Sorry in advance for the title – couldn’t get it quite what I wanted! Yes, I know Hilton Diamond already has some great value, including automatic, space-available suite upgrades. But, there are two other situations that many may consider rare that can give extra value. Since you can get Hilton Diamond status with just a credit card, this may give you a couple more things to think about!
Two Rare Situations Where Hilton Diamond Can Give Extra Value
Hilton Diamond Gives 48 Guaranteed Room Availability
If you have to be in a certain city on a certain date, you may find that there is no availability at the hotels in the best locations if there is something going on in town. One recent instance is Nashville, TN this weekend. I wrote last year how this weekend was going to be very hard for Nashville Marathon runners as there is a perfect storm of events that could have been going on (the Nashville Predators lost their playoff series so that will not be going on).
Before the Predators lost this last series, you should have seen the availability for hotels in Nashville! There was literally nothing available!
However, if you have Hilton Diamond status, you get something called the Diamond guarantee that gives you this benefit: This is a Diamond member benefit to reserve a room with money at a sold out property more than 48 hours in advance (i.e. 2 days prior to arrival).
First of all, while this can be great, it will cost you! This will be a very high cash rate, depending on the rack rate at the hotel. But, if you have to be in a certain location, it is a great thing to have this option for booking it!
How to Use the Hilton Diamond 48 Hour Guarantee
Simply login with your Hilton Diamond account and look for the hotel you need! You will see an image like the one above that will tell you that you can grab a room with your guarantee. After you click it, you will see the price.
Hilton Diamond Protection or Cash for “Walking”
When a hotel is full, you may find that you go to check-in and are told that your reservation is gone. What the hotel will then do is to “walk” you to another hotel nearby.
Not only is that a big inconvenience but there are many reasons people choose a specific hotel – and that can include breakfast (which Hilton Gold and Diamond members get for free). When you are walked to a different hotel, you may not be treated to the same room you could have had at the hotel you had actually booked.
Fortunately, being a Hilton Diamond member gives you some protection against being walked. Hilton makes the rules about what should happen to a Diamond member quite strict to limit the amount of times this happens. Here is the policy for walking a Hilton Diamond member (from Flyertalk):
Member Relocation and Recovery
1. The guest must be relocated at other Hilton branded hotel if possible. The hotel must pay the full cost of the first night’s stay including any expenses incurred such as transportation and phone calls to family members and business associates.
2. Hotel must complete an online form and send it to Hilton to ensure that the guest receives the stay/night credit and all the points associated with the stay had the guest not been walked.
3. Hotel general manager must follow in writing and and apologize for the incident and and offer an upgrade and/or VIP treatment if the guest returns to the hotel for the rest of his/her stay.
Relocated guests must be offered BEST AVAILABLE accommodations if they return to the property to complete the stay.
Hotel must inform the Guest Assistance about the relocated guests.
If they do end up walking you, you also get $200 cash! And, yes, this just happened to someone in my family and they got the money and reimbursement for all the points used at the property (as well as a meal delivered to the new hotel they were moved to for the first night).
Do These Benefits Make the Hilton Aspire Card Worth the Fee?
By themselves, these policies/benefits are somewhat rare for most of us. But, if you find yourself in a situation for either one, it can make having Hilton Diamond status extremely valuable!
I wouldn’t get the $450 annual fee Hilton Aspire card just for these benefits but there are plenty of other reasons that the Hilton Aspire card’s annual fee could be worth it. It is a special thing to be able to get top-tier elite status within a hotel chain just by holding a credit card and Hilton Diamond can be really worth it!
Any Diamond (esp Lifetime Diamond) member will argue with this post – they do NOT always offer a 48 hour guaranteed reservation. There are many exceptions to the rules, including locations that are near special events – think NCAA college football weekends, Super Bowl, trade shows, etc. You can’t even get reservations months in advance. This false promise is my biggest disappointment with both Hilton and Marriott – they’ll tell you a Guaranteed reservation will be available but then there is no guarantee if the hotel marks the date as excluded. Sorry Charlie.
Great points, Edw3rd. I had forgotten about things around high profile events and, you are right, Hilton Diamonds absolutely have a right to be disappointed. I understand if they wouldn’t want to honor it for Diamond-lite members (through matches or credit card), but for those that earn it through stays, they absolutely should backup their guarantee. I will update the post with your good points.
I agree with Edw3rd. Hilton’s Diamond Member guarantees work only when Hilton feels like it. I tried to make a reservation for one night at the Nagoya Hilton on May 25. The Hilton website says it’s sold out for this night and no options were offered to me as a Diamond Member. But, if you want to book two nights, guess what… a room for 5/25 magically becomes available. Even more to my point, if you go to Expedia, you can also book rooms for these two nights at the Nagoya Hilton for US$200.00 / night cheaper. But even after calling the Diamond Desk, no room for this one night was available. So much for treating Diamond Members well.
Thanks for those data points, Bruce. While it has worked in my limited uses/searches, I completely agree that Hilton needs to do better.
I’ve been walked before as a Hilton Diamond and I can confirm I recv’d a $200 check in about 3 weeks from the incident. I will say that the process is not as automatic as they would like you to think. The hotel that walked me didn’t initiate the complaint to Hilton, I had to do it. And while I got my check, I never recv’d point or stay credit from the hotel that walked me. They did however, pay for the room and all fees (parking etc…) associated with my stay at the Marriott they walked me to.
LOVE Hilton! I’ve been Diamond for years and I feel that there’s little I could ask for that wouldn’t be promptly delivered. This walking thing says to me that Hilton is serious about its most loyal travellers … and I believe it. I am also top status at InterContinental, where we are treated about the same as everyone else, perhaps a “thanks for being platinum” or a comp bar drink. Occasionally IHG will surprise me, but with Hilton I’m always confident of being treated like a VIP. Thanks for the good info.