Hilton Honors is one of the largest hotel loyalty programs, with over 8,000 participating properties across 24 brands. I appreciate that the program offers excellent opportunities for earning Hilton points, valuable cobranded credit cards and multiple pathways for securing elite status.
Although Hilton Honors isn’t my primary hotel loyalty program, I stay at Hilton properties several times a year (at least quarterly due to the up to $50 quarterly Hilton statement credits on The Business Platinum Card® from American Express; enrollment required) and have elite status via a cobranded credit card. So, whether you stay at Hilton properties weekly or annually, here’s what you should know about the Hilton Honors program.
What is Hilton Honors?
Hilton Honors is the hotel loyalty program for Hilton hotels and resorts. It provides benefits and earnings on eligible stays at 24 Hilton brands, from full-service luxury brands like Waldorf Astoria and Conrad to select-service brands like Hilton Garden Inn and Hampton by Hilton. The Hilton Honors program also offers various ways to earn and redeem Hilton points, including some unrelated to hotel stays.
When you book directly with Hilton Honors, you’ll earn points and benefits based on your membership tier. For the rest of this article, I’ll assume you book through Hilton Honors (not an online travel agency or other method) when discussing benefits and earnings.
Related: The best hotel loyalty programs for families
Hilton Honors membership tiers
You’ll progress up the Hilton Honors membership tiers as you stay at Hilton properties each calendar year. Once you’ve earned a specific membership tier, you’ll enjoy its benefits for the rest of the calendar year in which you earned it, plus the entire next calendar year. You can also snag Hilton Honors elite status through a status match or as a cardmember of select American Express cards.
Hilton Honors member
Once you join the Hilton Honors program, you’ll be a member. The primary benefits of being a Hilton Honors member are:
- Access to book the Hilton Honors discount rate
- Waived resort fees when you pay for your stay using solely points or a promotional free night reward
- Ability to choose your room from available rooms up to 24 hours before check-in
It’s free to join the Hilton Honors program, so you might as well join now if you aren’t already a member.
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Hilton Honors Silver
You’ll earn Hilton Honors Silver status after you stay four times, stay for 10 nights or earn 25,000 base points in a calendar year. The primary benefits of Hilton Silver status include:
- 20% bonus on base points earned through stays
- Two complimentary bottles of water per stay at select brands
- Fifth night free on standard reward stays of five consecutive nights or more (up to four free nights per stay, and only when you book solely with points)
You’ll also enjoy Hilton Silver status as a cardmember benefit of the Hilton Honors American Express Card.
Hilton Honors Gold
You’ll earn Hilton Honors Gold status after you stay 20 times, stay for 40 nights or earn 75,000 base points in a calendar year. The primary benefits of Hilton Gold status include:
- 80% bonus on base points earned through stays
- Choice of a My Way on-property benefit on each stay (which may include the option to select a daily food-and-beverage credit or continental breakfast)
- Space-available room upgrades to preferred rooms (including up to executive floor room types) at select brands and properties, as determined at the time of arrival at the hotel
You’ll also get Hilton Gold status as a cardmember benefit of the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card, The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card, The Platinum Card® from American Express and The Business Platinum Card from American Express (enrollment may be required). You can also earn Gold status through the end of the next calendar year if you spend $20,000 on eligible purchases on the Hilton Honors American Express Card within a calendar year.
Related: Your complete guide to breakfast benefits at Hilton Honors hotels
Hilton Honors Diamond
Finally, you’ll earn top-tier Hilton Honors Diamond status after you stay 30 times, stay for 60 nights or earn 120,000 base points in a calendar year. The primary benefits of Hilton Diamond status include:
- 100% bonus on base points earned through stays
- Premium Wi-Fi access during stays at select brands
- Space-available room upgrades to preferred rooms (including up to junior, standard or one-bedroom suites) at select brands and properties, as determined at the time of arrival at the hotel
- Diamond status extension
You can also obtain Hilton Diamond status as a cardmember benefit of the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card. Cardmembers of the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card or The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card can also earn Diamond status through the end of the next calendar year if they spend $40,000 on eligible purchases on their card in a calendar year.
The information for the Hilton Amex Aspire card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Finally, you’ll secure lifetime Hilton Diamond status once you’ve earned Hilton Diamond status for 10 years (the years don’t need to be consecutive) and either stay 1,000 nights (paid and reward nights count) or accrue 2 million base points.
Hilton status match and challenge
Hilton Honors usually offers a status match and challenge to select elite members of other hotel loyalty programs. To request a Hilton Honors status match, you must submit proof of your status in another program via an online form.
If Hilton approves your request, you’ll get Hilton Gold status for 90 days. You can keep Gold status through March 31, 2027, if you stay eight nights within your 90-day trial period. Meanwhile, if you stay 14 nights within your 90-day trial period, Hilton will upgrade you to Diamond status through March 31, 2027.
