Yowzers: Does Hilton Honors Have Well Over A Million Diamond Members?

Airline and hotel loyalty programs always try to tell us how special we are when we earn status. But how special are we really, in comparison to other guests? This is something we almost never find out, though here are some interesting insights…

Hilton Honors may have almost 1.4 million Diamond members

Hilton Honors recently announced a major loyalty program overhaul, including the introduction of a new Diamond Reserve tier, above the current Diamond tier. The idea is that Diamond status is currently really easy to earn (even just with holding onto a credit card), so it makes sense to introduce a tier that offers stronger perks for those who are truly Hilton loyalists.

Airlines and hotels will almost never reveal how many members are in each elite tier, though LoyaltyLobby shares some interesting details. Hilton reportedly recently held a meeting for hotel owners, where it stated that if the Diamond Reserve tier were in place this year, around 4% of Diamond members would qualify, and that would translate to 50K-55K members.

So you can then work backwards, to multiply that by 25, to determine the supposed number of Diamond members. This would mean that the number of Diamond members is in the range of 1.25 million to 1.375 million. I’ve gotta say, that’s a lot of people to have the (current) highest elite tier in a program!

What does that number of members mean in practice?

To crunch the numbers a little more, Hilton currently has around 8,500 open properties, so if you had 1.3 million Diamond members, that means you have an average of 1,529 Diamond members per property, give or take. Of course that’s not a very useful metric as such, since it’s not like most Diamond members live at properties year-round.

What’s more useful is figuring out the average number of nights that Diamond members stay, and then you’d know the average number of Diamond members per property at any given point. That’s something I’m not so sure of:

• I wonder what percent of Diamond members actually earn the status through the “traditional” requirements, rather than through having an eligible credit card
• Obviously there’s massive variance in the concentration of elite members depending on where in the world you are; a Hawaii property has a much higher percentage of elite guests than a Kazakhstan property

LoyaltyLobby estimates that Diamond members might stay an average of 45 nights per year, which would mean each hotel has 19 Diamond members on any given night. Personally, I think that number is too high. I think the average is lower, because I’d guess that substantially under half of Diamond members earn status with a credit card, and largely complete just a few stays per year (I’m among those).

Over at Marriott Bonvoy, we’ve seen a number of hotels post signs at check-in desks listing the number of elite members staying on a particular night. While some people view that as being tacky, personally, I think it helps with managing expectations. There’s something to be said for members getting a sense of just what they can expect.

If your elite tier promises you the best available room, but there are 100 people just like you, that creates an obvious issue.

Bottom line

Hilton has reportedly revealed internally that it expects to have around 50K to 55K Diamond Reserve members, making up roughly 4% of the total number of Diamond members. That suggest that Hilton currently has around 1.25 million to 1.375 million Diamond members. That’s a lot of elite members, and one certainly wonders how many of those earn status through credit cards, vs. through traditional methods.

What do you make of this alleged Hilton Honors Diamond statistic?