Max Meissner, Autor bei Breakfast or Points?

Hilton Honors – 10min-Rocket-Guide for Beginners

Necessary commitment for optimal use of Hilton Honors:
Budget per night: min. 100€ (better 120€)
Nights per year: min. 60

Hilton Honors is a very good hotel points collection programme, with a wide range of 18 brands with various low-budget and high-end hotels. The geographical coverage of Hilton hotels is very good in North America, but in Europe more concentrated in large cities. From my perspective, the Hilton Honors programme is only the first choice if you very personally like the style of the hotels. However, for me the programme is only 2nd place after Marriott Bonvoy (see also my guide to Marriott Bonvoy), as it scores slightly worse in many aspects in a direct comparison.

There are a total of 4 status levels. Every registered Hilton Honors member is initially a "Member", the table shows the other 3 status levels Silver, Gold, Diamond. For every 1 dollar spent (other currencies are automatically converted to dollars via the Hilton-internal conversion rate), the guest is credited with 10 points and one night in the "Hilton Honors" account.
With each status level, which is dependent on the number of nights spent in the year, the number of points to be received increases. At Silver by 20% - so it increases to 12 points per dollar. See Table 1 for the other point increases. Late Check-Out at Hilton is unfortunately not very specifically regulated and is already available from status level Silver. This devalues the whole thing somewhat and it is also not really clear whether there are differences for the respective status levels and certainly not until when a late check-out is available. As a rule, I have always received maximum until 3pm with my Diamond status so far. A great feature is for longer stays that if you book 5 consecutive nights, the 5th night is free. For me, the outstanding quality and scope of Hilton's - hotel group-wide - breakfast is absolutely free of charge from status level Gold for you and a guest from the same room. Unlike at Marriott, this is also available in every brand without exception. Since 2022, there is the restriction that in the USA, unfortunately, only daily consumption vouchers are issued at most brands. Depending on the brand, these range between $10-25 per person, but can also be used for lunch, dinner or at the bar instead of breakfast. This has advantages for people who don't like to go out for breakfast.

From status level Diamond, Hilton Honors also offers access to executive lounges alongside Marriott, which are available in various brands (see Table 2, highlighted in red). However, my personal experience is that even in the main brand Hilton there is no good coverage with executive lounges.
In the Hilton Honors programme there is an additional milestone bonus, from 40 to 100 nights one receives 10.000 points bonus per 10 nights, with the exception of 60 nights, where you will receive 30,000 points.
A unique feature at Hilton is the option to once only extend your Diamond status if you don't reach 60 nights. To do this, you must have held Diamond status for at least 3 years (does not have to be consecutive) or have collected a total of 500,000 base points.

Important:If possible, always book through Hilton directly, otherwise the status levels will not be recognised and you will not be credited with points or nights. Use the company codes of your companies to get the correct price and not to pay too much.

Hilton Honors offers exactly one status level Diamond as a lifetime status. In addition to holding Diamond status for 10 years (can also be with interruptions), 1000 overnight stays or 2 million base points (i.e. without promotions or bonuses) are required. Achieving a lifetime status has the respective benefits of the status level for life (see Table 1).

Table 2 shows which brands are included in the Hilton Honours programme. Each brand has received a comment from the author for characterisation. The classification into the 5 categories Luxury, Up-Scale, Mid-Scale, Lifestyle & Hip and Apartment Style is also a subjective assessment by the author.

Luxury: Absolutely high-end hotels with high prices but fantastic designs, excellent service as well as high quality and extensive facilities. My favourite: Waldorf Astoria (absolute mega brand with top service and design).
Up-scale: Hotels with a very high standard, often in big cities with corporate rates/contracts booked by business people (corporate consultants, auditors, sales, et al). My favourite: Hilton (as often with lounge and a compact offer with gym and wellness).
Mid-scale: Cheaper alternatives, which bring a good "value for money", but not always very luxurious standard. My favourite: Hampton (because especially in Germany new hotels with good free breakfast offer [also without status!]).
Lifestyle & Hip: A category that has emerged more strongly especially in the last 5-7 years, here every hotel group has developed several brands and opened hotels. It focuses on Generation Y and Z and wants to give a hip cool experience that is clearly differentiated from the classic approaches. Small modern rooms, with fewer features (uniform room sizes, hardly any furniture), but lots of life, space and opportunities for gathering in the common areas such as the lobby (which is often converted into a breakfast room in the morning). My favourite: Canopy (very hip upscale chain, with Nordic designs in the room), Motto (1 hotel in Europe in Rotterdam) and Tempo are very young brands from 2018 that have only opened individual hotels so far.
Apartment Style: category that is strongly influenced by the USA and not yet very widespread in Europe. Created for long-term stays, you will find rooms with a well-equipped kitchen and sleeping area and living room-like elements, which are intended to enable self-sufficient living as in one's own flat. But the whole thing is also extended by facilities such as sauna and gym, as well as restaurant and room service offers. From my point of view a good case for management consultants, auditors or other business people who spend a long time in one place and don't want any more hotel breakfasts or every evening restaurant. My favourite: Here I don't have a favourite yet, at Embassy Suites I have seen many stylish hotels online. Basically, however, all apartment-style brands are very widespread in North America and partly in Asia. In Europe, in contrast to Marriott, Hilton does not offer hotels designed for longer stays.

