was a suepr important one and she made sure everything went perfctly.

if hilton had good ambassadors i'd love that. a group of folks together in a pool does not do it. that feels like the GS line at united. it's great, but still a significant notch below what i had with my good ambassador.

eponymous_coward

2-3 weekends a month is about 60 nights. $4500/60 works out to $75 a night average.

Here's Hilton's Q4 2017 report.

http://newsroom.hilton.com/assets/HW...gs_Release.pdf

I call your attention to Hilton's ADR spelled out on page 9. $144 on average in the US. Seattle is NOT a cheaper than average market for the US.

It's going to be pretty hard to get 60 nights on $4500 in spending unless you're spending a lot of time at Motel 6. I do my level best to find Hiltons at that price point, but unless you're in Nowheresville, Texas, or in Phoenix when it's one-hundred-and-fixing-to-die, it's not easy. I think I am doing pretty well when I am at $80-90, and that is usually low season

Bingo bango bongo, we have a winner. Thus we see Hilton give Gold out if you can fog a mirror. Trading some $10 breakfasts for $144 average ADR? That's a winning trade if you ask me. (And keep in mind that for a lot of Hilton chains the breakfast is already baked into the cake.)

wantan

Which is why I don't understand the logic of not providing better benefits at LOWER tiers.

Silver : Free Breakfast for 1 pax or some sort of "Sliver Breakfast Plate + Drink"
Gold : Free Buffet Breakfast for 2 pax / Maybe Lounge Access at property discretion
Diamond : Guaranteed Lounge Access

Why bother with complicated tie-ups with 3rd parties when you can control your loyalty program directly ?

evergrn

I think you're misunderstanding a couple of things. Diamond requires 30 stays or 60 nights. When I say a weekend trip to Seattle, I'm talking about one night (eg, Saturday night). 2-3 weekends per month is ~30 stays a year. While rates fluctuate throughout the year (lot higher during June-Aug), average rate at a property like HGI Mukilteo or DT Seatac is like ~$120 or 30k per night. With taxes included, 30 stays at such property would work out to ~$4500 or less for the year.