There are a variety of valuable perks to having elite status with a hotel group. Historically one of the most valuable benefits has been complimentary breakfast, at least for those belonging to higher elite tiers.
In 2021, Hilton Honors made a controversial change to its elite breakfast policy. Specifically, at properties in the United States, Hilton stopped giving elite members complimentary breakfast, instead replacing that with a daily food & beverage credit. While this was initially marketed as being temporary, all signs point toward this sticking around. In this post I wanted to take a closer look at how exactly this benefit works.
In this post:
Details of Hilton Honors elite food & beverage credit
Historically Hilton Honors Diamond and Hilton Honors Gold have received complimentary continental breakfast as an elite benefit at all hotel brands that don’t offer it for free, which is one of the primary benefits of having hotel elite status (note that some hotels go above and beyond, and offer a full hot breakfast).
However, since July 2021, this is no longer the policy at properties in the United States. Specifically, at hotels in the United States, elite guests are instead offered a daily food & beverage credit. At the time, Hilton marketed this change as being a limited time response to a request from guests for more flexibility.
How does the Hilton food & beverage credit work?
How exactly does the Hilton Honors food & beverage credit work? Here are the basic things to be aware of:
- The credit is per person, for up to two registered guests per room; people have varying experiences as to whether they can get the credit for two people if they’re booking a room for two guests but staying alone
- This credit applies at many brands, including Waldorf Astoria, LXR, Conrad, Canopy by Hilton, Hilton, Curio Collection, DoubleTree, Signia, Tapestry Collection, and Hilton Garden Inn
- The credit is valid for all participating food & beverage outlets at a hotel, including restaurants, bars, markets, and room service; it can be used in one or multiple transactions
- Hilton Honors members can simply charge food & beverage purchases to their folio, and then the charges will be manually removed; there’s nothing that needs to be done when you visit the actual outlet
- The credit needs to be used on a daily basis, and the value can’t be rolled over to the next day
- The amount of the food & beverage credit varies depending on the brand and location
- Hilton Honors Gold members have the option to either receive points or a food & beverage credit, while Hilton Honors Diamond members will receive both
- If you’re staying at a hotel with a club lounge that serves breakfast and you receive access to it, then you don’t receive the food & beverage credit
- If you book a rate that includes breakfast, you can still receive the food & beverage credit as an elite perk
How much is the Hilton food & beverage credit?
The Hilton Honors daily food & beverage credit varies by hotel brand and market. Specifically, Hilton Honors members receive a daily food & beverage credit for a maximum of two registered guests per room, as follows:
- $25 per person per day for luxury brands, including Waldorf Astoria, Conrad, and LXR
- $15 per person per day for full service and lifestyle brands ($18 in high-cost markets), including Hilton, Signia, DoubleTree, Curio, Tapestry Collection, Canopy, and Motto
- $10 per person per day for Hilton Garden Inn
The high-cost markets include Boston, Chicago, the District of Columbia, New York City, San Francisco, the county of Los Angeles, the state of Hawaii, Key Largo, and Key West.
Is the Hilton food & beverage credit good or bad news?
In an ideal world, hotels would offer a credit big enough to cover breakfast for two people with flexibility to use it elsewhere, but I think it’s safe to say that this isn’t what Hilton is going for here. Make no mistake about what’s going on:
- The credit amounts are nowhere near large enough to cover a “proper” breakfast at a vast majority of properties in the United States
- By offering a credit that has to be used daily, Hilton is hoping that this will drum up business at hotels’ food & beverage outlets, and cause people to spend more than they otherwise would (above and beyond the food & beverage credit amount)
Whether or not this is good or bad news really depends on which hotel you’re staying at and what your travel habits are:
- Before this change, there was huge variance in terms of the elite breakfast offered across hotels — at some properties you received a full breakfast, while at other properties you received a coffee and a croissant, so the implications here aren’t equally bad at all properties
- As a morning person I always have breakfast, while I know plenty of people who don’t even wake up in time for breakfast, and therefore found the old breakfast benefit to be useless, and like the new system
- Some hotels unofficially offered daily credits in place of breakfast for a long time before this was implemented, so this wasn’t even totally new across the board; for example, the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills has long offered Diamond members a $50 daily credit per room in lieu of a formal breakfast benefit
For those who value breakfast as an elite perk, I think it’s safe to say that Hilton Honors has the weakest offering in the United States of the major hotel groups:
- World of Hyatt Globalist members receive a full restaurant breakfast when there’s not an executive lounge
- IHG One Rewards Diamond members receive a full restaurant breakfast
- Marriott Bonvoy Ambassador, Titanium, and Platinum members have the option of selecting continental breakfast as their welcome amenity at most brands
Is Hilton’s elite food & beverage credit permanent?
