As a front desk agent, it does not take much for me to upgrade guests for free. 90% of the interactions are the same but the 10% of guests who take the time to know who I am, if the upgrade is available, I’m going to give it to them complimentary. Keep this in mind next time you’re checking into a hotel.
Hi everyone,
I hit Hilton Diamond status about 6 months ago and I currently have 295K points saved up.
I’m planning a 15-day trip to Japan, visiting Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka. I want to make the absolute most out of my points and Diamond benefits during this trip.
Which specific hotels would you recommend in these cities to get the best value for points?
Where have you experienced the best Diamond perks (upgrades, executive lounges, breakfasts) in these areas?
What’s the best strategy to stretch my 295k points for a 15-day itinerary?
(Should I use them all on one luxury property like a Conrad or LXR, or spread them out?)
Thanks in advance for your recommendations!
Time for a little Wednesday story time!
I checked into a Hampton Inn on Monday evening for a business trip to Canada. The property seemed pretty normal, maybe a little more dated than usual but otherwise seemed decent. It’s located off of a major highway in a commercial district next to a BMW dealership.
The next morning, I went out to the parking lot and noticed a handful of the cars in the lot had wheel locks on their tires. I automatically assumed they were for parking enforcement and went about my day.
When I returned to the hotel later that evening, I noticed some new cars had turned up and they also had wheel locks on their wheels.
I did a quick search for Google reviews and found a staggering number of people claiming their cars were stolen from the hotel parking lot. Over 20+ 1 star reviews stating their cars were stolen over the past 2 years. The most recent report of a stolen vehicle from that lot was just last week!
It turns out, the hotel staff actually hand out the wheel locks for guests to use to prevent theft. I’ve never heard of this and I’m baffled.
Needless to say, last night was my last night at that location. I’ve moved to a much nicer Homewood.
TLDR: Hotel staff gives out wheel locks to guests due to the frequency of car theft at the location.
NEW SUBS ON HILTON CARDS FROM MAY 20 TO JULY 29, 2026:
• Hilton Honors American Express Card: Eligible Card Members can earn 100K Bonus Points and a $100 Statement Credit after spending $2,000 on eligible purchases on the Card within the first six months of Card Membership (Terms apply).
• Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card: Eligible Card Members can earn 130K Bonus Points after spending $3,000 on eligible purchases on the Card within the first six months of Card Membership (Terms apply). Plus, they can enjoy a $0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $150 annually (Rates and Fees).
• Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card: Eligible Card Members can earn 175K Bonus Points after spending $6,000 on eligible purchases on the Card within the first six months of Card Membership (Terms apply).
• Hilton Honors American Express Business Card: Eligible Card Members can earn 130K Bonus Points after spending $8,000 on eligible purchases on the Card within the first six months of Card Membership (Terms apply). Plus, they can enjoy a $0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $195 annually (Rates and Fees).
HH Aspire 175k after $6k in 6 months
HH Surpass 130k after $3k in 6 months
Basic HH 100k and $100 statement credit after $2k in 6 months
No new Business card NLL that I can find but here’s the public offer
130k after $8k in 6 months
I just got the hilton honors no annual fee card which got me silver status. So do I need to spend 6000 or 4500 on any purchase to get gold status?
Does anyone know what’s going on with the Hhonors app??
Last 3 months or so I’m having issues logging. Customer service denies there any issues but I’ve reset password, I’ve even changed phones in the last 3 months and still getting error messages when I try and log in.
Hi, my husband and I booked a reservation through Expedia and it’s under his name. I made a Hilton honors account so I could link the reservation to the app but that account is under my name. I should have put his name on the Hilton account so it matches but I wasn’t thinking. Whose name do we give at check in? The name that was booked with Expedia?
My wife is traveling for work and staying alone at a Hilton property and at just after 1am was awakened by someone attempting to force themselves into the room. She luckily had the latch flipped. The man began banging on the door. She yelled some obscenities at him and rushed the door to slam it shut. The man stood outside the door for a few minutes and she could hear him but not sure what he was saying.
She immediately called the front desk and there was no answer. She called the emergency line and it directed her to 911 but she is in a large city and figured that was not going to do much good so kept trying the front desk.
While doing so she called me and while we were on the phone the front desk called back up and told her it was security checking to see if someone was in the room.
I’m calling bullcrap on this and not entirely sure it wasn’t the same person who tried to enter that called from the front desk. Why not just call to check and why then hell do you do this at 1am?
