Why I love Hilton
Jan 22nd, 2008 by Nick
I love Hilton. I started to love Hilton when they bought out the Promus holdings back in 2000, which added Hampton Inn, Homewood Suites, and Embassy Suites to the chain. Before that, I didn’t really have much opportunity to stay at Hilton properties.
Right after the purchase, they had a promo where if you made 4 stays in 90 days, you got “Gold” status for a year, and a bunch of bonus points. That got me hooked, since it let me cash in some United miles for six nights in London. Over the last seven years, I have about 275 nights in Hilton properties, and their Diamond status (at least 28 stays each year). Most of them are the lower-end properties, both for work and for weekends away. But I’m able to cash in my points for stays at their best urban properties on virtually no notice, with no blackouts.
Anyway, I get to the hotel yesterday and I’m on a lower floor than last time, but other than that I’m not really paying attention. I get to the room, and it turns out to be a two-room, 1.5 bath, corner suite. It’s a little smaller than the Park Hyatt Melbourne, but it’s organized much better. There’s also an Executive Lounge with light snacks, where I had some appetizers before heading out last night.
The only nitpick I have is their mini-bar setup. It’s one of those really tacky early 80s inventions where if you move anything at all, you get charged for it. Really… let me move the bottles around so I can stick my bottle of water in there for a few hours.
I worked with La Leche League on the conference committee for a while. You want us to come to your hotel? You want us to spend lots of money here and have lots of people book rooms? make the minibars go away.