How does Hilton’s ‘guaranteed connecting hotel rooms’ feature work?

The inability to guarantee connecting hotel rooms has been a MASSIVE bug bear of mine. It is no longer such a big issue as our children get older and can look after themselves, but we struggled with it for years.

Is it really so difficult to guarantee connecting rooms? It seems so. Whilst an airline can happily run a seating map for every single flight for the next year, it appears that hotels cannot run forward room plans. They can sell a certain number of rooms per night in each category but are incapable of doing much else.

It isn’t just budget and mid-range hotels which struggle with this. In my experience, you are just as likely to have trouble at five star properties. One of the biggest benefits of working with Emyr Thomas at Bon Vivant to book hotels for my personal stays is that he will, if we have requested connecting rooms, call his contact at the hotel on the day of arrival. Hotels don’t like annoying Virtuoso agents because of the profile of their client base, so it gets done. (This isn’t special treatment for me, by the way. He will do it on your bookings too.)

Hilton has pulled off the necessary IT investment, and you can book connecting rooms at many hotels via the website.

How do Hilton’s connecting rooms work?

The trigger for launching this was Hilton’s new Motto chain. This is a new budget brand which “offers an expanded connecting room concept where guests have the ability to book up to nine unique connecting room configurations with adaptable furniture and modern design to create the ideal accommodation and social environment for group travel.“

Rhys was at Motto Rotterdam, the first Motto hotel in Europe, in 2023 to check it out and you can read his review here.

Once Hilton was forced to develop the necessary IT to link rooms together for Motto to work, it was relatively simple to roll it out chainwide for bog-standard pairs of connecting rooms.

This is how it works. Make sure that you select ‘two rooms’ in the hilton.com booking system and then proceed to book as usual.

You need to book at least three days in advance to take advantage of guaranteed connecting rooms.

When you select your chosen hotel from the various options, you will see a little box you can tick:

If you don’t see this, your hotel is not offering the service.

Tick the box and it will remove room types which cannot be connected:

You can then go ahead and complete the booking as you usually would, selecting from those room options which can connect.

Where’s the catch?

There is a small catch.

Offering guaranteed connecting rooms is beneficial for Hilton for two reasons:

• you need to book direct, not via an online travel agent which charges the hotel a high commission

• it gives Hilton a competitive advantage over competing chains

Despite this, Hilton has decided to cash in by adding a price premium if you choose connecting rooms. It’s not huge (£8 per room in my example) but it is there. Not all hotels necessarily add a premium but some do, including Hampton London Stansted Airport which is the one I used above.

Oddly, points pricing remains unchanged. It is only cash rates which can creep up.

You can find out more about connecting rooms on this special page of the Hilton website.

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How to earn Hilton Honors points and status from UK credit cards (October 2024)

There are various ways of earning Hilton Honors points from UK credit and debit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

There are two dedicated Hilton Honors debit cards. These are especially attractive when spending abroad due to the 0% or 0.5% FX fee, depending on card.

You also receive FREE Hilton Honors status for as long as you hold the debit cards – Gold status with the Plus card and Silver status with the basic card. This is a great reason to apply even if you rarely use it.

We reviewed the Hilton Honors Plus Debit Card here and the Hilton Honors Debit Card here. You can apply for either card here.

There is another way of getting Hilton Honors status, and earning Hilton Honors points, from a payment card.

Holders of The Platinum Card from American Express receive FREE Hilton Honors Gold status for as long as they hold the card.  It also comes with Marriott Bonvoy Gold, Radisson Rewards Premium and MeliaRewards Gold status.  We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here and you can apply here.

You can also earn Hilton Honors points indirectly with:

• American Express Gold (20,000 bonus Amex points)
• American Express Rewards Credit Card (10,000 bonus Amex points)

and for small business owners:

• American Express Business Gold (20,000 bonus Amex points)
• American Express Business Platinum (40,000 bonus Amex points)

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 22nd October 2024, the bonus on American Express Business Platinum is increased to up to 80,000 Membership Rewards points, worth 80,000 Avios. You will receive 8 points per £1 spent for the first three months, on up to £10,000 of spending. Click here to read our full card review. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 22nd October 2024, the bonus on American Express Business Gold is increased to up to 40,000 Membership Rewards points, worth 40,000 Avios. You will receive 4 points per £1 spent for the first three months, on up to £10,000 of spending. The card is FREE for your first year. Click here to read our full card review. Click here to apply.

The conversion rate from American Express to Hilton points is 1:2.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which can be used to earn Hilton Honors points. 

(Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)