When the elite food & beverage credit was first introduced in 2021, it was marketed as a temporary feature. In the context of the pandemic, it sort of made sense:
- At the time, many people didn’t necessarily feel comfortable dining indoors in restaurants, so the flexibility was valuable
- Many hotels had shut down some of their food & beverage venues, and many weren’t serving breakfast
However, from the beginning I predicted that the motive went way beyond that. The credit was first extended into 2022, and then in 2023, and now that it’s 2024, it’s pretty clear that this is just the way the program works permanently.
This is pretty clearly part of a bigger long term change at Hilton, intended to cut costs. Hilton’s CEO has made it clear that many hotel service cuts are permanent, and that hotels will become higher margin businesses. This food & beverage credit helps to reduce costs (fewer people are having breakfast) and increase revenue (people are spending more at Hiltons while utilizing their food & beverage credit).
I’d be willing to bet that these changes will stick around in the United States permanently. The big question is if they expand globally or not. Personally I don’t see that as being particularly likely for now.
That comes down to a couple of factors:
- Free breakfast and a higher level of service continue to be more of an expectation outside of the United States than within the United States
- Hotel owners outside the United States don’t seem quite as greedy and cutthroat as the companies that own many hotels in the United States
Bottom line
Nowadays Hilton Honors Diamond and Gold members receive a daily food & beverage credit in lieu of complimentary continental breakfast at properties in the United States. That credit ranges from $10 to $25 per person per day, depending on the market.
While this was initially marketed as being temporary, it’s clear that this is now permanent. It’s a great way for hotels to reduce their breakfast costs while generating more revenue, as people probably pretty consistently spend more than their credit when visiting outlets at a hotel.
What do you make of Hilton Honors’ elite food & beverage credit concept?
Hilton made a lot of their perks harder to enjoy, I don’t think I will stay with them.
Here's something I don't see enough people talk about regarding this benefit:
From Hilton's FAQ and Details page: https://www.hilton.com/en/hilton-honors/support-faq/#food-beverage-credit
"...the daily amount re-sets each day to the maximum daily credit value at midnight. Members can use up to the total daily maximum and are responsible for anything beyond that amount.
Since the member gets a new credit each day (for the number of nights of their stay), the only day they can use any leftover...
Here's something I don't see enough people talk about regarding this benefit:
From Hilton's FAQ and Details page: https://www.hilton.com/en/hilton-honors/support-faq/#food-beverage-credit
"...the daily amount re-sets each day to the maximum daily credit value at midnight. Members can use up to the total daily maximum and are responsible for anything beyond that amount.
Since the member gets a new credit each day (for the number of nights of their stay), the only day they can use any leftover credit is the morning of check-out."
Clearly, this doesn't affect one-night stays: if your credit is $15/day, then you have from the time you check in until the time you check out to use that $15 credit.
But let's do the math on a multi-night stay for a sec. Say you check in on a Monday for a 3-night stay, checking out on Thursday.
Being that the credit replaced the breakfast benefit, how one would EXPECT the credit to work is that you could simply use it each morning for breakfast if you wanted.
But in reality, what you have is:
Monday: You check in, and the $15 credit activates. It expires Monday night at midnight; anything not used is lost.
Tuesday: $15 credit activates at midnight. You have breakfast (let's say it's $14), expecting it to be on Monday night's credit, but it's actually Tuesday's. $1 credit remains, and expires Tuesday night at midnight if unused.
Wednesday: $15 credit activates at midnight. You have breakfast ($14 again), expecting it to be on Tuesday night's credit, but it's actually Wednesday's. $1 credit remains, and since it's the night before checkout, it does NOT reset at midnight, but rolls over until you check out Thursday.
Thursday: Your $1 leftover credit from Wednesday remains. You have breakfast ($14) expecting it to be on Wednesday night's credit for the *first* time (expecting the full $15). In reality, you only had $1 left, so you pay $13 out of pocket.
There you have it, folks... on multi-night stays, the benefit that replaced free breakfast...can't even be used to have breakfast every day.