She is mortified and has to stay there tonight. I’ve suggested she ask for a different room and make a major stink with management.
Is this at all normal for a Hilton let alone any hotel? What do you guys recommend we do?
Update: she reported it to the front desk this morning and they seemed mortified. The GM is supposed to arrive at 0945 and call her.
Another update: 12:58 PST.- still no call from the gm at the hotel. She did send me a screenshot from front desk last night. I’ll try to post it in here.
FINAL UPDATE:
This all makes more sense now. So she talked to the GM. Here is what went down
Wife checked in for her room on the app but showed up earlier than check in time and the room wasn’t available so she just took whatever was available. This lead to them not knowing exactly what room she was in.
They were attempting to see if room was available. They said they called three times and she did not answer. The staff member didn’t think anyone was in there when he opened and hit the latch flip deal.
So apparently it was just a misunderstanding and she slept thru the phone calls.
I still don’t know why a hotel would call and wake a guest up after midnight to check on a room but at least it wasn’t a creeper. They are giving her points but she’s normally Marriott anyway so doubt she uses them.
Since the hilton in Tokyo city are very expensive, and that will be my second time in the city, I was thinking to stay in Yokohama. Did anyone try the garden inn or hilton there?
-Hilton Garden Inn Claridge
-DoubleTree by Hilton Rome Monti
-Cosmopolitan Rome Colosseum, Tapestry Collection
All the same price. Anyone stayed in any or all 3 and can recommend one?
Every time I earn a free night reward with my credit card, I get excited, like a fool.
Every time I start to plan a trip and check the availability for using a free night reward at a special property by calling the Diamond agent to redeem it, I'm told that property is sold out of standard rooms that night, which means I cannot redeem the reward night. There are upgraded rooms available, of course, but the free night reward cannot be used to book one of those. As a Diamond member, if I booked a standard room and there were upgrades available, I would be upgraded automatically, but I cannot redeem this reward because the standard rooms are sold out. (I'm starting to doubt they're really sold out. I think some hotels just block out dates when they accept them.)
This is such a frustrating policy and makes me want to cancel my AMEX each time. Then, like an idiot, I keep using it and earn another reward, only to have the same experience.
Found this offer on my Surpass. Good for those of us who use the Surpass as our daily driver to hit the $15k for the FNC.
>Earn 21,000 additional Hilton Honors Bonus Points after using your enrolled eligible Card to spend a minimum of $4,500 in one or more qualifying purchases, within 90 days after adding the offer, up to 3 times.
If you don't see it, try adding a bunch of offers (I like to sort by expiration and add the ones expiring the soonest so they don't stay on the card for months), then refresh the page and look again. You might have to do this a few times.
*ETA: Looks like this is (not surprisingly) a targeted offer. You may see a variation of this offer, or you may not see it at all.
We booked Raiwasa last June for 190k Hilton points per night for 5 nights. It is currently around 240k points per night.
The property is a private 2-bedroom villa:
- One ocean-facing bedroom
- One garden-facing bedroom
- Both rooms and bathrooms are very similar in size/layout
-open to room bathrooms with a dual shower and a bathtub in each
- Upstairs lounge area with TV and couches
- Kitchen area with fridge
- Private pool with canaba and look out area
- Man-made beach/cabana area
Important: the actual ocean access is below the beach deck area, accessible via stairs. Also note there are around 100 stairs from the villa down to the beach/water area.
Occupancy / Extra Guest Pricing:
The base booking includes only 2 guests even though the villa can accommodate up to 6 people.
Additional guest pricing is expensive:
- Adults: around USD 412.5 per person per night
- Kids (2–13 years): around USD 262 per night
However, after discussing directly with the owner, we were offered nearly 50% discount for additional guests when adding them closer to arrival.
Packages:
Regardless of Hilton status, everyone gets the complimentary Gold Package which honestly is more than enough.
Gold Package includes:
- Unlimited food all day
- Smoothies, juices, coconut water, sodas
- Customized meals
- 5-course dinner daily
- Kayaking
- Paddle boarding
- Snorkeling
- Garden tour
- Cooking class
- Board games
-6-7 dining areas
The snorkeling included at Raiwasa was actually one of the best experiences of the trip. The corals around the property is incredible, and the guide shows you amazing fish and coral spots.
We also did scuba diving outside, but honestly felt snorkeling at Raiwasa itself was already amazing enough.
