I’m going to show you how to book Hilton hotels for free, with an in-depth, a step-by-step guide. You might think, “Free is free, so what does it mean to maximize value beyond free?” You’re right that free is free, but would you rather pay $0 for something worth $200 or for something worth $1,000? (Or in this case, $0 for over $5,600??!) Read on for value maximization.
6 Steps to Book Hilton Hotels – Summary:
- Get one of the Hilton Amex cards and link it to your Hilton account.
- Hit the minimum spend required for the Hilton card you chose:
- $4K for the Hilton Amex Aspire card which is my favorite – See why here!
- $3K for the Hilton Honors Business card
- $3K for the Hilton Amex Surpass card
- $1K for the Hilton Honors card, which is fee-free
- Wait for your bonus points (and/or weekend nights) to come into your Hilton account.
- Once your bonus points/nights hit your Hilton account, search the app or website for award availability.
- Stack 4 free nights together, through a combination of points and/or weekend nights, so that you can get a Fifth Night Free due to your elite status.
- Take full advantage of your Hilton elite benefits during your stay.
Full Guide – Complete with screenshots
Step 1: Get a Hilton Amex credit card.
There are several Hilton Amex credit cards, and all of them will help you maximize the value of Hilton points and book Hilton hotels for free.
Repeat: All of the Hilton Amex cards are good.
But I’m going to make a case for the most expensive — from an annual-fee basis — Hilton Amex card: The Hilton Aspire card.
Many people will be turned off by the Aspire card’s $450 annual fee, and I get that. Again, all of the Hilton Amex cards are good, so if you get the no-annual-fee version, more power to you. But if you want to experience real luxury in hotels without paying thousands of dollars, Hilton Aspire is the card for you. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this card if you rarely travel, but if you have even one aspirational trip planned each year, it can give you thousands of dollars of benefits.
The main secret to serious luxury is Hilton’s Diamond elite status.
Diamond status is the highest status of all, and the Hilton Amex Aspire is the only credit card that automatically provides highest-of-all elite status across ANY hotel chain.
Read why I think the Hilton Amex Aspire card’s $450 fee is an absolute steal. Hint: Most of it is related to the Diamond benefits!
Step 2: Hit the minimum spend required to receive your Hilton bonus.
You need to spend a certain amount over a certain period of time after getting approved for a card, in order to receive your bonus Hilton points and/or Hilton free weekend night awards. Spend requirements are as follows:
- $4K for the Hilton Amex Aspire card
- $3K for the Hilton Honors Business card
- $3K for the Hilton Amex Surpass card
- $1K for the Hilton Honors card, which is fee-free
Typically you have between 3 and 4 months to hit your minimum spend, but this is usually from the date you get approved for the card rather than the date you receive the card in the mail. Read this post by The Points Guy for some tips on how to make sure you don’t miss out on your bonus points!
Step 3: Wait for your bonus points/nights to hit your Hilton account.
Per the Hilton Terms and Conditions, this could take between 8-14 weeks after you meet your minimum spend.
HOWEVER in our experience, it happens much faster than that. I highly recommend calling Amex’s customer service number to confirm you’re eligible for your bonuses. If you ask nicely, they might even give you a points advance – or at least tell you when to expect to receive your bonus points/nights.
While you’re waiting, get familiar with the Hilton app and/or website, and start thinking about the property you want to use your points for!
Step 4: Find your desired award availability.
If I were you, I’d have a few potential locations in mind because it gives you some flexibility – which is key to maximizing value.
Maybe you’d be crazy about French Polynesia, but you’d be almost equally jazzed to head to Tokyo. (See my review and guide on booking the Park Hyatt Tokyo here.) Great! Wherever you want to visit, make sure there’s a high-end Hilton hotel (or two) in that location, and start familiarizing yourself with the website and award availability.
Login to your Hilton account and enter some sample dates and a location like this:
Click the “Use Flexible dates” and “Use Points” checkboxes above! Note that I entered “French Polynesia,” which will return potentially multiple properties in the area:
Let’s assume I’m more interested in the Conrad Bora Bora Nui. Since I had clicked “Use Flexible dates,” I see some options across a two-week period with the ability to move forward or back another week:
Lo and behold, I see four Reward nights in a row,* which means I can get my 5th night FREE because my partner is a Hilton elite!** I’m going to click on the first available award night, October 14, then click Continue, and see what happens:
For 89,000 points per night, I can get a King Garden View Suite for 1,087 square feet!
If I scroll down, there are additional options for nicer rooms/suites, but those cost a LOT more points per night, such as a King Lagoon View Suite (417,000 points PER NIGHT) or a King Beach Pool Villa (doesn’t even say how many points per night):
My partner is a Hilton Diamond Elite, which means we get upgraded a LOT. There’s never a guarantee, which is why if your heart is set on having your own private pool, you should probably pay for it. BUT, there’s a decent chance you’ll be pleasantly surprised. And even if you don’t get upgraded to a room with your own private pool, are you really going to be disappointed by the cheaper King Garden View Suite, with this bathroom?
If you arrive at the hotel and they don’t upgrade you to your favorite room type right away, you can always try asking if they’d upgrade you to an overwater bungalow at an additional charge. I’d recommend checking in to see your room first, because they might give you a nice welcome amenity! But if it’s important to you, go back down to the front desk and just ask nicely if they have an overwater bungalow available, and you’d be happy to pay an additional charge if so. Remember, there are no guarantees here, and your miles may vary, so be sure to be polite. You’re not entitled to an upgrade, but there’s no harm in asking nicely!