A solution would be for it to reset somewhere between noon and 3 pm - or better yet, have a "gray area" period from say 11 am to 4 pm during which either credit can apply. (That is, if you have lunch at noon on Tuesday, it first uses anything left from Monday's credit, then dips into Tuesday's.) Don't know how difficult that would be to implement in their computer systems, but it sure would make more sense. Resetting at midnight is just such an odd choice for a hotel chain, since hotels don't operate on a "per-calendar-day" basis, but rather, a *nightly* basis. (And seriously, imagine the scenario where you order drinks at the bar on Monday night intending to use your credit, you ask for the check at 11:45 pm, your server disappears for 15 minutes and brings the check at 12:01 am "Tuesday", and they tell you tough luck, no Monday credit for you!)
Gaslight Galore
The following will out a flat-out lie DCS whipped up to support his cause. But first:
I see that in between the last “not-really-a-boycott boycott” our dear friend learned a new word… and is simultaneously completely oblivious to the reality that he does that almost every time he posts here.
Maybe instead of learning new words, he can learn how comparisons work next time… because in the process of trying to derail the...
Gaslight Galore
The following will out a flat-out lie DCS whipped up to support his cause. But first:
I see that in between the last “not-really-a-boycott boycott” our dear friend learned a new word… and is simultaneously completely oblivious to the reality that he does that almost every time he posts here.
Maybe instead of learning new words, he can learn how comparisons work next time… because in the process of trying to derail the obvious to everyone except to the one guy who “conveniently” has his business reimburse him for breakfast in cases of U.S travel superiority of Hyatt’s free breakfast benefit, he intermingled the discussion and comparisons of breakfasts available to everyone and breakfasts available to elite members.
The reality is a bit different than he’ll try to have you believe.
In the U.S, about 60% of Hyatt hotels offer free breakfast to all guests. While it appears Hilton has that beat at 70%, the usage of “much more likely” is hyperbole. Across all brands in both cases, you’re 10% more likely as a Hilton non-elite to get free breakfast than as a Hyatt non-elite.
This also outs DCS as someone who spreads misinformation
FALSE
Next, when we talk about status that offers breakfast (or part of a breakfast) as a benefit, then the situation changes dramatically. To the best of my knowledge, there are 22 Hyatt properties that don’t give free breakfast to Globalists… it’s a benefit excluded from Vacation Club properties (20 in the U.S), and if the hotel doesn’t have a restaurant that serves breakfast, you obviously can’t get free breakfast.
(There may be others, but the two I’m aware of are Hotel De Anza and Hyatt Centric Waikiki).
Hence that means a whopping 97% of Hyatt properties in the U.S offer full free breakfast to their elites. (Obviously the quality of breakfast at some clubs might offer a challenge to the term “full breakfast”).
By DCS’ own admittance, 29.2% of Hilton properties in the U.S do not offer free breakfasts to their elites.
As to whether the credit covers a full breakfast in those situations… well, my experience has varied, but when I head to the W.A Beverly Hills this summer to once again to utilize my free Aspire cert, it looks like I’ll have to pay if I want most any of the items on the menu… and add $5-$10 if forbid I want to get an orange juice.
Bottom line: the real question still remains… for a guy who doesn’t have any respect for travel expertise among the prominent bloggers who continue to tout Hyatt’s superiority, (speaking of gaslighting, his incessant regurgitating of “self-annointed “travel gurus”” takes the cake) you have ask yourself why he continues to visit this site.
Words like stalker and/or troll continue to come to mind.
(More likely it’s just that like me, he’s an attention hound, and we all feed him).
obvious to everyone except to the one guy who “conveniently” has his business reimburse him for breakfast in cases of U.S travel
Formatting novice. Got the script backwards after that. Italics supposed to end there.
de-italicize
Well, @JoePro, aka @Lucky-Alter-Ego is back, and immediately misfires:
_____________________________
This also outs DCS as someone who spreads misinformation
FALSE
_____________________________
There is no universe in which the statement that you characterized as FALSE can possibly be false if you understand it, which it is clear you do...
Well, @JoePro, aka @Lucky-Alter-Ego is back, and immediately misfires:
_____________________________
This also outs DCS as someone who spreads misinformation
FALSE
_____________________________
There is no universe in which the statement that you characterized as FALSE can possibly be false if you understand it, which it is clear you do not (FYI: everyone else understood it and conceded!).
I will just show you what the statement means and then I will avoid engaging you because it is a waste of my time. At the link, there are two maps that show side by side locations of Hyatt hotels and Hilton hotels in the US. Look at the maps and then (a) really understand the argument that "unlike with Hyatt, you can travel to most locations in the US and stay at a Hilton hotel that will offer you free breakfast”, and (b) see how ridiculous is your drivel, and (c) go hide under a rock in shame...
