muji

My wife and I are, for the time being, Gold Hilton members. We plan to book 2-3 nights at the Rome Airport Hilton...but not via the Hilton webpage.

The Hilton page gives its Honors discount night twin room as $230; Hotels.com gives the same twin room for $166.

Our question is: Upon check-in we will ask for an upgrade as Gold members (not sure if we are entitled to one, but most hotels upgrade us since we ask nicely). Would the fact that we booked not on the Hilton page have any negative bearing on this? And, we assume, our free Gold member breakfast would not be impacted, correct?

Thank you for any advice you can offer.

storewanderer

You will definitely not get points.

As far as amenities per HH policy you will not get those either.

But many hotels extend benefits to those with status even on these third party reservations. But don't expect it. By not booking on Hilton.com you are essentially waiving participation in HH.

Better to try Hilton.com then go through the pain of a Best Rate Guarantee claim.

This is already discussed in multiple threads here.

diamond club freeloader

I agree with storewanderer in that you'd lose Gold benefits if booked via Hotels.com ... but to flesh out the advice above a little, I would suggest trying to invoke the price match guarantee before booking. It can be done after booking by providing screenshots but you don't know how that will work out. By comparison, if you test the price match claim in advance, and it fails, you can then decide whether you want to pay more for Gold benefits or just pay less cash via Hotels.com

To do this, Call Hilton reservations, tell them you want to book but have found the room cheaper on hotels.com. They'll check it while you're on the line and if they can see the rate (and it meets their criteria) they'll sell you the room at the hotels.com rate with a further 25% off. It takes about half an hour so use a freephone number and try to be calm when the agent repeatedly fails to find the rate you can see ... but be persistent! Definitely worth a shot ... best of luck!

jerry a. laska

Also see the following threads:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hilt...ird-party.html
Will my Gold status be recognized if booking via hotels.united.com
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hilt...y-website.html
Hilton Best Rate Guarantee or BRG

muji

Thank you all for the information.

I had vaguely remembered reading something about not getting benefits
if booking though a third party; thanks for confirming.

Kudosalert

is that $166 rate with breakfast? that $64 saving if you dont get breakfast everyday via your Gold status will pretty much cancels itself out.