Frequent Miler on the Air - How Hilton can win our loyalty | Coffee Break Ep44 | 2-4-25

Episode Date: February 4, 2025

We love how Hilton incorporates partners like SLH and Autocamp for example. But there are things we don't love about Hilton too. Today we'll talk about the ways they could win our loyalty. (00:00) - We love how Hilton incorporates partners: SLH and Autocamp for example (00:25) - But here's what we don't love... (04:18) - Greg's suggestions for Hilton (05:04) - Hilton's meaningful milestone benefits start way too late (at 40 nights) (06:36) - Milestone benefits of early check-in certificates would really wow us Visit https://frequentmiler.com/subscribe to get updated on in-depth points and miles content like this, and don’t forget to like and follow us on social media. Music Credit – Beach Walk by Unicorn Heads

Welcome to Coffee Break, where we focus on a single topic related to miles and points. And each Coffee Break is limited to 20 minutes or less, or your money back. On today's Coffee Break, we're going to talk about how Hilton can win our loyalty. Now you might think that they've already won our loyalty because we've talked about on the show a number of times how much we love how they've incorporated SLH, Small Luxury Hotels of the World, into their program, allowing fifth night free awards, allowing the free night certificates to be used, and so many amazing properties. And they did the same with AutoCamp and other partnerships. But there's actually quite a few things in the program we don't love. Yeah, I mean, first and foremost, there's not really a meaningful incentive to spend a lot

of nights at Hilton properties. It's easy enough to get elite status from credit cards without having to stay at a hotel at all. And there aren't really any meaningful milestone benefits. The first milestone benefit you hit is after you've spent 40 nights at Hilton properties, you get 10,000 Hilton points. And, you know, 10,000 Hilton points, they put their points on sale for half a cent each pretty often. So that's like $50 worth of points after 40 nights spent at Hilton properties. And then at 60 nights, you'll get 30,000 points. That's another $150 worth of points. So, you know, altogether, you spend 60 nights at Hilton's, they're going to give you a rebate worth about 200 bucks. That's just not enough incentive. And it's not particularly

meaningful, especially for somebody who's actually staying that many nights probably built up a decent chunk of Hilton points where 10 or 30,000 is not probably moving the needle for them to pick Hilton over other options. And of course, we're missing some of those incentives that are really common with other programs. For instance, there's no guaranteed late checkout with Hilton. Now, Marriott and Hyatt both offer 4pm for high level elites, Marriott Platinum and above gets 4pm checkout, Hyatt Globalist gets 4pm checkout, Hyatt even offers a 2pm checkout to lowly discoverists. All you need is the Hyatt World of Hyatt credit card to have discoverer status, and you get a guaranteed 2pm checkout to lowly discoverists. All you need is the Hyatt world of high credit card to have discover a status and you get a guaranteed 2pm late checkout with Hilton. There just is no

guarantee. It doesn't matter what level of status you have. And you're sure you can ask for a late checkout. But even as a Hilton diamond member at a Hampton Inn, the one time I really needed a late checkout, they just wouldn't extend one to me. And so you know, that's that's a bummer as a high level Hilton elite that you have no way to do that. So that's a glaring hole to me. Furthermore, there's no suite upgrade certificates, whereas both Marriott and Hyatt provide an IHG also provide pathways to earn suite upgrade certificates that you can apply to your stays and they work in various different ways amongst the different chains. But all of them give you the opportunity after you've shown the loyalty of X number of nights,

you get an upgrade award of some sort that you can potentially use to upgrade to a suite. And Hilton doesn't offer anything comparable. Yeah. For all of those reasons that Nick just mentioned, I've grown to love Hilton because of a Hyatt or Marriott or whatever, because I can get all those great things without staying extra at Hilton hotels. So I have a suggestion. Before you even do that, I have a real world example. Next week where I have equal opportunities to stay at a Hilton or at a Hyatt.

And with top tier status in both programs, I'm looking at the Hyatt, I'm going to get free breakfast, I'm going to get free parking, I'm not going to pay a resort fee, whether I pay cash or I pay with points, and I'm going to get a 4pm late checkout. With Hilton, I get none of those things. I'd have to pay for parking, I'd have to pay the resort fee if I book a paid stay. And I'm, you know, I'm going to have to pay for parking. So it's just very easily. You do get a credit for breakfast, but you don't, or for any meal you want, if it's in the US that you're talking about. Correct. Yes. It's a, up to a $25 food and beverage credit brand dependent. In this case, I was looking at a double tree property and I don't know what the credit is there,

but I can almost guarantee that it wouldn't cover breakfast at the property that I was looking at. So that's a bummer. Yeah, absolutely. So I have a suggestion. And even though I don't like what they did with their breakfast benefit, I'm not going to try to change that. I know there's a lot of people that like the new thing where in the US you get credit, food and beverage credit, to use anytime instead of just breakfast. There's a lot of people that dislike it like me, but fine, keep that if you want to. But here's what I think you should do, Hilton. I think you should create meaningful milestones. I think they should be things like late checkout certificates. And you know what?