Here's the link: https://bit.ly/3UbA86C
Take a look and have the common sense to shut up when you have no point to make.
Goodbye and have a nice life.
PARTING SHOT
That was quite a long-winded drivel to...
PARTING SHOT
That was quite a long-winded drivel to bitch because Hilton replaced their lousy, artery-clogging free continental breakfast at just 1,712 of their 5,858 in the US, while still offering free breakfast to all guests at 4,146 of their hotels? And, at the same time, you want to give World of Hyatt and BONVoY a pass even though they won't do much better for you?
Well, how about dumping Hilton Honors and joining World of Hyatt, which has just ~800 hotels in all of USA (https://bit.ly/3PV5GLE), and returning here in, say, a year, to let us know at how many locations in these US of A, which you really wanted to travel to, you got free breakfast as a Wold of Hyatt Globalist. We'll be awaiting your report with bated breath.
In the meantime, I hope you will realize how stupid is your rant and that of any other dimwit that got gaslighted by self-anointed "travel gurus" into thinking of Hilton's breakfast policy change in the US as existentially bad , when Marriott (a) had had the policy for years and still has it at several of their hotel brands; and (b) does not even offer breakfast at all at several others of their brand.
I know it hurts when you use your head, but I still urge you to try doing it because it can be truly liberating.
G'day and good luck.
To those bitching because Hilton stopped offering free breakfast at just 1,712 of their 5,858 hotels in the US, while still providing it to all guess at 4,146 hotels, here's the picture at BONVoY from this very site (https://onemileatatime.com/guides/marriott-bonvoy-elite-breakfast/)
Marriott brands that don’t offer free elite breakfast
To those bitching because Hilton stopped offering free breakfast at just 1,712 of their 5,858 hotels in the US, while still providing it to all guess at 4,146 hotels, here's the picture at BONVoY from this very site (https://onemileatatime.com/guides/marriott-bonvoy-elite-breakfast/)
Marriott brands that don’t offer free elite breakfast
Marriott brands that offer elite food & beverage credit
[many of the hotels below had this policy for many years before Hilton adopted it during the pandemic]
Let me know if you've now been sufficiently enlightened to see that you are barking up the wrong tree,,.
It's quite simple. If they were truly trying to add flexibility, they could offer a full breakfast OR an F&B credit for use outside breakfast hours/outlets. It would be entirely possible to enable this so I could have breakfast one day and use the credit for a drink the next day. However, they could simplify by requiring a guest to choose. Clearly the goal is NOT to improve flexibility. It's to drive revenue and reduce costs.
The change to the HH breakfast benefit was just objectively bad. I am a Gold fairly regularly and stay regularly at a Hilton Garden Inn where I used to have access to the full breakfast, with made to order eggs, bacon, etc. After the breakfast benefit change and the ridiculous $10 credit I no longer had access to the made to order eggs and bacon. The hotel felt so bad they have a continental option...
The change to the HH breakfast benefit was just objectively bad. I am a Gold fairly regularly and stay regularly at a Hilton Garden Inn where I used to have access to the full breakfast, with made to order eggs, bacon, etc. After the breakfast benefit change and the ridiculous $10 credit I no longer had access to the made to order eggs and bacon. The hotel felt so bad they have a continental option at the $10 level at the same breakfast restaurant where you can only access the cold items and the oatmeal in the soup hotpot. After this happened one time, bye bye Hilton for work. I now moved my US work stays to Bonvoy. Where its either a full breakfast when there's no included breakfast. Or a Residence Inn, where by the way some of the new Residence Inns have nice suite rooms and a very decent included breakfast (cold brew coffee, eggs, bacon, and a third rotating hot dish like chorizo breakfast burrito, breakfast sandwich, biscuits and gravy, etc.) Yes as a Titanium for Bonvoy, recognition and upgrades are poor or non-existent. Once or twice a year I get a 2 bedroom suite when I'm staying alone which is unnecessary but appreciated. But I'll take the elite breakfast benefit with Bonvoy over HH every day in the US.
I would love to be elite with Hyatt but they just don't have any locations where I travel for work on a regular basis. Whenever I have stayed at Hiltons in the US even on certificate or point stay I'm treated pretty well with upgrades like big corner rooms and junior suites.