Note for newcomers: Hilton is on the one hand the entire hotel holding company, but Hilton also exists as a hotel brand.

Table 3 lists personal references and subjective assessments of the author. The following categories are described:

Brand: Hilton offers a good selection of lower budget hotels such as Garden Inn, Hampton, tru or motto, but especially in Europe does not have the coverage as competing brands from Marriott, Accor or IHG. Hilton relies heavily on the Hampton brand, which is slowly spreading in Germany. Otherwise, there are many outdated hotels in the upscale sector at the "Hilton"brand in Europe, where no more investments have been made for too many years. If you are aiming for modern hotels, you should consider the Double Tree Hotels. The Luxury Brands such as Waldorf Astoria and Conrad, on the other hand, are without exception flagship chains. However, both Luxury and Up-Scale do not have very high coverage in Europe. The Hilton Honors app offers well-functioning basic functions for bookings and cancellations. Really good features are that you can request an upgrade in the app and also get the respective concrete status advantages for the concrete brand displayed (e.g. your advantages at Hilton Garden Inn as status level Diamond). Furthermore, in addition to the digital room key, there is the possibility to select a concrete room on the day of check-in in the app in a room location plan. As a final point, I would like to mention the website (hilton.com - not .de!, which is really terrible) as a positive aspect, you can filter very clearly and in detail in the hotel search and it is also visually very nicely prepared.

Upgrades: This is a very difficult topic with Hilton, here I have not really got through the strategy of the hotel group. There are neither suite night upgrade vouchers that you can somehow "sleep through", nor does Hilton really noticeable upgrades to great suites (even not as a Diamond member). Most of the time you get the room you booked and at most a higher floor as an upgrade. Feel free to post your experiences here in the comments.

Lounges: Executive lounges are most frequently offered in the "Hilton" brand (access from Diamond status level), but also in some other brands (see Table 2). In any case, it should be emphasised that - unlike the Marriott hotel group and its main brand "Marriott" -not every "Hilton" brand hotel offers a lounge. However, a big advantage is that you can filter the lounge in the hotel search for the lounge (see picture 2). Access is always for oneself and a guest (who must be officially registered in the room). In practice, I have experienced relatively few controls in the last 10 years. So it is a good idea to invite work colleagues, business partners or friends/relatives. Usually there is a free continental breakfast with 3-4 hot options (egg dishes, sausages, bacon, mushrooms etc.) in the morning. In the afternoon there are often cakes and sweet pastries. In the evening, you can expect a small cold buffet between 6 pm and 8 pm, usually supplemented by 2 hot dishes. In my experience, however, this is not gourmet cuisine, here often simple mozarella sticks, wings, nuggets or other not particularly high-quality dishes are offered (here there are very large individual differences between the various hotels - even within the brands). When it comes to drinks, there is a larger offer than just beer and wine and more high-proof spirits such as gin, vodka, whiskey or others are also offered. However, I must personally say that these are always somewhat lost / lovelessly positioned on a table and you don't get the feeling of a bar, as you mix the long drinks yourself a bit like at a flat-sharing party.
During the day there are mostly soft drinks.

Wellness: The wellness quality is mostly good to very good, especially in the hotels from upscale. The spa area often has a pool in addition to a sauna and steam bath. The best spa areas in Germany are in the Waldorf Astoria and Hilton Airport Munich and Doubletree Hannover - Schweizerhof. There are usually wellness areas on offer from the upscale category onwards, but here every hotel really has to be considered individually and no leading brand crystallises out.

Best Hotels: Here you will find an overview of my personally favoured hotels. The Waldorf Astoria in Berlin is an absolute high-end hotel, with great immaculate design. The other hotels listed are from my personal history, but without clear favourites. In Madrid, the Canopy Hotel with its very extensive breakfast has been a highlight for me. It offers a very cool rooftop pool that is very worthwhile, especially in summer, with the insane temperatures in Spain's capital.

