Hilton Honors has the weakest elite offerings of major hotel loyalty programs. They don’t even guarantee late checkout, let alone promise suites, and the food and beverage benefit no longer covers the cost of breakfast at many hotels in the U.S.
They know this is the case and has been for a long time. And they’ve seemingly been on the verge of doing something about it for a decade. It looks like they’re finally about to!
- Hilton was surveying new Diamond+ status in 2016
- The Honors porgram tested confirmed-at-booking suite upgrades with a small group of top elite customers in 2019.
Conrad New York Downtown
They may finally be doing something about it, because their own internal systems now show a new Diamond Reserve status tier, as first reported by U.S. Credit Card Guide.
- The new elite level above Diamond “requires 80 nights per year AND $18,000 in qualifying spend”
- Color is “Black (in comparison to Diamond Purple)”
- There also appears to be “a new hidden tier called “Honor Society”, possibly reserved for hotel owners or invitation-only members.”
Credit: @倍多分
Benefits of the new Hilton Honors Diamond Reserve level aren’t known yet. However the fact that they’re taking inspiration from Marriott’s Ambassador level with a minimum spend requirement in addition to nights stayed suggests it should be meaningfully differentiated from Honors Diamond.
Crockfords, Las Vegas
It also makes sense to offer it at 20 fewer nights (and $5,000 less spend) than Marriott Ambassador. While more people are traveling than ever before, and the number of people traveling for business is back to pre-pandemic levels, the number of trips per business traveler remains down. The Monday – Thursday every week business traveler just isn’t as common as it once was.
Presumably Diamond Reserve guests will finally get suite upgrades and guaranteed late check-out with Hilton, although it’s not clear what any rollout plan might look like.
Conrad Koh Samui
Ironically, at the same time, Marriott has been moving away from suite upgrades, renaming their priority upgrade awards from Suite Night Awards to Nightly Upgrade Awards, resetting expectations for what constitutes an upgrade (that lesser rooms should be seen as the elite upgrade benefit) and even going so far as to eliminate upgrades to best room available from the program terms. When a hotel doesn’t offer an available standard suite to elite members, they aren’t breaking program rules any more.
For $550/year, you can be Diamond (with the Amex Hilton Aspire card.) Yet, yeah, I’ve noticed few confirmed tangible benefits; usually discretionary (if available, etc). So, for those that actually stay and spend a lot, probably a good thing for them to actually be honored, rather than just credit card cheats.