Step 5: Stack 4 free nights together and book for a 5th night free.
At this point, you’ve learned you can book 5 nights in a row using award points on this hotel room. The Hilton website/app is really great about automatically calculating your 5th night free, as long as you’re logged in. At a cost of 89,000 points per night, 5 nights WOULD cost 445,000 Hilton points. But because I’m logged in under my partner’s elite account*, 5 nights actually only ring up as 356,000 Hilton points, equal to 89,000*4:
If you have 356,000 Hilton points in your account, you can book it and be done. If you don’t have that many points in your account, you have a few alternative options:
- Alternative 1: Use a free Weekend Night. Stack your Free Weekend Night Rewards together with your points;
- Alternative 2: Top off your Hilton account with more points, either by getting another Hilton card, maybe even the Hilton Honors Business Card. Or, transfer points from Amex Membership Rewards, if you have certain Amex cards such as the Amex Platinum;
- Alternative 3: Pay using Points & Cash.
Alternative 1 is probably the option that provides the highest value. It works best if you have enough points for 3 nights in your account, but not for the full 4; in this case, if you have 267,000 points or more. Simply find your Weekend Night, which arrives via email and as part of your bonus and/or annual fee renewal with the Hilton Aspire Card. The award email looks like this:
There is a Reward ID embedded in the email. Simply call Hilton and give them the dates you found in Step 4 for your desired award stay, and ask them to apply your Reward Night as one of your 4 nights. Then confirm that your 5th night will be free, so you’ve effectively used up your 1 weekend night certificate and 267,000 points for 5 nights.
Repeat: You can stay at a huge suite in French Polynesia for 5 nights for $0 in cash.
Alternative 2 is reasonably easy, but may or may not provide the best value.
If you top off your Hilton points by getting another credit card, this is a great way to get an extra 100,000-150,000 points, but it will take a lot more time and will count against your 5/24 status. If you don’t know what 5/24 means, check out this post by 10xTravel.
It’s fast and easy to top off your points by transferring from Amex Membership Rewards, but keep in mind Amex Membership Rewards only transfer to Hilton at a rate of 1 Amex point to 2 Hilton points. On its face that sounds good, but Hilton points are worth a lot less than Amex Membership Rewards points, so I don’t recommend doing this unless you’re only short a handful of Hilton points. This article from TripSavvy will show you how to do it.
Alternative 3 is very fast and simple, but may not give you a good value because as soon as you pay with Points & Money, you forfeit your 5th night free. Right now, my partner has “only” 259,000 Hilton points, which is short of the 356,000 needed to book 5 free nights. When we try to continue without enough points, the website says we can buy the room for 5 nights at Fr 254,830 + all o259,000 Hilton points. This is about $2,355 USD and it eats ALL of the points too.
So which alternative provides the best value?
I recommend Alternative 1 or Alternative 2. This is because if my partner were to pay cash for this same room, it would cost Fr 606,885 for 5 nights including all taxes and fees, or about $5,609USD.
If we had the full 356,000 Hilton points, we wouldn’t need to use the Weekend Night certificate, and the Hilton points would be worth 1.58 cents per point, roughly 3x what The Points Guy believes Hilton points are worth!
Using Alternative 1 can increase the per-Hilton-point value even further, but it does eat up a Weekend Night and assumes you’re staying over either a Friday or Saturday night.
Using Alternative 2 means transferring Amex Membership Rewards points to Hilton at a 2:1 ratio, which normally isn’t a good redemption. In this case, it might make sense because 1 Amex MR point will become 2 Hilton points, and each Hilton point is worth 1.58 cents. This means you’d get 3.16 cents per Amex MR point in value!
Alternative 3 is the clear loser here because you’d be paying $2,355 in cash plus 259,00 points for a total value of $5,609, or 1.26 cents per Hilton point. This is still a good value for Hilton points, but not as good as our other alternatives.
Step 6: Take full advantage of Hilton elite benefits during your stay
Once you’ve booked, you’re done! Just keep a record of the confirmation email and track your reservation in your Hilton app.
As a Hilton elite, make sure you know your benefits in general, and specifically for each hotel. I can do this by clicking the MyWay Hotel Benefits link on either the website or the app. This is what it says are the benefits for a Diamond Elite at a Conrad hotel:
This tells me what to expect at any Conrad, but I’ll typically do some further sleuthing prior to arrival – or even prior to booking a stay – to make sure I’m getting maximum value out of my partner’s status. Google is your friend here. When I Google “Conrad Bora Bora Nui Hilton Diamond Elite,” I get a bunch of relevant hits, including this review from One Mile at a Time, which tells me the complimentary “continental breakfast” at this hotel is actually awesome. It also makes me very excited about this redemption.
That’s it! I hope you enjoy maximizing your Hilton award stays.
*Author’s note 1: I swear, I truly picked a random date before finding this award availability at the Conrad Bora Bora Nui. I didn’t have to click through 6 months just to find one stretch of award availability. I have never stayed there before, but was pleasantly surprised to find plenty of award availability without looking too far into the future.
**Author’s note 2: I frequently log into my partner’s accounts — with full permission of course.