Reward Nights: A very complicated topic is the Reward Nights at Hilton. You can collect a lot of points very quickly in the Hilton Honors system, there are also regular promotions for double points or similar. However, Hilton already replaced the hotel categories years ago and introduced a flexible points system, which is why there are strong fluctuations in the points required for bookings. The value of 1 Hilton Honors point varies between 0.2 and 0.8 cent (€). So there is no fixed conversion from points to € as with Accor, but there can be fluctuations of points required for a night in a room between 30,000 and 140,000 points (I saw this for example once at the Hilton Diagonal Mar Barcelona). It is based on demand, but sometimes it feels completely arbitrary in the concrete point requirement.

Marriott Bonvoy – 10min-Rocket-Guide for Beginners

Necessary commitment for the optimal use of Marriott Bonvoy:
Budget per night: min. 100€ (better 120€)
Nights per year: min. 50

The best hotel points collection programme for me is currently Marriott Bonvoy. Especially for frequent travellers who are not always in the same city. With over 29 brands, it is a very broad chain from low-budget to high-end hotels. It offers very high coverage worldwide on all continents. Through a variety of lifestyle and lower-budget brands, it allows point earners with smaller purses to earn reward nights at high-end hotels and enjoy status benefits there (for earning nights per year, every Marriott brand participates).

There are a total of 6 status levels. Every registered Marriott member is initially a "Member", the table shows the other 5 status levels Silver, Gold, Platinum, Titanium and Ambassador. For every $1 spent (other currencies are automatically converted to dollars via Marriott's internal conversion rate), the guest is awarded 10 points and one night in the "Marriott Bonvoy" account. With each status level, which is dependent on the number of nights spent in the year, the number of points to be received increases. So at Silver 10% it increases to 11 points per dollar. The other point increases can be seen in Table 1.
A very convenient highlight is the guaranteed late check-out (Gold 2 p.m., and from Platinum 4 p.m.), as well as the free breakfast (there are exceptions such as Courtyard and Moxy, which only give daily vouchers of $10 per person, which are usually not enough for breakfast).
From Platinum onwards, lounge access is also included, usually from 6:30am to approx. midnight, and you can expect breakfast in the morning and dinner in the evening. There is also usually a happy hour in the evening hours, where beer and wine are available. However, only about 9 brands in the programme have lounges (see Table 2) - but not always! With high coverage, they are present at JW Marriott, Marriott, Sheraton as well as Westin.
A final great feature is for longer stays, if you book 5 consecutive nights, the 5th night is free.

From the Platinum and Titanium status levels, you receive an annual benefit, with the most attractive benefit for Platinum being 5 Suite Night Upgrades. These can be used for hotel bookings before a stay and you get a choice of suites (or sometimes just bigger rooms...) for the hotel you booked, which would be available for the upgrade. The hotels do not guarantee upgrades until 5 days before arrival and then notify you by mail which room category will be allocated as an upgrade. On reaching Titanium status the most attractive options are a further 5 suite night upgrades or a voucher for a night worth 40000 points (my recommendation).
The Ambassador brings a 24h option for rooms as the only additional feature. This has to be requested before arrival and is a top feature especially for short trips with one overnight stay. The guest is provided with the room from the time of arrival for 24 hours (e.g.: arrival 11.3. 11:30 p.m., departure 12.3. 11:29 p.m.).

Important: Always book via Marriott directly, otherwise the status levels will not be recognised and you will not receive any points or nights credited. Use your company codes to get the correct price and avoid paying too much.

Marriott Bonvoy is the only programme besides Hilton and Hyatt to offer Lifetime Status Level. Here the requirements are quite demanding (Figure 1). Upon achieving a Lifetime Status, one has the respective benefits of the status level for life (see Table 1).

Table 2 shows which brands are included in the Marriott-Bonvoy programme. Each brand has received a comment from the author for characterisation. The classification into the 5 categories Luxury, Up-Scale, Mid-Scale, Lifestyle & Hip and Apartment Style is also a subjective assessment by the author.

Luxury: Absolutely high-end hotels with high prices, but fantastic designs, excellent service and high-quality and extensive facilities. My favourite: W Hotels.
Up-scale: Hotels with a very high standard, often in big cities with corporate rates/contracts booked by business people (corporate consultants, auditors, sales, among others). My favourite: Marriott (as always with lounge and a compact offering)
Mid-Scale: Cheaper alternatives, which bring a good "Value for Money", but not always very luxurious standard. My favourite: Courtyard (always large rooms, gym and sauna)
Lifestyle & Hip: A category that has emerged more strongly in the last 5-7 years, where every hotel group has developed several brands and opened hotels. It focuses on Generation Y and Z and wants to give a hip cool experience that is clearly different from the classic approaches. Small modern rooms, with fewer features (uniform [smaller] room sizes, hardly any furniture), but lots of life, space and opportunities for gathering in the common areas such as the lobby (which is often converted into a breakfast room in the morning). My favourite: Moxy (damn cool spirit, which is really fun for short trips or in a group of several people)
Apartment style: category which is strongly influenced by the USA and is not yet super widespread in Europe. Created for long-term stays, you will find rooms with a well-equipped kitchen and sleeping area and living-room-like elements that are intended to enable self-sufficient living like in your own flat. But the whole thing is also extended by facilities such as sauna and gym, as well as restaurant and room service offers. From my point of view a good case for management consultants, auditors or other business people who spend a long time in one place and don't want any more hotel breakfasts or every evening restaurant. My favourite: Residence Inn (high-end style with often cool hotel facilities like gym and sauna).