And I normally stay out of this and just wait to laugh at DCS' responses. His zealotry for Hilton is so entertaining. But I will write about this because I noticed something about his responses. Whenever an article like this comes up, he avoids addressing the actual issue in question. This article is about the Hilton elite breakfast benefit. And Ben even says this mainly applies to the US, and international is much better. DCS can't admit that changing from a full breakfast for elites to a meager $15 credit is just bad. He needs to say that there are more locations with included breakfasts by Hilton. That's a misdirect because he isn't willing to just accept the fact that full breakfast downgraded to $15 or $10 credit is just worse. And if comparing to Bonvoy, I'm pretty sure they have more locations in the US for their included breakfast brands anyway. (Residence, Springhill, Fairfield, TownePlace, Element.) I am not a shill for any brand, I just want to share my experiences and learn from Ben and all the other readers for my and all our shared benefit.
the other way he often misdirects and doesn't answer the actual issue is by saying Hiltons in Asia are so much better. By the way I do have a pretty wide breadth of hotel experience as I worked in the travel industry for 18 years. Lived in Asia for 5 years. And have inspected thousands of hotels all over the world. I will say this about Hyatt vs. Hilton vs. Bonvoy in Asia at least, since this is where DCS claims that Hilton is better when he also avoids the topic in question about Hilton. This is at the high end brands. Its all pretty much the same. The breakfasts are all amazing. The lounges are all amazing. The rooms are all amazing. Elite recognition is pretty much the same. I think if you are talking Japan and Korea, Hyatts are probably better. The Park and Grand Hyatts in Tokyo and Kyoto and Seoul are probably better but not by much. Conrads and Waldorfs are great in Asia. Ritz Carltons, St. Regis, Luxury Collections are great throughout Asia too. Sofitels are great in Asia too. So while I normally find DCS responses humorous, I now just see someone who can't accept such obvious black and white things like $15 breakfast credit being worse than a full breakfast benefit at the same chain. You don't need to compare to Hyatt or Bonvoy, which still do elite full breakfast. If just looking at Hilton alone, a downgrade is a downgrade.
@DCS
In general I agree with most of your posts about Hilton but you are really off base here. It's nice for you that you travel for business. And that you can enjoy all the perks of a fine breakfast on the company tab. And maybe that is the Hilton proposition. But for the rest of us who travel on our own dime Hilton's Breakfast policy is shit. For example we stayed in a Doubletree...
@DCS
In general I agree with most of your posts about Hilton but you are really off base here. It's nice for you that you travel for business. And that you can enjoy all the perks of a fine breakfast on the company tab. And maybe that is the Hilton proposition. But for the rest of us who travel on our own dime Hilton's Breakfast policy is shit. For example we stayed in a Doubletree in SFO and the 2X$15 was way less than the $50 the breakfast cost. And since only a stopover with no transportation there was no alternative.
You also claim that 4000 Hilton chain hotels have breakfast in the US - that means to me that there are 4000 Hamptons or equivalent in the US. So why stay in a Hilton when a HI Express will be cheaper and also has full breakfast.
When Hilton dropped "double dipping" I almost quit as this was a severe cutback in rewards to loyal customers. I wish I had as other programs are now better.
Hilton overseas is great. We just stayed 50 nights in Conrad BKK and DPS. Excellent and the exec floor is almost a full meal. (Note: Marriott Club Floor IS A FULL MEAL in Chiang Mai and excellent).
So if you are on a business expense account lucky you - but for most of the loyal members this change is really negative and your supporting it is bad for all of us together.
Your well thought out and reasoned response will just be met with more lies, misinformation, and dogmatic BS from the Hilton Sociopath.
Ever notice that DCS and Tim Dunn are never in the same conversation? Coincidence?
@Christian -- FYI because you sound too stupid to figure it out on your own: DCS has nothing in common with Tim Dunn, whose claims about DL he has debunked countless times in this space, just like he has other bogus claims. In fact, Dunn has more in common with self-anointed "travel gurus" and their sycophants and kool-aid drinkers,...
@Christian -- FYI because you sound too stupid to figure it out on your own: DCS has nothing in common with Tim Dunn, whose claims about DL he has debunked countless times in this space, just like he has other bogus claims. In fact, Dunn has more in common with self-anointed "travel gurus" and their sycophants and kool-aid drinkers, like you, who constantly and mindlessly shill for World of Hyatt...
Have a nice life.
Defensiveness - Check
Poor Logic - Check
Childish Insults - Check
Myopia - Check
Compromise Inability - Check
Brand Fanaticism - Check
Lack Of Imagination - Check
Well Peter Parker you and your alter ego sure have a lot in common. Maybe now you’ll show your consistent cleverness and duplicate what I just did, or perhaps make more stupid assertions without actually using facts.
