Hilton Diamond Status

So..my Hilton Honors Diamond card arrived in the post. Firstly this was quite a surprise since I have been Gold for the past 2-3 years and despite requesting mulitple times on the website AND over the phone - my Gold card never arrived. Ah well.

The benefits of the Diamond card are as follows:

Point Bonuses - 50% bonus on base points - nice to have.

Complimentary High-Speed Internet Access - this is theorectically an excellent benefit (also applies to Gold members) as hotels, particularly more expensive ones, love to rip you off for Internet Access! I have noticed a trend recently though for more and more hotels to include Wifi in the room rate, which slightly devalues this benefit. Still, I'd be annoyed if they took it away.

Diamond Reservations Guarantee - this is a great benefit if you have a ton of points, not so good for cash (unless you're a millionaire obsessed with staying at a Hilton). In theory (excluding some really busy times) you log on 48hrs before you want a room and Hilton will always give you one. This sounds brilliant, except recently I wanted to use this benefit on a 3* Hilton in the UK (normal weekend price £56) and it was quoting me £210 for the Diamond Override! So, I won't be staying there. Driving the price right up just makes the benefit worthless.

For points on the other hand, if its a low tier hotel, then the points price IS the points price, so you'll always get a standard award room. If you have points to burn, this can really come in handy.

Diamond Elite Member On-Property Benefits - these vary, but generally you can expect free breakfast (which is awesome, as it means you can always book the cheapest rate), Exec Lounge access (again awesome, more on that in a later post!) and some kind of welcome gift (Fruit / Wine / Snacks) in your room when you arrive.

If you're based in the UK and have to make a number of stays for work, I'd certainly going after Hilton Status if you can. I had Platinum Status with Priority Club as well and Intercontinentals basically ignored it, while Marriott status doesn't have as good benefits.

Every now and then Hilton run promotions and challenges for Gold Status for 4 stays in 90 days. Gold comes with much the same benefits (difference being mainly no lounge access / Diamond guarantee) so if you have a couple of stays coming up anyway, its definitely worth doing a couple more cheap stays (~£50) to get Gold Status. If a promo comes up, we'll be posting it here.