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Did you know that the Hilton Honors terms and conditions state that more than three-quarters of their properties worldwide don’t offer complimentary room upgrades for those with status?
I didn’t realize Hilton had this policy until yesterday when Lan commented on this post to advise that. Here’s what they shared:
I’m a longtime Hilton Diamond. My wife and I like all the Hilton brands but typically stay most frequently at mid-tier chains including Hampton Inn & Suites, Hilton Garden Inn, Homewood Suites and Embassy Suites. In the official Hilton website, those are among the Hilton brands that as corporate policy apparently no longer offer upgrades, if space is available, even for elite members. This is a fairly recent and very significant DOWNGRADE to the entire Hilton Honors program.
We did recently stay at a Hampton Inn & Suites, asked for an upgrade and were told by the front desk person on duty we would have to pay for any upgrade at regular rates. He said that the change to “no upgrades for elite Honors members” was corporate-wide and not this particular property’s policy. Because my wife wanted an ocean-view room we did pay about $40 extra for the room location, a regular room, not a suite.
When I received the standard Hilton survey following the stay I responded in part by criticizing the policy and said I thought this showed Hilton in some cases no longer valued its Diamond members.
A few days later I received a “Hilton case incident opened” email message, and today I received $40 credit on my Amex.
I’m unclear whether because individual property operators control their own inventory that some Hampton, Embassy and Garden Inn operators still offer Diamond and Gold members a space-available upgrade, or if that is now rarely if ever done. What has been your experience?
That sounded strange, but sure enough – Hilton’s terms and conditions include the following statement:
The following brands do not offer complimentary upgrades: Embassy Suites, Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton by Hilton, Tru by Hilton, Homewood Suites by Hilton, Home2 Suites by Hilton, Hilton Grand Vacations, and Motto by Hilton.
It turns out that this isn’t a particularly new change. When checking the Wayback Machine that sentence has been in their terms and conditions since at least December 14, 2020 (there aren’t any earlier records to be able to check).
This seems like an absurd policy to have. If Family Feud was to ask 100 people what benefit they most associate with hotel elite status, I’d assume that the number one answer would be ‘room upgrades’. Stating that guests with elite status won’t get a room upgrade at many of your properties is a ridiculously customer-unfriendly proposition.
It’s not like the terms have some kind of caveat either like ‘Room upgrades are subject to availability and/or property discretion’. It simply states that those Hilton brands don’t offer complimentary upgrades.
It seems like Hilton Corporate has been actively advising properties not to offer room upgrades which makes matters even worse. I sent Greg, Nick and Tim an email to see if any of them had encountered this policy before and this is what Tim shared:
We had this happen once last year at the Hampton Inn Outer Banks/Corolla. There were suites available and when I asked for one at check-in, there was quite a bit of hemming and hawing and the supervisor came over to tell me that they “received a letter a few weeks ago” saying that there were no more complimentary upgrades at Hampton Inns. Said it was at the direction of corporate. She then said that they still had discretion to upgrade but only in specific situations and then caught herself after I asked her what those situations were. I assumed it was just a local property trying to get out of elite upgrades. When I followed up with Twitter team they said that they didn’t know anything about it.
How Many Hilton Properties Don’t Offer Upgrades?
Based on the ineligible brands, my initial assumption was that this would affect about 2/3 of properties. Curious as to exactly how many, I did a little research to identify how many properties Hilton has worldwide along with how many properties are affected by this policy to not upgrade Hilton Honors members who have elite status with them.
It turns out that it’s even worse than 2/3. In fact, it’s even worse than 3/4.
The figures below won’t be entirely accurate seeing as new properties are being added all the time, while some existing hotels will have converted to other brands or moved to other chains. Still, the numbers will be broadly accurate and so give a good idea as to how many locations are affected:
- Embassy Suites – 257
- Hilton Garden Inn – 862
- Hampton – 2,544
- Tru – 178
- Homewood Suites – 505
- Home2 Suites – 384
- Hilton Grand Vacations – 55
- Motto – 3
That’s a total of 4,788 properties worldwide. Hilton has 6,215 properties overall which means that 77% of Hilton properties worldwide don’t offer complimentary room upgrades for members with elite status.
I’m sure there’ll be people who scoff at this, wondering why you’d be worried about room upgrades at a Hampton. However, the base room at many of these brands is a studio but they have one bedroom suites you can be upgraded to. Even Embassy Suites properties where each suite has two rooms have what would otherwise be upgradeable premium room types that include free drinks and snacks which are supposed to get replenished every day.
What’s particularly galling to me is that that lone sentence in the terms and conditions seems to be the only place where they disclose that more than 3/4 of their properties won’t give you an upgrade. For example, on the member benefits page it lists one of the Gold status benefits as follows (my bolding):
Space-available room upgrades. If we have a better room available, it’s yours – up to Executive Floor room types.
There’s something similar listed for members with Diamond status (again, my bolding):
Space-available room upgrades. If we have a better room available, it’s yours – up to a 1-bedroom suite.
‘If we have a better room available it’s yours’ – unless you stay at one of our almost 5,000 properties where it’s not.
Hilton sadly seems to be going the route of IHG by making their loyalty program less rewarding for, y’know, loyalty. Rather than offering free breakfast for Gold and Diamond members for stays in the US, you now receive a food and beverage credit which is oftentimes insufficient to cover the cost of breakfast at the brands for which it’s valid.
