More than three-quarters of their properties don't offer complimentary room upgrades for those with status, according to the terms and conditions.
There is no chance of getting an upgrade to a one bedroom suite at the property.
Lan commented on this post to advise that, and I didn't know that Hilton had this policy. Here is what they shared.
I am a long time member of the Hilton Diamond. My wife and I like to stay at mid-tier chains like the Embassy Suites and the HHonors, but we usually stay at theHampton Inn & Suites. If space is available for elite members, the official websites of those brands do not offer upgrades. This is a significant DOWNGRADE to the entire program.
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The front desk person at the hotel told us that we would have to pay for an upgrade at regular rates after we asked for one. He said that the change to "no upgrades for elite Honors members" was corporate-wide and not this particular property's policy. We paid an extra$40 for a regular room because my wife wanted an ocean-view room.
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I criticized the policy when I received the standard survey and said that it showed that the company no longer valued its Diamond members.
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A few days later, I received an email with a link to my Amex account.
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I don't know if Diamond and Gold members still get a space- available upgrade at some of the property operators, because they control their own inventory. What have you experienced?
That sounded odd, but it was true, the following statement was included in the terms and conditions.
The brands that do not offer complimentary upgrades are Embassy Suites, Home2 Suites by Hilton, Motto by Hilton, and Tru by Hilton.
This isn't a new change. The Wayback Machine sentence has been in their terms and conditions since December 14, 2020.
This seems like a bad policy to have. If Family Feud were to ask 100 people what benefit they most associate with hotel elite status, I would assume that the number one answer would be room upgrades. Guests with elite status won't get a room upgrade at many of your properties.
The terms don't have any kind of caveat like 'Room upgrades are subject to availability and/or property discretion'. It states that those brands don't offer complimentary upgrades.
It seems like the properties are being advised not to offer room upgrades. I sent Greg, Nick, and Tim an email to see if they had encountered this policy before.
We had this happen at the hotel last year. The supervisor came over to tell me that there were no more complimentary upgrades at the hotel, after I asked for one at check-in. He said it was at the corporate level. She said that they still had discretion to upgrade, but only in certain situations, and then caught herself after I asked what those were. I thought it was a local property trying to get out of elite upgrades. When I asked the team if they knew anything about it, they said they didn't.
One of the Hilton brands won't Honor(s) status by offering a complimentary room upgrade.
How many of the properties in the area don't offer upgrade?
My initial assumption was that this would affect about 1/3 of the properties. I was curious as to how many properties Hilton has worldwide and how many of them are affected by the policy not to upgrade elite members.
It is worse than 1/3. It is worse than 1/3.
Some existing hotels will have converted to other brands or moved to other chains as new properties are being added all the time. The numbers will be broadly accurate and so give a good idea of how many locations are affected.
The Embassy Suites have 257 rooms.
The Garden Inn is owned by the Hilton.
There are 2,544 in the city of Hampton.
Tru - 178.
The Homewood Suites is located at 505.
The Home2 Suites have a number of them.
The Hilton Grand Vacations has 55.
Motto 3.
There are 4,788 properties in the world. It has been found that over half of the properties worldwide don't offer complimentary room upgrades for members with elite status.
I am sure there will be people who don't like it, wondering why you would be worried about room upgrades at a hotel. Many of these brands have one bedroom suites that you can upgrade to, but the base room is a studio. Embassy Suites properties with two rooms have upgradeable premium room types that include free drinks and snacks, which are supposed to be refreshed every day.
The only place in the terms and conditions where they disclose that more than a third of their properties won't give you an upgrade is in that one sentence. One of the Gold status benefits is listed on the member benefits page.
There are room upgrades available. If we have a better room, you can choose it.
There is something similar for members with Diamond status.
There are room upgrades available. It is yours if we have a better room, up to a 1-bedroom suite.
Unless you stay at one of our 5000 properties where it isn't, it's yours.
It looks like Hilton is following in the footsteps of IHG by making their loyalty program less rewarding. Instead of offering free breakfast for Gold and Diamond members for stays in the US, you now receive a food and beverage credit which is often insufficient to cover the cost of breakfast at the brands for which it is valid.
The lack of room upgrades for members at the premium brands is seen as a bad experience by many members, while the breakfast policy at the rest of the brands is seen as a good experience. I will still be collecting their points, but it makes me less interested in sending money to them. Why show any loyalty when they don't offer a room upgrade to someone with Gold or Diamond status at more than half of their properties?
Is it possible that Hilton is honored? More like DisHonors.
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