My First Hilton Diamond Reserve Stay: The Caledonian in Edinburgh, Scotland

This is the first in what will be a series of occasional updates on what you can expect as a Hilton Diamond Reserve member. 

You may recall that Hilton announced the new top tier Diamond Reserve status, higher than lifetime Diamond, late last year and it went into effect beginning this year. 

The requirements pit it squarely against Marriott’s Ambassador status.

You need 40 stays or 80 nights plus $18,000 in Hilton spend to qualify. In return, you get access to the very best call center agents (but not a dedicated rep, which may be a good thing considering how many people have hard-to-reach Marriott Ambassadors or Hyatt Concierges), the highest upgrade priority, one confirmable upgrade once you reach Diamond Reserve and another as 120 night choice award. These are valid for up to a 7 night stay, confirmed at booking. From what I can tell so far (and this may be a year one thing) each property has one room type that you can book into with a CUA and this varies widely by property. Some are better rooms, some are junior suites, and some are really fantastic suites.

The Waldorf Astoria Pedregal and Waldorf Astoria Costa Rica Punta Cacique are two I’ve noticed with amazing suites on offer for a CUA.

You also get a guaranteed 4pm checkout (it’s coded into your reservation; a property can’t take it away) and access to Premium Clubs like the Sakura club at the Conrad in Washington DC.

I’ve been testing Hilton out for the last few months, seeing how this status plays out in the real world. I’ve certainly put more than one phone agent to the test to see how they differ on getting things done (and what leeway they have) vs. a regular Diamond agent and I’m cataloging these things for future blog posts. 

This post is purely about my first experience checking into a hotel as a Diamond Reserve. I wanted to try an upscale property (which I assume will naturally be more familiar with the status level and more likely to try to wow such a guest).

I was in Spain and, as one does, I thought where I hadn’t been yet. Scotland came to mind (and became my 60th country visited) and then I looked into what Hilton family hotels were there and landed on the Caledonian.

What a perfect hotel to try Diamond Reserve, I thought. It’s Curio collection, but a former Waldorf Astoria and absolutely steeped in history – an absolutely gorgeous property. It was originally a grand train station in Edinburgh before eventually becoming a famous hotel.

Booking

I booked the Caledonian on a Saturday for Wednesday, so pretty last minute. On Sunday my app showed that I’d been upgraded – to the Sir Walter Scott Suite.

Obviously I immediately googled the room and wow, that’s some upgrade! Three days in advance no less (more on that in a minute). It’s a gigantic two room suite with a bedroom, bathroom with shower and tub, and an enormous living room with multiple lounge chairs, couches, and a dining table. 

I used a Free Night Reward from my Hilton Aspire credit card for the stay which would have otherwise been 100,000 points. Cash rates vary wildly by season and what’s going on in town, but I believe the base room was around 280 pounds (just under $400 USD) that night.

Check In

I generally think that how I get treated at check in will set the tone for the entire stay. I can be pretty chatty when I check in, mostly because I’m friendly and love meeting new people – especially in other countries – but also because I’m so accustomed to gardening the details of my stay.

Emma handled my check in and was delighted to let me know about my upgrade to the Sir Walter Scott suite. She noted my Diamond Reserve status and let me know I would have a 4pm checkout time, if I’d like. It was so nice to not have to fight for the 4pm checkout like I seemingly do at 1 out of every 2 Marriott hotels as Lifetime Platinum).

We discussed the breakfast options and she mentioned everything was included except for a small menu of extras. I quizzed her on what those were (was I missing out??) and without missing a beat she said “Why don’t you upgrade your breakfast on us? As a Diamond Reserve perk.”

And I did 😉 Breakfast was delicious and I probably didn’t need that extra brioche French Toast, but I enjoyed the gesture more than anything else. I should point out this was an on the fly benefit offering, not official hotel policy, so no guarantees on what a future Diamond Reserve guest is offered!

Notably, I asked how many Diamond Reserves had been through so far, knowing that it’s a lot of nights to have by June, and the answer was 5 or 6 – clearly making me a rare arrival at the time. Certainly if Hilton gets the numbers in the Diamond Reserve tier that they expect, it won’t be quite as rare, but if the hotels can preserve this kind of personal touch, I can absolutely see a lot of Marriott elites shifting over to Hilton. The global footprint is similar and if the treatment is better and things like 4pm checkout aren’t left to a hotel’s good graces, it becomes an easier switch.

I also noted how impressed I was with the huge upgrade 3 days out. I wasn’t sure if this was Hilton’s automated system (it seemed too early for that) or the hotel itself.

She let me know that they process upgrades into suites a few days in advance so that their elites are taken care of as well as possible (and I think to free up more standard rooms for sale during heavy occupancy as the average guests aren’t buying the suites). But I don’t doubt I was given the highest priority as Diamond Reserve as that is a hard suite to beat!

The Room

Check out the Sir Walter Scott Suite below. I don’t have much to add beyond making sure you check out that view towards the Castle! It was quite a room. My one callout was that they had USB-C ports by the bed and I love it when a luxury hotel takes care of minor details like that as they really to enhance (or detract from) a stay. 

Breakfast!

We all love our elite breakfasts and the breakfast at the Caledonian was wonderful. I’ve got the menus for you, though it was primarily a buffet. You could get eggs and the like made to order at no charge or order off the additional menu for an additional charge (maybe ;-)). Of course, you could also order any coffee drink from the server. 

Hotel Location

When I first booked, I was thinking that it might be a mistake booking outside of the area right by the Castle. As it turned out, it was a perfect location, walkable to everything. Honestly pretty much everywhere in the center of Edinburgh is a good spot as it’s quite small!

Check Out

I don’t normally post about check out, but this one was unusual in that Amy, who was next to Emma at check in, checked me out. She asked about the stay and confirmed that that breakfast uncharge was waived. I asked if they had a gift shop, as I had a total of $100 in quarterly credits I wanted to use – $50 from my Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card Credit Card and $50 from my Business Platinum Card® from American Express Credit Card. 

There was no gift shop, per se, but they had a number of items that were “low key for sale” like boxes of shortbread (there was actually one already in my room as a welcome gift!) Scottish wallets, and the like. I’d actually narrowed my remaining spend to about $70 after booking Castle tickets via the concierge and charging to my room. I wound up getting a wallet but then we were chatting about how I would have loved something for my 4 year old… lo and behold they offered me a Steiff brand Unicorn – the national animal of Scotland.

The gesture was very much appreciated, not just because I’d have a gift without any additional effort (although I did wind up also picking him up a Steiff Highland Cow ;-)) but because Steiff is a well known, very high quality brand. It made an impression.

Bottom Line

Yes, of course I went off on many tangents because that is me 🙂 But I think I also made the point crystal clear.

The Caledonian went out of its way to make sure a Diamond Reserve was treated as a VIP. I’ll continue to see how hotels treat the status as the year progresses, however, I don’t think this first stay could have gone any better. 

Disclaimer: Hilton gifted me Diamond Reserve status for a year back in March to test drive it and give objective feedback – which is my only goal, good or bad. Call center agents and front desk agents only see the Diamond Reserve status. They cannot see anything beyond that so they are treating me exactly as you’d be treated if you earned Diamond Reserve status. That’s the most important part. I don’t spend $18,000 at hotels annually, even combined across all chains, so this was the only way I’d ever be able to offer an objective opinion.

Thoughts?

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