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Hilton targeted offers: 4,000 or double points
Hilton hasn’t had targeted offers for a while, but now they are back.
There are two versions that I know:
You must register by December 31st, 2024. Remember these are targeted offers, so most people won’t be eligible.
Reminder: London NYE hotel bookable now on points
Just a quick reminder that, if you need a hotel for the New Year’s Eve, they have already been loaded into the system and bookable using points now.
If you are looking to watch the fireworks, the most convenient option is Marriott Country Hall. It is located in the White zone and all hotel guests receive wristbands prior to their stay. You could walk down literally 15 minutes before midnight to watch the show.
My friend who went last year had some troubles though as the staff insisted they must have tickets to get on the bridge. It was confusing and horrible, but luckily they got in eventually. You may also see (some of) the fireworks from inside the club lounge and certain guest rooms.
Availability of Marriott County Hall hasn’t been loaded yet but I expect it to be soon. It will be priced at around 120,000 points, and unlikely to sell out even close to the date.
Another similar option is Great Scotland Yard. It is not as close to the show as the Marriott, and you cannot see anything from inside the hotel. But it is in the Blue zone which has an arguably much better viewing angle.
Also it costs only 29,000 Hyatt points per night. Reward night is currently not available but a friend of mine managed to book it a few days ago.
Fireworks aside, here are some hotels that are good value on points:
- InterContinental London Park Lane – 84,000 points
- Holiday Inn London Oxford Circus – 42,000 points
- Holiday Inn Express London Limehouse – 36,000 points
- Bankside Hotel (Marriott) – 92,000 points
- London Hilton Park Lane – 80,000 points
- Hyatt Regency Blackfriars – 23,000 points
- Hyatt Regency Embankment – 23,000 points
Instant Hilton Gold / Diamond for targeted corporate employees
Hilton is, again, running a promotion targeting select corporate partners that offers their employees a chance for instant elite status upgrade and a challenge.
There are quite a few variations:
- Instant Silver, and stay 6 nights by April 29th to upgrade to Gold
- Instant Silver, and stay 6 nights by April 29th to upgrade to Gold or 12 nights to Diamond
- Instant Gold, and stay 6 nights by April 29th to maintain Gold, or 12 nights to upgrade to Diamond
- Instant Diamond, and stay 12 nights by April 29th to maintain Diamond, or 6 nights to maintain Gold
To sign up. you must verify with an eligible corporate email address. If you manage to complete the challenge, your status will be valid through March 2026, which is over two years from now.
There’s a way to check whether your company is eligible. The following URL leads to the promo page for Shell: https://www.hilton.com/en/preferred-rates/shell/
… where you’ll see a blue banner promoting the Diamond offer. Likewise if you replace the “shell” bit in the URL with your company’s name you may see a landing page that shows the same or another offer.
Compared to its last reincarnation, Hilton is much more generous this time as the Diamond match has been extended to a lot more companies, including Amazon, Google, Apple, Oracle, Siemens, Shell, Deloitte, Accenture and Nestle, just to name a few,
It is a good offer especially if you can get the Diamond one. If you aren’t a Hilton member yet, there’s another offer which allows you to earn 3,000 bonus points after staying within six months.
My review of Canopy by Hilton Cancun
This is my first time in Cancun (and Mexico) and there are so many hotels to choose from! I did extensive research and finally set my eyes upon the Canopy by Hilton hotel. The deal is hard to resist: Amex The Hotel Collection comes with a 3-for-2 offer plus $100 credit, and I have the $200 Amex Travel credit from the Platinum card.
So I paid just over $300 for three nights. However, I had my doubts as this is not a traditional resort like others in Cancun. The Canopy hotel is not next to any beach and the nearest one is about 15 minutes away. Although they’ve signed a deal with an external beach club, you must pay $30 for entry and it’s a few minutes drive.
In summary, if you are looking for a staycation or beach holiday this hotel is not for you. However I had planned a lot of tourist stuff for the first two days so we didn’t mind.
There’s a pedestrian cross right in front of the hotel and a bus stop nearby. Frequent buses bring you to all the major sites at the cost of $1.
Uber is quite convenient too. Note that however Uber’s airport pickup is banned so I booked the hotel’s transfer at a fair $35. You can ride with Uber to the airport.
The hotel sits beside La Isla which is a massive shopping complex. There are many shops, restaurants and cafes here.
As you can see from the pictures above, the hotel is basically one standalone building and not very big. The lobby is nice though.
I booked a Sunset Double Double room, and got upgraded to Sunset Premium after I made an inquiry in the online chat. Then I arrived just to find that they changed my reservation to a Sunrise Premium instead.
Although they tried to convince me that it’s a better view etc I didn’t buy into that nonsense. They didn’t have any Sunset Premium Double left, and Premium King with a rollaway bed was not ideal, so I had to begrudgingly accept the assigned room.
The room is nice and functional, the bed very comfy. I was aware that there’s no balcony, but to my surprise there’s no bathtub either.
The so-called Sunrise view has an aspect of the opposite hotel, and the sea view is quite poor.
There’s a transfer lounge on the second floor, serving guests before their transfer to the beach club.
Come with me to the rooftop!
This is the very best part of the hotel, and ideal for your Instagram shots.
Sunset rooms have exactly the same view of this ferry wheel, and I hope you understand my perseverance with the room type now. The infinite pool is pretty good for a swim.
The jacuzzi on the other hand is pointless – who would want to soak themselves in hot water when it’s 32 degrees and humid?
Gym is next to the rooftop bar.