Note for newcomers: Marriott is on the one hand the entire hotel group, there is Marriott also as hotel brand.

Table 3 lists personal references and subjective assessments of the author. The following categories are described:
Brand: Marriott offers the best geographical coverage in my view in combination with a wide range of very affordable hotel brands such as Moxy, Courtyard, Four Points, AC Hotels up to absolute luxury brands such as W, JW Marriott, Ritz-Carlton and St. Regis. The Marriott Bonvoy App is good so far for the basic booking/cancellation functions. I particularly like the chat function with the hotel, which already works 1-2 days before arrival and replaces annoying phone calls. The digital check-in only works partially, you can get a digital key, but often you still have to go to the reception for signatures on the registration form etc., at some hotels the digital check-out is not yet really well implemented.

Upgrades: At Marriott, you are usually always upgraded one room category from Gold. However, this usually only means an increase of 3 square metres or a higher floor. For first stays and short stays (1 night), you often get significantly better upgrades, even to larger suites.

Lounges: You always have access for yourself and a guest (who has to be officially registered in the room). In practice, I have experienced relatively few controls in the last 10 years. So it is a good idea to invite work colleagues, business partners or friends/relatives. The lounges to which the status levels Platinum, Titanium and Ambassador always have access are very individually designed per hotel. As a rule, in the morning there is a complimentary continental breakfast with 3-4 hot options (egg dishes, sausages, bacon, mushrooms etc.). In the evening usually from 17:30/18h to 20/20:30h there is a small dinner with a cold salad and dessert buffet that varies greatly in size and quality. In addition, there are always 2-4 warm options (soups, but also very good dishes such as fish, game, etc., so not just cheap pasta or chicken wings - but there are also in some hotels). This is usually accompanied by beer and wine / sparkling wine. In some hotels, this often-named happy hour goes on until late in the evening (11/24 p.m.). JW Marriott, Marriott and Westin usually offer a very good standard here. Sheraton has a somewhat more limited offer and also not very high quality. Here I have the impression that over the last few years (also before Covid) a very strong austerity course was taken. During the day there are mostly soft drinks and occasionally bread / pastries and usually a few bowls with sweets (chocolate, chewy sweets, gummy bears, etc.) or salty snacks (nuts, crisps, etc.).
Important to know: If you upgrade to an Executive or Club room (designation varies) without Platinum, Titanium, Ambassador status level, you are entitled to lounge access.

Wellness: The wellness quality is very mixed and invidual in the hotels. The best wellness areas in Germany are at the Roomers Hotels (Munich and Baden-Baden belong to the Autograph Collection, Frankfurt to Design Hotels). As a rule, the classic big brands from the Luxury and Up-Scale segments have good wellness areas and gyms. In the mid-scale segment, you can usually rely on Courtyard hotels and usually always find a gym + sauna there. AC Hotels can sometimes also surprise positively here. With the other brands, you will rarely find wellness, but usually a gym.

Best Hotels: Here you will find an overview of my personal favourite hotels. The Roomers Hotels impress with a very hip modern style with cool features (e.g. bathtubs in the bedroom, free vodka in the icebox next to the sauna, stylish wellness areas, top-equipped gyms, top restaurants and bars). My personal favourite for a weekend with high-class wellness, mega breakfast and dinner in the Moriki restaurant and party in its own hip bar on the ground floor is Roomers Baden Baden - you don't even have to leave the hotel!
Another highlight is the Westin in Hamburg. If you upgrade to one of the Junior Suites here, you have a dreamlike view over Hamburg. The wellness area as well as the lounge are also very good and definitely worth a visit. Even though the lounge unfortunately did not have a view to the outside, but windows to the inside of the glass building - not really a smart solution.

Reward Nights: Marriott currently still has a rewards system where the point prices for an overnight stay fluctuate the least compared to other hotel groups. Here you can already find good hotels from 15,000 points (especially with AC Hotels in Spain, there are some highlights). A great feature for longer stays is that for bookings of 5 consecutive nights, the 5th night is free.
As a calculation example, at 120€ per night, this is:
- without status 12.5 nights
- at Titanium and in 4 stays already within 5.2 nights.
I will present how this works in calculation examples in later guides - stay tuned).