Ultimate Guide to Hilton Hotels

Hilton Stays

In general, Hilton Honors has made earning from stays very simple. The Hilton points earning rate is based on the amount of money spent, with the Home 2 Suites and Tru Hotels brands earning half of what others earn, as shown below. This is most likely because the 2 brands focus on the budget market so are not as rewarding.



General Member: 10 points per dollar
Silver : 12 points per dollar
Gold : 18 points per dollar
Diamond : 20 points per dollar

Please do note that like most other hotel programs, booking through third party like Expedia or travel portals don't earn points. There are also frequent promotions that will triple the amount base points earned, making stays quite lucrative.

Buying Points

My favorite way of earning Hilton Honors Points (except credit card welcome offers)! Normally, points are on sale for 1 cent per point but many times throughout the year, points are on sale for 0.5 cents per point, giving opportunites to redeem for Hilton hotels when coupled with 5th night free! There is maximum of 80,000 points purchased per account per year, but typically the limit is increased when the points go on sale. Also, Hilton allows you to pool points with other members, effectively increasing the annual purchase limit.

Meetings and Events

Earn 1 point per dollar when hosting a meeting or event at a Hilton hotel. The maximum number of points that can be earned is 100,000 points each year.

Dining Portal

Much like other programs, Hilton allows you to link a credit card to their dining program to earn Hilton Honors points on partnered restaurants. Note that linking a credit card to one dining program will usually unlink it from others. As Hilton points are not worth that much, I would advise against this.

Transfer Partners

All of the below transfer partners represent a poor value at the ratio they are transfer. At the transfer ratio listed below, I would highly discourage transferring.

Amex MR: 1 MR:2 Hilton Honors points. This pegs the MR point at 1 cent per point. MR points are worth at a minimum of 1.1 cents per point when cashing out through Charles Schwab Invest with rewards so this is not a good deal. However, Hilton may offer transfer bonuses of 1.3x-1.5x, which would bring the MR point value to 1.3-1.5 cents per point respectively. While not a great deal, it is better than the 1.1 cpp cash out rate.
Diners Club: 1250 Club Rewards to 2000 Hilton Honors Points
Virgin Atlantic: 10,000 Virgin Points to 15,000 Hilton Honors points
Amtrak: 5000 Amtrak to 10,000 Hilton Honors points

Everyday Partners

Lyft: Earn 3 points per dollar on regular Lyft rides and 2 points per dollar on shared Lyft rides. Would not recommend linking your Hilton account as you can earn more valuable currencies, like 2 Bilt points per dollar instead.
Car Rentals: Earn 500 points per day and 500 points per rental, up to 5000 points for renting with Alamo, Enterprise, or National.

Hilton Stays

Hilton no longer has an award chart but their awards can still be highly lucrative for higher end properties. The awards are categorized into standard and premium rates, where the latter costs significantly more in price for the same room. Standard rates typically price at 0.5 cents per point while premium is much less. Standard awards also have a maximum cap of 150,000 points, which makes some of the partner SLH hotels that cost over $1000 a night to be high cent per point redemptions. The next 3 sections offer some quirks of using your Hilton Honors stays.

Pay with Points and Money

Hilton allows for the flexibility to pay with a combination of points and cash, where the number of points can be reduced by 1,000 point incrememnts. Usually the cost to do so with cash is a hair less than the award CPP so paying in full with points will always represent better value.

Fifth Night Free

For Hilton members that have Silver, Gold, or Diamond status, every award stay with 5 or more consecutive nights will have the fifth night free. The maximum number of nights per stay is 20 nights, so a total of 4 free award nights per stay. Note that pay with points and cash will not trigger this benefit.

No Resort Fees

Award stays don't have resort fees imposed. Point cost represents total cost of the stay.

Points Pooling

Another way to increase your points is to pool your family and friend's points together. Members can transfer up to 500,000 points to another member and receive up to 2 milion points each year. Note that to join a pool, the joining member must have had their account for at least 30 days and have at least 1,000 points.

Donating Points

Hilton allows for donation of points through a program called points worthy.

Partner Redemptions

I'm going to list additional ways that you can redeem Hilton points with their partners but these all represent terrible value. The only time I see value in redeeming points this way is if you earn millions of Hilton points each year and you can't use them all.

Amazon: Pay for Amazon purchases for 0.2 cents per point.
Event Vouchers: Buy $50 event vouchers for meetings and events at Hilton for 0.2 cents per point.
Car Rental: Pay with points at Alamo, Enterprise, or National for 0.2 cents per point.
Lyft: Buy Lyft credit for 0.22 cents per point.
Ticketmaster: Pay Ticketmaster puchrases for 0.2 cents per point.
Transfer Partners: Transfer Hilton points at a rate of 10,000 Hilton points to 1,000-2,600 airline miles. Most airlines fall under the 1,000 range, meaning 1 airline mile per 10 Hilton points.

