Hilton offering free Gold status after three stays – open to everyone

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• What's the Point says:

  29 Jul29 July 05:59

  The offers available to earn Hilton Gold are far to easy vs the extra value it gets you (i.e free breakfasts and upgrades). Which makes me think that Hilton will devalue what Gold status gets you in the future.

  Although I can’t really grumble as a Hilton Diamond (from 30+ stays), when I have IHG Spire Elite status from just credit card bonuses and spend!

  • Tariq says:

    29 Jul29 July 06:13

    Historically it’s been easy to earn Gold with HH anyway. I could see a day when free breakfast becomes Diamond only and upgrades for Gold become even more ‘subject to upgrade’.

    Wondering if this can be used to extend my Gold status as I will not requalify this year and currently Gold until 02/16 – or will it only work if you are Silver or Blue?

  • Nick says:

    29 Jul29 July 06:20

    Every promotion Hilton promotes for Gold surely encourages people to stay in their hotels which generates more money for them so why would they devalue. My fast track to Gold some years ago has encouraged me to stay in Hiltons and benefit and enjoy their hotels.

    • mark2 says:

      29 Jul29 July 07:42

      I agree.
      In my view, however, Gold status is automatically devalued if it is easier to get so more people are competing for upgrades.
      I speak as someone who just got Gold for four stays in Hampton Inns using BOGOF points with 5,000 points per stay promotion.

      • Moonman says:

        29 Jul29 July 07:51

        I also agree, I don’t make enough stays usually to get a decent tier at hotel chains each year so I used a fast track a few years ago and had made me skew my stays to be at Hiltons booked directly with them. So I would say they have profited from offering the fast track to me

  • JoeShmoe says:

    29 Jul29 July 16:00

    They are devaluing Gold clearly so im hoping they give more to Diamond members, the lounges are increasingly busy (hard to get a seat in the ones in the UK i stay in)

• avstar says:

  29 Jul29 July 07:43

  surely something like this just screams out “upcoming status devaluation”? If not officially it will happen in effect as gold ranks get bloated and chase a limited pool of perks. anyone who is not HH Gold really should get out of bed for this one

  • Simmo says:

    29 Jul29 July 08:48

    Hilton always have something like this going on.
    If its not a Credit card promotion, or Business related offer it is a ‘membership’ buy in (think: Founderscard, Milepoint)

    I wouldn’t get too worried yet. Their hotel pricing in major cities is still one of the highest from the major 4/5 chains.

  • Alan says:

    29 Jul29 July 08:53

    Although remember they’ve given away Gold to credit card holders in the USA for years, so it’s not an entirely new thing – although given the generally rubbish to mediocre treatment of status there compared to Asia that not necessarily a good thing!

• Eddie mcdonald says:

  29 Jul29 July 07:58

  Also currently gold status but baby no 2 is on their way and wont maintain it by stays and was curious if i did this whether i would maintain my status for next year.

  • Guesswho2000 says:

    29 Jul29 July 08:05

    Should do, I knew towards the end of last year I was only going to hit 18 stays, so did the MVP 4x stay fast track to gold (as an existing gold), which changed the required stays to retain gold counter on my profile, and renewed status until 03/16.

• Justin says:

  29 Jul29 July 08:06

  @Raffles: Would be possible to extend the status until March 2018 by registering, for example, in December and completing 3 stays in January? Terms and conditions say that you only need to register by 31 December…?
  ‘Member must complete three qualifying stays within 90 days of registration. Registration must be completed by 31st December 2015’

  • pauldb says:

    29 Jul29 July 08:22

    I was going to say the same thing. Just need your final stay next year for potentially 9 quarters of Gold instead of 6.5.

  • Rob says:

    29 Jul29 July 09:11

    Very good point. I agree. That would work.

  • Michael says:

    29 Jul29 July 11:20

    New to the hotels game … Why would you need all 3 stays to be in January 2016 is the a cut off date for these ….. Can I do 3 x 1 night stays ?