That breakfast policy offers a downgraded experience for many members at Hilton’s premium brands, while this lack of room upgrades represents a downgraded experience for members at pretty much all of the rest of their brands. I’ll still be collecting their points as they’re so relatively easy to rack up, but it certainly lessens my interest in sending any paid stays their way. Why show Hilton any loyalty when they refuse to offer something so basic as a room upgrade to someone with Gold or Diamond status at more than 3/4 of their properties worldwide?
Hilton Honors? More like Hilton DisHonors.
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Reading the agreement, I can see how it’s still enticing. As a follow up at a regular Hilton hotel, the desk offers a business card that keeps any upgrades to no more than 1 tier above the current booking. How was I able to see the card when I joined the program and began building Diamond status so I could participate in a free upgrade to a standard suite? Clearly that was the intent since issuing the door policy.
As bait and switch goes, that’s classic federal fraud.
Why book Hilton when there are so many better options? Well, the answer used to be Elite status and benefits. So, now that I have no real incentive my current bookings will be my last.
Cheers Hilton. I hope you get sued by the Feds.
Seems hotel brands in the US are chasing each other to the bottom!!
[…] terms don’t require 75% of its hotels to offer upgrades, I have no doubt reader DCS will comment that of course they are allowed to offer them and somehow […]
Another example of cheap Chris at work. The guy doesn’t comp the staff that cleans his bathroom, make his bed ect ect…… the company lost 750 million and he gets a 26 million compensation increase….who is on the board approving this??????
When you stay in a US property by yourself, list two guests in reservation so that you earn a double breakfast credit. Many times I use a couple of bucks only and leave the rest as a tip. That way they have to pay it out as cash. At EWR Hilton I bought a latte and gave the girl approx. $25 for tip. Since last year I only stay at their properties abroad where bkfst is still included.
I have been a Hilton Grand Vacation Club Member Elite Status for Yrs.I also have a Hilton Honors American Express Card I use to collect points..I recently saw a offer if you spend so much money by this date they would offer you a free weekend night stay at a Hilton..So the cut off date on the credit card was on that particular day..I paid off a large bill and made sure the company charged my card that day so I could receive my free night stay..Everything went threw on that day..I thought I had made the deadline.. I called Hilton Honors to book my free night and they tell me I did not qualify because it takes them 2 additional days to process the payment..Even though the reward was to spend this amount of money on your card by a certain date… This was a total ripoff..of not Honoring there reward program …. Like I said I have been a loy owner and user of Hilton .. They have become a company with no integrity what so ever.. I now will be using other Credit Card companies…and soon selling off my time shares I own because they are dishonest and donot honor there customers ..
Burned all my Hilton points last year. I’m done with them. This definitely seals the deal. How disgusting!
I’m done with Motel Hilton 6…..
I think you are right. it’s time to burn the points and move on to another chain. This is shocking because I thot diamond was always upgraded to the best available room
I’m new to Hilton Am Ex and one of the reasons I signed up was the possibility of room upgrades, like you stated in the article, I just saw that for gold weeks ago. Really annoying to find out now Hiltons is not honoring this.
You would assume 100 Family Feud contestant’s #1 elite hotel perk would be upgrades?! You were never poor. Normal people don’t even know that exists. Room service would be #1. Just a hotel that has it, and being able to use it.
Hilton don’t even clean your room anymore if you don’t stay 3-5 days and you are an Honors Member!!!
The getting your rooms cleaned daily thing went with COVID and is gone forever.
Hell i have been able to get ONE in over 15 years!! I had to beg the guy at front desk in omaha!
Also Diamond members are supposed to get a room as long as they give the hotel a 48 hour notice. Even if it’s sold out. At least that’s what they advertise. I must have called half a dozen that were sold out looking for a room the next week. Not one of them knew what I was talking about and said they don’t do that. False advertising.
I have definitely gotten a Diamond Guarantee room in the past. It is usually at their highest price tier. I didn’t realize what it was at the time, but they basically will turn away someone with no status who had a confirmed room so that the Diamond member is able to stay at the hotel.
I have never received a upgrade from Hilton properties and stayed 20 nights every time I ask we where denied..I just switched over to Marriott to try there program..lm a Diamond Member a long time I really feel that Hilton brand does not care about American Express card holders..
You will get it with Marriott. I am an elite member with both and I use Marriott far more frequently and always get a complimentary upgrade.
As a lifetime Diamond HHonors member, I have received many upgrades at all Hilton properties over the years. The policy may have been in Hilton’s terms for a few years, but I’ve noticed that hotels are now being forced by corporate to follow the rules. Several hotels have told me in the last couple of months that they will get in trouble from Hilton corporate if they continue to upgrade elite members. I’m now considering changing to a different chain for my stays.
Just book the room you actually want. So sad if u don’t. actually, I could care less. Again, stop being cheap and book the room you want.
It’s not being cheap. Perhaps you don’t understand what loyalty and status mean. Many of us have credit cards that are attached to these hotel brands and frequent them spending thousands of dollars. For that continued loyalty these hotels should honor their own program guidelines. It’s the reason we book directly with them, use their cards instead of simply booking through Priceline
Are you lost? Look around. You are reading a points and miles blog.
Been the case for a long time, but you’d often get an upgrade at check-in regardless. As a Gold member, I got upgraded to a suite at a Hampton in late 2020… not sure if their systems were coded wrong and asked them to upgrade us even though it was a Hampton, or if the front desk agent just decided to be extra nice. If it’s the former, I doubt that will continue, since they’re now automating upgrades (I’m sure THAT system is coded properly).