Related: Complete guide to airline status matches and challenges
Hilton elite rollover nights
Hilton members with Silver status or higher can roll over qualifying nights in excess of what was needed to qualify for their elite status tier at the end of each calendar year. During the next calendar year, you can use these rollover nights to earn Hilton elite status (but not Milestone Bonuses or elite status gifting).
However, you can only use rollover nights for the next calendar year. As such, Hilton Honors calculates elite rollover nights to apply to the next calendar year as the total qualifying nights at year-end (including rollover nights from the previous year) minus rollover nights from the previous year and minus the number of qualifying nights needed to earn your current status. So, if you rolled over 20 nights from last year and ended the current year with 85 qualifying nights, you’d roll over five nights to the next year.
Milestone Bonuses and elite status gifting
Hilton offers its members several additional benefits based on the number of eligible nights they stay each calendar year:
- 40 eligible nights: 10,000 bonus points
- 60 eligible nights: 30,000 bonus points and the ability to gift Gold status to another member of their choice
- 100 eligible nights: The ability to gift Diamond status to a member of their choice
As mentioned above, rollover nights don’t count toward reaching these thresholds. If you earn the ability to gift status to another member during a calendar year, you must elect the other member who will receive the gifted status by Jan. 31 of the next calendar year. From the point you nominate another member, the gifted status will last 365 days.
Related: Airline and hotel loyalty programs that let you give the gift of elite status
How to earn Hilton points
As you interact with the Hilton Honors program, you’ll learn many ways to earn points. For a detailed discussion, I highly recommend checking out our guide on how to earn Hilton points. But here’s a quick overview of your options:
Hotel stays
One of the easiest ways to earn Hilton points is hotel stays. On eligible stays, you’ll earn as follows on changes to your folio from up to four rooms:
- 3 points per dollar at LivSmart Studios
- 5 points per dollar at Tru & Home2 Suites
- 10 points per dollar at other Hilton brands
Of course, as I mentioned above, you’ll earn additional bonus points on stays if you have Hilton elite status. Plus, you may earn bonus points through current Hilton promotions.
Related: The best Hilton hotels in the world
Hilton credit cards
Hilton Amex cards are also a great way to earn points. Here’s a look at the earning rates, welcome offers and annual fees on some of our favorite Hilton credit cards:
| Card | Welcome offer | Earning rates | Annual fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card | Earn 175,000 Hilton Honors bonus points after you spend $6,000 on purchases on the card within your first six months of cardmembership. This offer ends April 29. | 14 points per dollar spent on eligible purchases made directly with hotels and resorts in the Hilton portfolio
7 points per dollar spent on select travel, including flights booked directly with airlines or through amextravel.com and car rentals booked directly with select car rental companies 7 points per dollar spent on dining at U.S. restaurants, including takeout and delivery 3 points per dollar spent on other eligible purchases |
$550 |
| Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card | Earn 130,000 Hilton Honors bonus points plus a free night reward after you spend $3,000 on purchases on the card within your first six months of cardmembership. This offer ends April 29. | 12 points per dollar spent on eligible purchases made directly with hotels and resorts in the Hilton portfolio
6 points per dollar spent on dining at U.S. restaurants, including takeout and delivery; groceries at U.S. supermarkets; and gas at U.S. gas stations 4 points per dollar spent on U.S. online retail purchases 3 points per dollar spent on other eligible purchases |
$150 (see rates and fees) |
| The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card | Earn 175,000 Hilton Honors bonus points after you spend $8,000 on eligible purchases on your card in the first six months of cardmembership. This offer expires April 29. | 12 bonus points per dollar spent on purchases made directly with hotels and resorts in the Hilton portfolio
5 bonus points per dollar spent on other eligible purchases (on the first $100,000 in purchases per calendar year; 3 points per dollar thereafter) |
$195 (see rates and fees) |
| Hilton Honors American Express Card | Earn 70,000 Hilton Honors bonus points plus a free night reward after you spend $2,000 on purchases in the first six months of cardmembership. This offer ends April 29. | 7 points per dollar spent on eligible purchases made directly with hotels and resorts in the Hilton portfolio
5 points per dollar spent on dining at U.S. restaurants, including takeout and delivery; groceries at U.S. supermarkets; and gas at U.S. gas stations 3 points per dollar spent on other eligible purchases |
No annual fee (see rates and fees) |
I have the Hilton Aspire Card and find it offers far more value than its annual fee each year since I maximize its benefits. Plus, earning 14 points per dollar when I use my card for purchases at Hilton properties is unbeatable. But if you don’t maximize the annual free night reward and don’t fully utilize the up-to-$400 Hilton resort credit each year, the Hilton Aspire may not be the right card for you.