Gold Plus / Platinum:
Gold Plus adds:
- Spa credit
- Laundry
- Nanny service
- Island tours
Platinum additionally includes alcohol.
Gold Plus costs around:
- USD 189/day per adult
- USD 41/day per child (including infants)
Personally, I do not think Gold Plus is worth it unless you heavily use it for daily spa or tours.
Tours – Huge Cost Difference:
This is where you can save a LOT of money.
Raiwasa tour pricing is significantly higher than booking directly with local operators.
Examples:
- Raiwasa half-day island tour: ~USD 79+ per person
- Same tour outside: ~USD 67(150fjd) total for all of us combined
- Raiwasa full-day Lavena Coastal Walk + Tavoro Falls: over USD 200 per person
- Same outside operator: ~USD 115 total combined (+ local entry tickets)
Local entry fees themselves are cheap:
- Tavoro Falls: ~10 FJD per person
- Lavena Coastal Walk with boat ride + guide + waterfalls: ~60 FJD per person
We used Taveuni Excursions for 2 days and it was excellent.
Best part:
Even when using outside tours or rental cars, Raiwasa still packed us:
- food
- towels
- snacks
- sunscreen
- cutlery
That was a very nice touch.
Everything in Fiji runs in FJD, but Raiwasa bills mostly in USD.
Staff told us we could bring our own beers/alcohol and store them in the villa fridge, which helps save a lot if you drink.
Food:
Food quality was very good overall, though not extraordinary.
Menu items were consistently good, but customized requests were sometimes average.
Spa:
Spa pricing is expensive compared to nearby resorts:
- 60-minute massage: around USD 125
Outside resorts offer similar massages for almost half the price.
Activities / Property:
- Kayaking and paddle boarding were excellent
- Sunsets are beautiful here since the sunset is directly in front of the property
- Garden tour was surprisingly good with fresh fruit tasting and coconuts
One thing to know:
This is not a traditional soft-sand Fiji beach resort. The coastline is rocky. The beach area itself is man-made and elevated.
Flights to Taveuni:
Book flights EARLY.
Flights are tiny aircraft with only around 7 rows (~21 seats max), and most of the times it travels with only 10-12 passengers as all have baggage and they store bad weather fuel.
We had a difficult time getting seats in this flight.
Staff / Service:
The staff here are genuinely incredible.
Very warm, caring, and attentive.
Patrick (the owner) was also extremely helpful and accommodated date changes for us when we had flight issues.
Donna and Sahil were amazing staff who helped us.
Final Thoughts:
If booking with Hilton points or Free Night Certificates, Raiwasa is an excellent redemption value.
The property itself is beautiful, private, peaceful, and the service is exceptional.
However:
- extra guest pricing is very expensive
- tours/spa through the resort are heavily overpriced compared to outside operators
If you plan excursions around Taveuni, booking externally can save a massive amount of money.
Overall:
Amazing stay, amazing snorkeling, amazing staff, incredible value on points and unlimited food.
Any questions, feel free to ask.
I have a question (3) for the front desk staff. Has a guest ever randomly brought you cookies or other goodies when checking in? What was your reaction? Did you do anything to show your appreciation? I’m a diamond member and staying at a Hilton resort next month and using my points. I thought I would arrive with goodies for the front desk staff.
Here is a bit of fun trivia for you. I booked a room at the Hampton Inn next to Six Flags over Texas this past weekend, and couldn't believe the condition of the window in the room I was staying in.
Then I found a 4 year old review showing the exact same broken window.
I dunno, seems dangerous to me. Other than this, the stay was pretty good. Very clean, otherwise. Just don't pick room 405 if you stay here.
We were checking in at 1am and were unsure of how to book app or at the front desk to use points, at this time I had over 500k points. Rep at the front insists that he can set it up and use the points
Next morning we check out and for 1 night they charged us $530 refuse to do anything and say our manger is out until Monday and not answering his phone.
I call the diamond desk lady tells me she can use the points in the transaction and then we can call the hotel Monday to get a refund
Called today hotel is hiding behind a “we need to investigate excuse” and refusing to do anything
Diamond line now says the rep on Sunday was incorrect and they need to investigate and to follow up in 48 hours
Just a horrible experience overall and it’s horrible when both the hotel and corporate are avoiding accountability
Been confirmed below that booking in the app in this scenario was not an option
