How do Hilton treat you as an Elite?

[QF WP]

Just thought I'd create a thread for this - looking back over the last year, I thought I'd done a thread here as well as on Priority Club.

I'm a Gold member.

Friday, 22 May to Sunday, 31 May (yes, 9 nights)
Property: Hilton Cairns
Room booked: King Room
Rate: Travelzoo $135 package rate (included bottle of red wine)
Received: Upgrade to King Suite, card from GM and the wine, obligatory 2 free water bottles per day

Wednesday, 8 July
Property: Hilton Parmelia Perth
Room booked: King Room
Rate: Award room
Received: Upgrade to King Suite, card from GM and the obligatory 2 free water bottles

Thursday, 9 July
Property: Hilton Adelaide
Room booked: King Room
Rate: Award room
Received: Upgrade to Exec Floor, card from GM and the obligatory 2 free water bottles

Saturday, 11 July
Property: Hilton Brisbane
Room booked: King Room
Rate: Met Package (birthday present for Mrs LW, included 2 buffet breakfasts at Atrium Cafe & 2 tickets to Qld Art Gallery for Impressionists Showing from Metropolitan Museum New York - to get some culture)
Received: Upgrade to Exec Floor, card from GM and the obligatory 2 free water bottles

Got some more travel to do to Melbourne this Friday, so hoping to fly down Thursday night to sample the new Hilton.

 

[boomy]

Property: Conrad Hong Kong
Booked: King Deluxe Room
Received: King Executive Peak Suite

My go to HK hotel, always great and generous with upgrades. Nice to see same familiar faces in the exec lounge, some work there for 15+ years! The lounge doesn’t offer good wines but has decent coughtail list, they make good Negroni. Breakfast was served in the lobby bar as restaurant being refurbished. Wasn’t as extensive as the usual Conrad breakfast but sufficient nonetheless.






Property: Conrad Orchard Singapore
Booked: King Deluxe Room
Received: King Deluxe Balcony Suite

My first stay at this reflagged property (formerly Regent hotel). First impression gives a distinct 1980s hotel vibe with the typical architecture from that area. The designers couldn’t do much about the lobby but they did good job with the rooms. My suite was quite big, there was living room, bedroom, two toilets and even two balconies, unusual and not really practical in SIN where it’s either too hot and humid or too hot and humid and rainy.

I particularly liked the drinking water tap, eliminates the need to use plastic bottles. On top of the Nespresso machine they also offer Bacha coffee which my +1 love, as well as TWG tea. Dyson hair dryer is nice touch as well as the multiple charging options by the bed including USB-C, finally!

Exec lounge and breakfast were adequate for Conrad standard. Service was exceptional, everyone was super nice and attentive. Location is not bad, about 13 min walk to Orchard Rd. There is bus station just in from of the hotel which goes through Orchard Rd all the way to airport.

 

[justinbrett]

Property: Conrad Hong Kong
Booked: King Deluxe Room
Received: King Executive Peak Suite

My go to HK hotel, always great and generous with upgrades. Nice to see same familiar faces in the exec lounge, some work there for 15+ years! The lounge doesn’t offer good wines but has decent coughtail list, they make good Negroni. Breakfast was served in the lobby bar as restaurant being refurbished. Wasn’t as extensive as the usual Conrad breakfast but sufficient nonetheless.

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In the words of Coldplay "and it was all yellow..."

Nice to see the upgrade I declined last week. Breakfast was in the restaurant for me so must have happened after I left. Western was in the restaurant, Chinese was in Golden leaf.

I had a Negroni in the EL as well, it was good.

 

[dairyfloss]

Property: Hilton Grand Vacations Club Grand Waikikian Honolulu
Dates: April 2024
Nights: 7
Status: Diamond
Rate: USD$700 p/n incl. resort fee of USD$40
Room Booked: 2 Bdrm Oceanview 1king 2dbls Suite
Room Received: 2 Bdrm Oceanview 1king 2dbls Suite

The Grand Waikikian is located within the enormous Hilton Hawaiian Village at the western end of Waikiki beach, offering 1, 2 & 3 bedroom apartments which have all had some 'recent' updates to furnishings & appliances etc. We usually prefer to stay in nicer digs (the excellent Halekulani being our go-to for Waikiki), but with a family group and young kids, it didn't make sense this time, so I decided to give this property and one of their ocean view 2BR apartments a chance. The apartment was fully fitted out with everything for a self-service stay, but they also provide daily servicing for the suite, like a regular hotel would.

We arrived early off of QF103 and were able to complete check-in proceedings at about 10:30AM (no queue!), including having our key cards issued... but we wouldn't be given the suite number until it was cleaned and made available. Told it could be up until 4PM, but I was messaged with the room number at 2:30PM, allowing us time to stretch our legs, have some lunch at the nearby Ala Moana mega-mall, and to get over to Whole Foods to buy up some fresh stuff for the kitchen.

Suite was on the 26th floor (of 35 floors), and had great views across the village to the ocean. A small balcony was good for watching happenings on the water, the famous Friday night fireworks, and even gave us a free daily view to Hilton's Waikiki Starlight Luau (which played out below our building on the convention center rooftop). It was comfortable, quiet, and represented good value vs other options on the beach for a group like ours. Pictures below show the room and view from our living area / balcony.

As to the resort itself; it's simply too big for my liking, with hundreds of people walking about wherever you go at all hours. The pools were always packed, and if you didn't get there as they opened (or even if you did), it was almost impossible to nab a pair or more of loungers. Hiring covered pairs was possible but at an amusingly high amount (never saw one occupied). The Hilton Lagoon looked good, but in reality was a bit too cold for swimming, and as the water is not actually being refreshed from the ocean that often, it didn't seem as clean as it could be, though there was a fair few fish in it. The beach was good, though also very busy with numerous apartment buildings and others from the public also accessing this end of the beach for a swim, a sun-bake or the sunset.

F&B was not great at the couple of places we went to, and I would probably do my best not to eat here again. Better options if you are staying put would be to make your own, or have food delivered via Uber Eats or Door Dash, etc., OR, head out and up the strip towards the action closer to Duke's for better options.

For the make up of our group, and on this occasion, I think it was a pretty good option... but I'll be going back along to Halekulani, next time

















Cheers,
Matt.