Go drink more "Hyatt is best" kool-aid and then get lost.
I have no interest in engaging you. REALLY. So, we're done.
The soapbox is yours. Knock yourself out.
The fact that I...
The fact that I can take advantage of Hilton's F&B vouchers and prefer them to Hilton's generally lousy continental breakfast that they offered to their Golds and Diamonds in the US changes nothing. The brouhaha about the breakfast policy change in the US was and remains a non-issue that self-anointed "travel gurus" whipped up to become an existential programmatic deception that, to the surprise of many, has not affected Hilton at all.
Read my comment below (April 7, 2024, 5:23 pm ) that provides context and perspective to the policy or do the exercise to convince yourself: fully 70.8% of 5,858 or 4,146 Hilton hotels in the US offer free breakfast to all guests, meaning that, unlike with Hyatt, you can travel to most locations in the US and stay at a Hilton hotel that will offer you free breakfast, if that is your thing. Importantly, there is absolutely nothing wrong with most Hilton hotels that provide free breakfast to all guests, especially with Hampton Inns getting a facelift (personal favorite brand is Embassy Suites). In fact, before Hilton instituted the policy to provide F&B vouchers instead of their generally lousy, artery-clogging breakfast at just 29.2% or 1,712 of their hotels in the US during the pandemic, Marriott had had a similar policy at several of their hotels for years. Why is the policy a deal breaker only after Hilton implements it at just 1,712 of their 5,858 hotels in the US (7.2k hotels worldwide)?
Most of the time, you cannot eat you cake and have it too. You just need to learn how to better manage your expectations and avoid being riled up every time self-anointed "travel gurus" push your button. Remember that if free breakfast is your thing, then you are much more likely to get it at most destinations in the US if you book a stay at a Hilton hotel than if you book your stay at a Hyatt hotel. If push comes to shove, treat yourself to a decent breakfast and focus on enjoying your travels.
G'day and good luck.
Why has service and loyalty become so atrocious at hotel chains and airlines in the USA? I gave loyalty to Hilton, enough loyalty that to be lifetime diamond not getting it through credit cards etc (I'm not American or a resident in the USA), it was through staying at their properties. What do you get for that at Hilton properties in the USA now? Zilch, nada, bugger all, nothing. They don't care about loyalty. This...
Why has service and loyalty become so atrocious at hotel chains and airlines in the USA? I gave loyalty to Hilton, enough loyalty that to be lifetime diamond not getting it through credit cards etc (I'm not American or a resident in the USA), it was through staying at their properties. What do you get for that at Hilton properties in the USA now? Zilch, nada, bugger all, nothing. They don't care about loyalty. This FNB credit is pathetic. At least provide the free breakfast to diamond members, they are the most loyal members. By misfortune I was booked into a Garden Inn on 52nd street in NYC, the hotel was not good but that's another story. I was provided a $10 credit, that literally got me a coffee and an orange juice, not one thing more. Be loyal to those who have been loyal, that's why they are called loyalty programs, but to Hilton management that falls on deaf ears. Outside the USA things are fine.
What is meant by daily?
Calendar day? Noon to noon? Checkin first day to 11 am the next day?
Never get a straight answer at the hotel.
“response to a request from guests”
Hilton is simply doing this because guests begged to have value destroyed? That company sure loves their customers to make such a change at the customer’s request. Customers from every other company I’ve ever heard of aren’t nearly as keen to make enormous sacrifices so that the company can rake in more profits.
I think DCS must have sent them a hundred emails.
‘IHG One Rewards Diamond members receive a full restaurant breakfast’.
This should be updated to more like Marriott’s breakfast policy in that IHG Diamond members need to select breakfast as their welcome amenity.
True. IHG Diamonds do get free hot restaurant breakfast pretty much everywhere, making it
better than WoH Globalists' breakfast. They just need to select it as their welcome amenity.
Ergo, something else that absolutely needs to be updated is the utterly bogus claim that WoH Globalists' elite breakfast is the "best" of any program because they receive full restaurant breakfast at "most properties". The claim ID bogus because the WoH T&C are clear...
True. IHG Diamonds do get free hot restaurant breakfast pretty much everywhere, making it
better than WoH Globalists' breakfast. They just need to select it as their welcome amenity.
