Hiltons Honors has long been a second-rate loyalty program, at least to me. Yet, yet, Hiltons has managed to make the program even worse! How you ask? Well, I recently learned that Hilton prohibits upgrades at most properties.
For the past couple of years, the major hotel loyalty complaint I hear is how Marriott Bonvoy doesn’t upgrade members. That, luckily, hasn’t been my experience. There’s no doubt that some properties simply refuse to provide upgrades and that Marriott doesn’t enforce its upgrade policy. But, one hotelier is taking things to the next level.
Hilton Prohibits Upgrades at Most Properties
Hilton’s response to these common complaints against Marriott? Hold my beer. You see, Hilton took things a step farther by straight-up banning free upgrades at a number of brands in their program terms & conditions. Those brands include:
- Embassy Suites
- Hilton Garden Inn
- Hampton by Hilton
- Tru by Hilton
- Homewood Suites by Hilton
- Home2 Suites by Hilton
- Hilton Grand Vacations
- Motto by Hilton
That represents nearly half of all Hilton brands. But when you look at the number of properties in each brand, things get worse:
- Luxury
- Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts – 32
- LXR Hotels & Resorts – 4
- Conrad Hotels & Resorts – 39
- Tempo by Hilton – 30
- Upper Upscale
- Hilton Hotels & Resorts – 584
- Canopy by Hilton – 13
- Curio Collection by Hilton – 90
- Signia by Hilton – 1
- Embassy Suites by Hilton – 257
- Upscale
- DoubleTree by Hilton – 587
- Tapestry Collection by Hilton – 31
- Tempo by Hilton – 11 under development
- Hilton Garden Inn – 862
- Homewood Suites by Hilton – 505
- Upper Midscale
- Hampton by Hilton – 2,544
- Motto by Hilton – 15 under development
- Home2 Suites by Hilton – 384
- Midscale
- Tru by Hilton – 112
- Timeshare
- Hilton Grand Vacations – 55
Of the 6,100 hotels in Hilton’s global portfolio, 4,719 are included in the upgrade ban. That’s 77.4% of all Hilton hotels worldwide that elite members can no longer get upgrades at. Ouch.
The statistics are just as bad here in Hawaii where, of the 20 Hilton hotels in the islands, only five properties fall outside of the prohibited brands. These include the Hilton Hawaiian Village, the Hilton Waikoloa Village, the Hilton Waikiki Beach, and the Grand Wailea.
Final Thoughts
To me, Hilton has always been a second-rate program. Not only have their properties been underwhelming, but I feel like their elite benefits are also weak. And this ban in their terms & conditions just reinforces that. It’s one thing to have properties that refuse to upgrade elite members. It’s completely different to completely ban upgrades. I just hope other programs don’t follow suit.
H/T: FrequentMiler