Breakfast is complimentary for Diamond members, which is buffet-only except for the egg-cooking station.
The spread isn’t the best that I’ve seen, but the quality is top-notch, and they change the hot dishes every day. They’ve put a lot of thoughts into the breakfast and the menu is very nicely curated, thanks to it not being a massive resort overwhelmed with guests.
In addition to the usual breakfast offering, there are some local delicacies including grilled fish and pork / beef stew. I’m most impressed by the dessert section – all the pastries here are incredibly fresh, special and tasty!
This is the only restaurant the hotel has, so I used my $100 credit on two dinners with my Mum.
Even better than the breakfast offering, the dinner menu here is outstanding. We ordered tacos, grilled octopus and spider (beef) steak, and every dish is simply amazing. The spider steak especially is probably the best steak I’ve ever had – awesome charcoal touch, crunchy surface and soft inside.
My 2pm late check-out is granted with no issues. This Canopy hotel has its very obvious pros and cons. If you intend to travel a lot when you are in Cancun, it’s a great base to explore the area at a very reasonable price.
Hilton Q3 promotion: 2x or 3x points
Hilton has just revealed their offer for the rest of this year, and you can register here.
- Stay between September 6th and December 31st
- Earn triple base points at select destionations
- Earn double base points elsewhere
The full list of properties that are eligible for triple points can be found here. It is mainly capital and larger cities, and for the UK it seems to include only London and Manchester.
The list is a bit messy but the offer itself is rather straightforward, and if you are staying at a 3x-bonus property then the earning is quite generous. For reward stays unfortunately you won’t earn any bonus, unless base points are generated due to incidental spend.
Hilton’s confusing new paid upgrade feature at online check-in
I’m going to Cancun for a few days and chose the Canopy by Hilton hotel as my first stop. I booked it via Amex’s The Hotel Collection, and the reservation appeared on my Hilton app immediately. There is the Request Upgrade page which you are probably familiar with:
Basically these are standby options that offer room upgrade, meals or credit at a discounted price. When you arrive at the hotel they will inform you whether the standby has cleared, and you don’t pay anything until then.
There are very good deals occasionally but I very rarely pay for an upgrade. One thing I really like about Hilton’s app though, is that you can view floor plan of the hotel and even pick your room accordingly at online check-in. However this time I noticed something rather unusual:
It is advertising paid upgrade to some enhanced rooms, including a suite.
Quite confusingly, they are paid but the price is confidential. How can people pay for something when they don’t even know the price?
I sent an inquiry using the app’s Chat feature. A friendly member of staff came back to me saying that they’d upgraded me to the premium room, however for the suite I’d need to pay more than 500 dollars. It is awkward as the confidential price ended up being higher than what eStandby offered!
There was some news October last year about a new upgrade feature offered to elite members and I guess it’s related, although I’m not sure how prevalent Hilton hotels are selling it right now. Personally I think it adds little value as eStandby is already well integrated, especially as the price is not disclosed.
Hilton targeted offers – up to 4,000 bonus points
Hilton initiated a new wave of targeted offers, and there are two versions that are being circulated.
I received an email of the first offer the other day. I couldn’t register at that time though due to “technical difficulties”, but it seems to have been fixed. I couldn’t register to the other offer.
My review of Hilton Nottingham
(Update: refurbishment has now completed. Again I received no upgrade as there were quite a few events going on in the city, but the room’s interior is much nicer now. Note that the hotel is very stingy with check-out time: standard check-out is 11am and the generous late check-out for Diamond members is 12am…)
(Originally posted in October 2021)
Stuck in the UK, I’m going to Nottingham for a weekend to visit a friend and their German Shepherd puppy.
Weekend hotel prices are ridiculous at the moment in almost all the UK cities I’ve checked, which means using points is a good call. I spent 60,000 points for two nights at the Hilton hotel at Nottingham, despite the fact they don’t have very good reviews.
The hotel is about 15 minutes’ walk from the railway station, and right next to Victoria Centre which means it’s very central.
It’s very busy this weekend. The gentleman at reception spent a long time trying to find me an upgrade, and was very apologetic when it turned out impossible unless I wouldn’t mind changing room the second day. I was given two drinks vouchers though as a Diamond treat, which I don’t think many UK hotels are still doing nowadays.
The room on the hand, is compact, dated and dysfunctional just as I had imagined…
As you can tell from the little fan on the desk, the room is not air-conditioned. Fortunately the two days I stay here aren’t really warm so I didn’t suffer.
Bathroom looks okay comparatively.
I was told by the receptionist that the 5th and 6th floors are currently undergoing renovation. I guess the owner of the hotel has finally realised that they can’t get away with the old and ugly decor anymore…
Breakfast is served at the Bric restaurant, which is in the fashion of a buffet.
The quality is excellent for a 4-star hotel, especially after you have seen how distasteful the room is. My favourite is the vegetarian sausages which reminds me of a delicacy from my hometown in China.
The hotel also features a gym and spa, which is a nice bonus. You don’t need to make prior reservations and can just walk in.
Unfortunately there were many hotel guests so I didn’t manage to take a lot of photos. Overall the facilities are quite okay although again quite dated. Swimming pool is big enough; jacuzzi too but not warm enough as it’s connected to the pool; sauna is closed due to malfunction; steam room is a bit too steamy.
I think you should already have a very good idea of the hotel at this point. I believe the rooms will be a lot more comfortable after the renovation has completed, but in the meantime you still have to make peace with it and your chances of getting an upgrade will be slimmer as a consequence.