Ergo, something else that absolutely needs to be updated is the utterly bogus claim that WoH Globalists' elite breakfast is the "best" of any program because they receive full restaurant breakfast at "most properties". The claim ID bogus because the WoH T&C are clear in stating that by default, Globalists get continental breakfast in the club lounge, but can get full restaurant breakfast at properties that have no club lounge or where the lounge is closed. That makes the WoH Globalists breakfast offering among the weakest because overseas, HH Diamons have the option to have their free elite breakfast either in the exec lounge or in the restaurant.
Was a skeptic but am now a fan. Appreciate the flexibility in being able to use this for dinner or drinks some days. I admit my stays skew to luxury properties and I’ve never stayed at a HGI, but I’ve generally not had an issue covering breakfast with the credit (would go over if I had coffee, but I prefer trying local coffee shops anyway). It’s also been seemless in implementation for me. Only once...
Was a skeptic but am now a fan. Appreciate the flexibility in being able to use this for dinner or drinks some days. I admit my stays skew to luxury properties and I’ve never stayed at a HGI, but I’ve generally not had an issue covering breakfast with the credit (would go over if I had coffee, but I prefer trying local coffee shops anyway). It’s also been seemless in implementation for me. Only once have I had to argue with a property (they claimed it could not be applied to tax or tip, contrary to the Hilton website) but that was shortly after implementation and during the pandemic, and have never had problems since. In my experience more often than not if I go over the credit by a small amount (ie, 10-25%), the entire tab is removed from the bill presented at checkout.
As a long time Diamond member of Hilton, what gets me is the closing down of the executive lounges. I would get hot breakfast and late afternoon hot appetizers that would be enough for my dinner. You would also be able to get coffee or tea 24 hours a day.
The reason I continue to stay at Hilton is because of their hotels outside of North America. Far better than most of the other U.S. chains.
Hilton Hotels that Offer F&B Credit in lieu of Free Breakfast in the US
To inject real signal into the Hilton Honors F&B credit brouhaha, do the following:
Go to the Hilton Honors web site and search for hotels after setting your location to "USA". That's right, you'll search for Hilton hotels in the whole country. Using flexible dates, run the search with the "free breakfast" filter toggled off. Then, rerun the search a...
Hilton Hotels that Offer F&B Credit in lieu of Free Breakfast in the US
To inject real signal into the Hilton Honors F&B credit brouhaha, do the following:
Go to the Hilton Honors web site and search for hotels after setting your location to "USA". That's right, you'll search for Hilton hotels in the whole country. Using flexible dates, run the search with the "free breakfast" filter toggled off. Then, rerun the search a second time with the "free breakfast" filter toggled on, and you will get the following incontrovertible data:
Total number of Hilton hotels in the USA: 5,858
Total number of Hilton hotels in the USA that offer free breakfast to all guests: 4,146
What do the numbers mean? Simply that out of a total of 5,858 Hilton hotels in the US, 4,146 or 70.8% offer free breakfast to all guests, while just 29.2% offer F&B credit in lieu of free breakfast.
Interestingly, you can also run the whole-country search above with the "On-site restaurant" filter toggle on, which will reveal that only 2,007 of 5,858 hotels in the US or ~34% have a restaurant on site...
Anyway, for some perspective, consider the following. As of 20 November 2023, there were only 791 locations with a Hyatt hotel in all of US of A (https://bit.ly/3PV5GLE ), meaning that roughly 5X more Hilton hotels in the US offer free breakfast to all guests than there are Hyatt hotels in the whole country!
Bottom line: If free breakfast is your thing, then you are much more likely to get it at most destinations in the US if you book a stay at a Hilton hotel than if you book your stay at a Hyatt hotel.
Why I personally prefer F&B credit to free breakfast in the US:
Over the years, I've had the opportunity to have free "continental" breakfast at Hilton, Hyatt, IHG and Marriott properties in the US and, unlike overseas, none of the chains offered breakfast that I found appetizing enough to get up in the morning for. Instead, because 100% of my domestic US travel is for business, what I've been doing is to stay exclusively at Hilton hotels for LTD status recognition; treat myself to any breakfast that I desire, inside or outside the hotel, because it's travel expense for which I get reimbursed; and use the F&B credit to offset my bar tabs. In short, Hilton's breakfast policy for stays at 29.2% of their properties in the US is actually a win-win for savvy elite members who play the game with a "full deck" ;-)
We have Tim Dunn with Delta and then there is DCS with Hilton. there is always that one fanboi everything has who swears by their thing till death, even if whatever is happening is inexcusable
And we have high-priesthood of self-anointed "travel gurus" and their sycophant and kool-aid drinkers with Hyatt.