You could do it. You could do like 2 p.m. late checkout certificates that you get at like 10 nights. And then you could do 4 p.m. late checkouts that you get later on as you get more and more nights. The thing is, Hilton, you need to offer a carrot that's like earlier on. When you start these carrots, as you do now at 40 nights, like I and virtually everyone else is just going to look at it and say, well, I'm never going to get there. Why would I bother switching a few nights here and there to Hilton when I'm not going to reach that 40 nights anyway? But if you start at 10 nights, then maybe we'd be looking at, oh, okay, I have a chance of getting those 10 nights,

so I'll get something there. So start your meaningful milestones at 10 nights and introduce late checkout certificates as a type of milestone. I think that would be a cool way to do that. Sweet upgrade certificates. I mean, we've asked for this many times, but this is something that to keep up with the others, you need to offer. And so offer it as a milestone benefit. Ideally, model it off of Hyatt or at least off of how IHD does it. Please don't model it off of how Marriott does it. We don't like their upgrade certificates, how they do them. But both Hyatt and IHD provide ways that you can apply them in advance and be guaranteed a suite ahead of time, which is what we're really looking for here. And you know what, Hilton, I understand too, if these things I'm saying like

can't be applied to SLH properties or other partners, I mean, I would love for them to be able to be, but we would be okay with it. If like, you're're like these only apply to hilton itself we would understand that now i have one like killer thing here's what you could do to really differentiate yourself from the other chains is offer milestone benefits of early check-in certificates i'm thinking like yeah i'm thinking like you know a certificate that lets you be guaranteed that you could check into a hotel at like 10 a.m., for example. And so the idea is this isn't available to all, you know, high level elites. It's just something that you earn along the way as a milestone benefit. And then I guarantee you when I fly to Europe, I always land early in the morning.

I want to check into a hotel right away. I'm going to be picking Hilton every time in that situation. And I think everybody who is, you know, flying such that they're landing early and want to check into a hotel right away is going to look at Hilton as like, wow, that's something, if I can guarantee that, that would be fabulous. So that's what I want to see you do. If you want to also add ways that credit card holders, either through spend or just having cards, can make their way towards milestone benefits, that would be cool, like the way Hyatt and Marriott do, but not required to make all of this work. Let me say it that way.

Yeah, I mean, I think this would be a really good idea. I think the key, like Greg is saying, is that it has to start at a low enough threshold that there's something meaningful after a reasonable number of nights, and then it has to continue to build. I think Hyatt's really knocked it out of the park in this way, in that there's a reason to reach for each 10-night stretch along the way. And you know, I look at Hilton, for instance, and I have seven nights booked at Hilton properties later this year, I have a five night stay that I need coming up. If there were some valuable milestone at 10 nights, something like a late checkout certificate that I want to be able to have for a day when I'm

going to need it, I that would tip the balance in favor of the Hilton property for me. But right now, there's no reason for me to pick the Hilton property. Yeah, I can earn some Hilton points. That's like, that's it. It's just earning points, which don't get me wrong. I love my points. But I would like to be able to get some ancillary benefits along the way. And if I'm going to continue to stay at Hilton properties, or choose Hilton over other other competitors, there has to be a reason something more meaningful than only the points for me to reach for to put those nights in Hilton instead of in Hyatt or Marriott or wherever else. So it would be great to have meaningful milestone benefits. And I think the

idea of the early check-in certificates is a really smart one that would probably get people to reach for that next level and say, you know what, that's something that may come in useful on the day that it does. I'll be really glad that I have it. And, you know, of course, not everybody's going to use the milestone benefits that they earn. But I think it's something that would be really valuable to offer. So I'll agree with you there. I think that's a great idea. Hilton, I hope you're listening. Yeah, me too. And for everyone listening, let us know what would drive the needle for you. What would make you stay more at Hilton Hotels? Or did I nail it?

Would you be happy with what I outlined here? Let us know in the comments. Don't forget, if you've enjoyed this and you'd like to get on our email list, you want to go to frequentmiler.com slash subscribe to join our email list. Follow us on all the various social media and check out our Frequent Miler on the Air episodes dropping every Friday.