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Hilton Replaces Elite Breakfast Benefit with Breakfast Credit for 2021
Yesterday, Hilton sent its members an email focused on getting back to travel. In it, they announced a new (lesser) breakfast benefit for Gold and Diamond elites for the remainder of 2021. Here’s how they put it:
- Food & Beverage Credit for Gold & Diamond Members. You asked for flexibility, and we’ve got it. Whether you look forward to breakfast or would rather skip it in favor of a refreshing beverage and afternoon snack, the choice is yours. In early July, we’ll begin offering a daily Food & Beverage Credit that will continue through the end of 2021. You can use this credit at the hotel brands where you currently receive a complimentary continental breakfast as your elite benefit of your membership. You’ll now be able to dine when and how you want. We will share more details in the coming weeks.
Of course, without providing the actual amount of the daily credit we don’t know if this is a positive or a negative change.
And that’s where Doctor of Credit comes in, with a tipster providing the relevant information on the credit. The tipster shared an internal Hilton email which states the following:
The credit can be utilized at all participating F&B outlets on-property including the market and room service. Members will be instructed to charge all F&B purchases to their folio. Credits will be provided daily to Gold and Diamond members and up to one guest registered to the room. Gold members will have the option to either receive points or the F&B credit, while Diamond members will receive both points and the credit.
Credits do not accrue or rollover if unused. If they are used, it will be processed through manual folio adjustments by the night audit.
The credit amounts (I believe this is per person) are as follows:
- Luxury brands (i.e. Waldorf Astoria / LXR): $25
- Full Service (i.e. Hilton): $12 (or $15 in high-cost markets)
- Lifestyle $12 (or $15 in high-cost markets)
- Hilton Garden Inn $10
I’m not exactly sure which brands get put into lifestyle (Curio?) and also why HGI is called out without equivalent brands like Hampton Inn which I’d assume get the $10, but maybe it’s $12?
Also, in some articles yesterday we were told this was going to be an amount per room, but the wording of the internal memo implies it’s per guest.
Good Change or Bad Change?
The answer is really going to be “that depends.”
Last month at the Waldorf Astoria Grand Wailea in Maui, we were given $20 per person and that wasn’t enough to cover breakfast. If the new credit is indeed per person, that extra $10 actually would have pretty much covered things.
However, I can’t think of a full service Hilton where $12 or even $15 pp will cover an entire breakfast.
Now, if you aren’t a breakfast person, this credit is great news! You can use it on lunch or dinner or a snack.
If you obsess over large free breakfast spreads, this won’t be enough to replace that. But some hotels offer better breakfasts than others and with this, you decide.
Now, if lounges begin reopening this year, you could wind up with the best of both worlds as a Diamond member wherein you can have breakfast in the lounge and also have your F&B credit.
So, while initial Internet outcry was that this is awful, it’s really not bad news – although select customers may be disappointed.
Frankly, a lot of the time, I’d rather not feel tethered to my free breakfast and head right out o the hotel, grabbing something cheap at a Starbucks or similar. This gives me more flexibility to use my benefit. However, at some mid-tier and higher hotels, this is likely to be a downgrade to the currently provided breakfast.
Thoughts?
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