    • Rob says:

      29 Jul29 July 12:13

      Needs to be 3 stays, not back to back at same hotel. If last one is in 2016, which means NOT registering now, status will run to 3/18.

      • Rochelle says:

        29 Jul29 July 16:51

        So can I register beginning of December and have last stay in January to get status till March 2018?

        • Rob says:

          29 Jul29 July 17:55

          Yes, will work if it goes as it usually goes

• Pid says:

  29 Jul29 July 08:35

  Will a stay booked via Amex travel count as I have a couple coming up?

  • Rob says:

    29 Jul29 July 09:09

    Probably, yes, unless Amex quietly bought the rooms from Expedia or another wholesaler rather than booking them direct.

    You may remember an article last year when a HFP reader bought a Delta flight from Amex. Whilst costing the same as a normal ticket, it turned out that Amex has bought some super-cheap Delta tickets, added a huge profit margin to bring up the pricing to the same as a regular ticket, and was then selling them. Except that these tickets did not earn miles ….

    • Jason says:

      29 Jul29 July 11:02

      I spoke to a Hilton hotel yesterday as I was trying to book a hotel for my parents and booking.com had it for £83 and Hilton website £119. I explained I was gold and I was seeing if they would match the on in website price. The nice lady informed me that they couldn’t but once I’d booked the room to call with my Hilton number and they would add it to the booking and my parents would get the free breakfast. I haven’t booked it yet as they are travelling from Guernsey and the new condor can’t travel in less than perfect wind conditions…….that’s ideal for a channel catamaran!!!! NOT!
      I’ll post it here if they stay and they get the gold benefits.

      • Jason says:

        29 Jul29 July 19:29

        Do Hilton have that guarantee?

        • Rob says:

          29 Jul29 July 21:29

          Yes. Deal is as Brian says – Hilton books the room for you at a 25% discount to the rate you found elsewhere. Not only do you save even more but, as Hilton books it for you, you get a qualifying stay with full points etc.

        • Jason says:

          29 Jul29 July 22:29

          Unfortunately I didn’t know that, however I booked the room this evening, online, only to get a phone call at home( Nottingham) from the Basingstoke Hilton and a very apolgetic lady, asking if I had just booked a room at the hotel, to which I replied yes.
          She then informed me they had no rooms this evening, this was 1 1/2hrs ago.
          Fortunately having realised I have a 100% IHG bonus I booked them a deluxe room at the holiday inn for 20k pts where the cheapest room was £125, deluxe was £155. Not sure what spire elite will get them 🙂

  • YL says:

    29 Jul29 July 13:22

    I could be wrong, but I don’t think it will count, unless you book through Amex FHR.
    This is because Amex travel usually buy the rooms from wholesalers, so it is usually counts as 3rd party booking and usually no points will be credited either.
    There were some discussion previously
    https://headforpoints.com/2015/06/15/hilton-hhonors-status-benefits-expedia-hotels-com/
    However, FHR will be fine as it will be book directly to the hotel.

• Saif says:

  29 Jul29 July 08:50

  I’m assuming this is for 3 different stays and doesn’t mean 3 nights in a row?

  So if I stay 3 different nights during the 90 days, will I still receive the gold status? E.g If I stayed on 3 different weekends instead of 3 nights in a row, will I still recieve the gold status? I want to do this but think it’s almost too easy then.

  • Brian says:

    29 Jul29 July 09:03

    Yes, it is 3 stays not nights. 1 stay of 3 nights will not get you Gold. Back to back reservations at the same hotel will be counted as a single stay so don’t book consecutive nights.

• kevino says:

  29 Jul29 July 09:11

  Do existing bookings count if in the 30 days?

  • Rob says:

    29 Jul29 July 09:58

    Yes, it doesn’t say they need to be new bookings.

• Fadi says:

  29 Jul29 July 10:21

  How?

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.