Elite Status Requirements

Hilton has 3 tiers of elite status after general members. Each tier could be earned with either enough points, stays, or nights in a year. Just like all major hotel groups, elite nights and points are only earned when booking direct or through portals like Amex FHR. It is my opinion that the easiest way to qualify for Hilton elite status is to hold a credit card.

Elite Status Benefits

As you reach higher Hilton elite status, the rewards get progressively more rewarding.



To me, the sweet spot would be gold, where you can receive the food and beverage credit. Other benefits I value are as below:

• Fifth night free
• Free Bottled Water (I know it's odd but I hate paying for water and some hotels don't have water fountains.)
• Space Available Room Upgrades (Although that is hard to come by)
• Executive Lounge Access

Lifetime Diamond Status

Hilton has one way to earn lifetime status. By being a diamond member for 10 years and either earning 2 million base points or 1000 paid or award nights, you can become a lifetime diamond member. To earn 2 million base points, this pretty much means spending $200,000 on Hilton hotels (excluding Tru and Home 2 Suites brands). Counting award stays is a pretty nice gesture towards those of us in the points and miles game!

Rollover Elite Nights

Any excess elite nights after reaching a certain status threshold will count towards the elite qualification of next year. Not particularly useful for those that earn Hilton status through a credit card.

Milestone Rewards

After reaching 49 elite nights, you can earn 10,000 bonus points. For every 10 elite nights after that, you can earn another 10,000 bonus points. At 60 elite nights specifically, you earn 30,000 bonus points instead. Honestly, pretty lackluster considering the other hotel program milestone rewards can give guranteed suite upgrade certificates.

Status Match

Hilton offers status matches from many other programs. The status match comes in the form of a 90 day trial, where if you stay a certain number of nights, you can retain that status for the rest of the year. The threshold is 8 nights for Gold and 14 nights for Diamond.

Hilton Honors

The no annual fee Hilton Honors is again, a great downgrade option, like every no annual fee cobranded credit card. However, I do belive that the card is probably one of the best no annual fee co branded cards. The card comes with automatic Hilton Silver status, which unlocks the Hilton 5th night free on award stays. The card also earns 3x Hilton points per dollar, or 1.5% everywhere (valuing Hilton points at 0.5 cents per point). Also, the card has a chance to earn a free night certificate as an elevated welcome offer a couple times throughout the year. All for $0!

Hilton Honors Surpass

Like all Amex cards these days, it comes with credits to offset the annual fee, but the credits for this card are pretty easy to use. The $50 every quarter could easily be used when purchasing a Hilton giftcard online. The card also comes with Hilton Gold status. I wouldn't value that into my own calculation of the card because I have the Amex Platinum and that card also provides Hilton Gold status. However, something surprising is that a cobranded credit card could actually be a great daily spender card. The card earns 6x (effectively 3%) on groceries, gas, and dining and 3x (effectively 1.5%) everywhere else. These are great multipliers for usually the biggest day to day expenses. However, the card also incentives spend. After spending $15,000 a year, the card grants 1 Hilton Free Night Certificate. This certificate is applicable to any Hilton Hotels worldwide that have a stand room award night. Since these certificates can be used for SLH hotels, which are usually retailing for $1000+, they are extremely valuable and a great incentive to chase with spend.

Hilton Honors Aspire

The most hyped up (and for good reason) of all credit cards, THE Hilton Aspire. The already comes with decently easy to use coupons that give $600 in value, more than the annual fee. The real perks comes with its other benefits though. The card grants Hilton's top tier status, Diamond status. This makes Hilton status the easiest to achieve, as you only need to hold a credit card to obtain it. The card also grants a free night certificate each year. As discussed above, this also will easily pay for the card's annual fee and more. This makes the Hilton Aspire card a no brainer and why it is so hyped up.

Hilton Honors Business

The Hilton Honors Business credit card used to be the business equivalent of the Hilton Honors Surpass card. However, in 2024, the card was reworked to have a different benefits, earning and annual fee structure. The card once again comes with coupons, except this time, it is $60 a quarter at Hilton. This incremental difference to the Surpass credit is actually quite annoying, as the Hilton giftcards could only be purchased in $50 increments, meaning you'll have to spend the last $10 in a different way. The card also gives Hilton Gold status, like the Hilton Surpass. The card's main draw is the 5x (effectively 2.5%) multiplier on everything. However, there is a cap of $100,000 a year and no free night certificate as a spend incentive. The catch-all multiplier is not too bad for those that value Hilton points highly. Unfortunately, the direction that Hilton took is quite puzzling. The existence of a cap will drive away high business spenders and for the average Joe, the lack of a spend incentive may cause them to look else where (like welcome offers) to concentrate their spend on.