Related: Hilton Surpass vs. Hilton Aspire: Do you want Gold or Diamond status?
Transfer rewards to Hilton
You can also earn points by transferring rewards to Hilton Honors. Specifically, you can transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to Hilton Honors at a 1:2 ratio, meaning 1,000 Amex points could become 2,000 Hilton points. You can also transfer Bilt Rewards Points to Hilton Honors at a 1:1 ratio.
You can usually get more value from transferring these points to other loyalty programs, so I wouldn’t transfer my Amex or Bilt points to Hilton Honors. But, even if you plan to transfer Amex or Bilt points to Hilton, waiting until you’re ready to book your stay before transferring your points is usually a good idea.
Related: How (and why) you should earn transferable credit card points
Hilton partners
You can earn Hilton points when shopping or interacting with several partners. For example, you can earn points on eligible Alamo, Enterprise and National car rentals. You can also earn extra points at participating restaurants through the Hilton Honors Dining program. And you can opt in to earn Hilton points on Lyft rides.
Hilton Honors event planner program
Hilton Honors members can earn 2 points per dollar spent on guest rooms, meeting rooms and more (on up to $100,000 spent) through the Hilton Honors event planner program when holding a qualifying event at a participating Hilton property.
Buy Hilton points
Finally, you can buy Hilton points to boost your account balance. TPG’s April 2025 valuations peg the value of Hilton points at 0.6 cents per point, so you’ll usually only want to buy Hilton points when they’re on sale at a lower rate.
However, I frequently buy points and miles in programs I get good value from — so it’s worth considering whether buying Hilton points will provide good value if you don’t have enough points in your account to book a specific award stay.
Related: When does it make sense to buy points and miles?
How to redeem Hilton points
Just as there are many ways to earn Hilton points, there are plenty of ways to redeem your points. Check out our guide on redeeming Hilton points for all the details — including some low-value redemption options, such as redeeming for Lyft rides, Amazon purchases and rental cars — but here’s an overview of the best options I’d use:
Free night awards
The best way to use your Hilton points is usually to book an award stay for a standard room for five, 10, 15 or 20 nights. Assuming you have Hilton Silver status or higher, you’ll get every fifth night free when redeeming points for a stay of five nights or longer.
Hilton Honors doesn’t publish an award chart and uses dynamic award pricing. However, there seems to be an unpublished award pricing cap for each property. These unpublished caps have increased, and are likely to continue to increase, without notice. However, standard award nights currently top out at 150,000 points even at the most luxurious properties.
If you want a good deal, consider using the Points Explorer tool to see point ranges at various properties over the next 30 days.
Likewise, you can see monthly award pricing for a specific property by selecting “Shop by price” instead of stay dates.
Check TPG’s current valuations and try to get at least our valuation of Hilton points on your redemption. Although you can redeem Hilton points for premium rooms, doing so will usually not provide good value.
Related: 7 great ways to use 130,000 Hilton Honors points and a free night reward
Points & Money rewards
You might want to book a Points & Money reward if you run short on points. This way of booking lets you redeem any combination of points and money for a stay. For example, click through a few combinations for a two-night stay that would otherwise cost 90,000 points or $360.61:
You’ll earn points on the money portion of Points & Money rewards stays at participating hotels.
Pool or transfer Hilton points
Hilton Honors is generous in allowing its members to pool points with and transfer points to other members at no cost.
You can pool or transfer points in increments of 1,000 points up to 500,000. Each Hilton Honors member can send up to 500,000 points and receive up to 2 million points via pooling or transfers each calendar year. However, each member can only make up to six transfers to other accounts and up to six points pooling transactions each calendar year.
Finally, new Hilton Honors members can only pool, transfer or receive points 30 or more days after enrollment if they have account activity. Otherwise, they must wait at least 90 days after enrollment to pool, transfer or receive points without account activity.
Related: Family points pooling: How to transfer and maximize your rewards
Hilton Honors Experiences
One of my favorite ways to redeem Hilton points has been for Hilton Honors Experiences. I got a great deal on massages and dinner for two in India through Hilton Honors Experiences, and I periodically check to see whether any experiences are appealing in my upcoming destinations. Be sure to check the paid rates, when available, before booking to determine whether redeeming points for the experience will provide good value.
Related: The best credit cards to maximize your charitable donation
Bottom line
The Hilton Honors program offers easy-to-earn status via its credit cards and ample opportunities to earn many points. However, getting good value when redeeming Hilton points can be difficult, and many of the elite benefits aren’t well defined. As such, you may have some wonderful stays as a high-tier elite member, but you may also have some stays where elite status doesn’t provide many incremental perks.
For rates and fees of the Hilton Amex, click here.
For rates and fees of the Hilton Surpass, click here.
For rates and fees of the Hilton Business Amex, click here.