I provided a detailed argument to support my position. Do you have an argument supporting your position, if you even have one that is coherent enough to be addressed, or are you just going to pontificate mindlessly like a kook-aid drinker?
Obfuscate much? Yes - you sure can get a sh!t free breakfast at thousands of limited service Hiltons all over the US. #winning
But where you REALLY want the breakfast - you just get a weak credit. Hilton’s gonna Hilton.
The incoherent response means... Checkmate.
@DCS - Copy and paste means .... Stalemate... as for your mental ability and creativity.
Rather rich coming from someone who was "concerned" that I was spending too much time writing my long comments and needed to take some time off, ain't it? Given that it made sense to "cut and paste" to address exactly the same point as before, I have a suggestion: how about you take some time off from addressing me?
In past stays I’ve been allowed to use the F&B credit over the time period consisting a stay, I.e. check in to check out, with no problem. For example, have breakfast in the morning, then that evening use the next day’s credit for drinks. Never a problem until two weeks ago.
At The Statler in Dallas we used our credit for breakfast for the first day’s credit. That night we had drinks at their...
In past stays I’ve been allowed to use the F&B credit over the time period consisting a stay, I.e. check in to check out, with no problem. For example, have breakfast in the morning, then that evening use the next day’s credit for drinks. Never a problem until two weeks ago.
At The Statler in Dallas we used our credit for breakfast for the first day’s credit. That night we had drinks at their rooftop bar but the credit was not posted to my bill. When I inquired I was told I couldn’t use the credits on the same calendar day. I explained this had not been an issue for numerous other stays at various Hilton properties. They argued with me a bit, but I persisted and they gave me an “exception”, the same as another commenter wrote.
OMAAT, can you find official policy language regarding use of the credit in this manner?
The Roosevelt in NO just gave me shit about this during a 5 night stay. I stay exclusively with WA and Curio for Hilton stays and have never had this be a problem. I pointed out the error in this thinking and had some curt little girl at the front desk argue with me that I had never had a Waldorf honor a credit that way. New Orleans just loves rude service workers.
This change is truly awful, and Hilton is only doing it to save money. If I have a 2 night stay at a HGI and leave at 4 AM the second morning, there is no way to use my credit for that day, so I lose out. They charge anywhere from $15-$18 for breakfast, yet the credit is only $10. There is no way to eat breakfast and stay under the limit, as some properties...
This change is truly awful, and Hilton is only doing it to save money. If I have a 2 night stay at a HGI and leave at 4 AM the second morning, there is no way to use my credit for that day, so I lose out. They charge anywhere from $15-$18 for breakfast, yet the credit is only $10. There is no way to eat breakfast and stay under the limit, as some properties don't even do ala-carte, only the buffet. This credit also makes expense reports very difficult, as I have to expense every line item and it makes it look like I've had 2 breakfasts on the same date. I try not to stay at Hilton or HGI just because of these problems.
No question this is a BAD move and devalues Hilton status. We have had breakfasts at hotels that cost $90, so the $30 credit two of us get is pitiful. And we've discovered that many Hilton hotels have permanently closed their lounges as well, so you are forced to use the measly credit. The end result for us is that we now prefer Marriott branded hotels domestically, but will still stay in Hiltons internationally where...
No question this is a BAD move and devalues Hilton status. We have had breakfasts at hotels that cost $90, so the $30 credit two of us get is pitiful. And we've discovered that many Hilton hotels have permanently closed their lounges as well, so you are forced to use the measly credit. The end result for us is that we now prefer Marriott branded hotels domestically, but will still stay in Hiltons internationally where we still get the free breakfast, and it is often a very good deal. Shame on Hilton for taking this perk away from its best customers.
I've had a couple of properties take the "can't be rolled over to the next day" part very literally by requiring the credit be used in a single calendar day on a one night stay. At one I bought a pack of pistachios for $7 after checking in and my breakfast the next day wasn't credited. Even the general manager insisted that was the policy but manually issued the credit as a "one-time exception." I'm...
I've had a couple of properties take the "can't be rolled over to the next day" part very literally by requiring the credit be used in a single calendar day on a one night stay. At one I bought a pack of pistachios for $7 after checking in and my breakfast the next day wasn't credited. Even the general manager insisted that was the policy but manually issued the credit as a "one-time exception." I'm still not sure whether this is the intent of the policy, but I can't imagine it is.
The choice was easy for me I stopped staying at Hilton completely