Point value | 0.48 cents per point ($0.0048) |
Number of properties | 8,000+ |
Number of Hilton brands | 24 |
Hilton points needed for a free night | Between 5,000 and 150,000 for a standard room |
Number of redemption options | 6 |
Elite status perks | Depending on your status level ...
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Membership fee | Free to join |
For every stay at a Hilton property, you will earn points. At the end of your eligible stay, you’ll typically get 10 Hilton Honors Base Points for every dollar spent on your room rate and eligible room charges like room service.
Here’s how it might look if you booked a two-night stay for a total bill of $357:
Member | Silver | Gold | Diamond | |
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Base Points | 3,570 | 3,570 | 3,570 | 3,570 |
Bonus Points | None | 20% bonus on stays = 714 additional points | 80% bonus on stays = 2,856 additional points | 100% bonus on stays = 3,570 additional points |
Total Points Earned | 3,570 | 4,284 | 6,426 | 7,140 |
This program lets members earn additional points at participating restaurants. First, you’ll have to sign up for Hilton Honors Dining by linking your membership number and a payment method. Then, you can search for restaurants that participate and pay with your linked card.
Here’s how the earnings work:
Basic members | Anyone who signs up | 2 points per $1 spent |
Select members | Activate by electing to receive email communications | 5 points per $1 spent |
VIP members | Activate by electing to receive email communications and completing 11 qualified transactions in the calendar year. | 8 points per $1 spent |
→ If you’re interested in earning rewards while out at dinner, check out LendingTree’s picks for best credit cards for restaurants and dining.
You can earn 3 Hilton Honors points per dollar spent on Lyft rides if you link to your Lyft account.
If you book a rental car reservation through Hilton’s portal, you can earn up to 5,000 Hilton Honors Points (depending on the length of your reservation). Just head to Hilton’s website to book a qualifying car rental with Alamo, Enterprise or National.
Hilton Honors points can be exchanged with a select number of travel transfer partners as well. This means you can either convert your Hilton Honors points to another loyalty program or convert other programs’ rewards into Hilton points.
Partners that let you convert rewards to Hilton points include:
Partners that let you redeem Hilton Honors points:
Airline miles/points exchange partner examples:
For the full list of airline partners with exchange rates, log in to your Hilton Honors account.
For Hilton loyalists who want to accelerate their points earnings, it could be worth looking into a co-branded Hilton credit card. Hilton offers a family of credit card products through American Express that allow cardholders to earn Hilton Honors rewards points when they make purchases with the cards. The next section explains the points-earning opportunities and specific card benefits more in depth.
Credit Cards | Our Ratings | Annual Fee | Welcome Offer | Rewards Rate | |
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Hilton Honors American Express Card
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$0 | 100,000 points
Earn 100,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points with the Hilton Honors American Express Card after you spend $2,000 in purchases on the Card within your first 6 months of Card Membership. Offer ends 1/14/2026.
| 3X - 7X points
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Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card
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$150 | 155,000 points
Earn 155,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points after you spend $3,000 in purchases on the Card in the first 6 months of Card Membership. Offer ends 1/14/2026.
| 3X - 12X points
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Hilton Honors Aspire Card from American Express*
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$550 | 150,000 points
Earn 150,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points with the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card after you spend $6,000 in purchases on the Card within your first 6 months of Card Membership.
| 3X - 14X points
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The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card
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4.1
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$195 | 175,000 points
Limited Time Offer: Earn 175,000 Hilton Honors Bonus Points after you spend $8,000 in purchases on the Hilton Honors American Express Business Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. Offer Ends 1/14/2026.
| 3X - 12X points
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When looking at the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card vs. the Hilton Honors American Express Card, it comes down to how you feel about paying an annual fee. The Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card costs $150 per year, while the Hilton Honors American Express Card has a $0 annual fee. We feel that the extra value and benefits you can get by leveling up to the fee-based Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card makes it a more strategic choice.
With the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card, you’ll get complimentary Hilton Honors Gold Status to start, while Hilton Honors American Express Card cardholders start at the Silver level. Status chasers can also get on the fast track to Diamond Status by spending $40,000 on eligible purchases in a calendar year on the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card.
The Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card also offers up to a $200 Hilton credit (up to $50 per quarter), which in itself can cover the annual fee, plus a Free Night Award if you spend $15,000 in a calendar year – neither of which Hilton Honors American Express Card cardholders get.
As for earnings, you’ll get up to 12 points per dollar spent on eligible Hilton purchases with the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card, Earn 12X Hilton Honors Bonus Points for each dollar of eligible purchases charged on your Card directly with a hotel or resort within the Hilton Portfolio. Earn 6X Hilton Honors Bonus Points for each dollar of eligible purchases on your Card at U.S. restaurants, U.S. supermarkets, and U.S. gas stations. Earn 4X Points for each dollar on U.S. Online Retail Purchases. Earn 3X Hilton Honors Bonus Points for all other eligible purchases on your Card. while the other card maxes out at 7 points per dollar. Earn 7X Hilton Honors Bonus Points for each dollar of eligible purchases charged directly with hotels and resorts within the Hilton portfolio, 5X Hilton Honors Bonus Points at U.S. restaurants, U.S. supermarkets, and U.S. gas stations AND 3X Hilton Honors Bonus Points for all other eligible purchases on your Card.
For more avid travelers, choosing between the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card and the Hilton Honors Aspire Card from American Express* is all about your travel style. If you’re interested in VIP-level benefits and book stays at Hilton properties several times per year, the Hilton Honors Aspire Card from American Express* may be worth the $550 annual fee. If you’ve only got one or two trips per year in you, then you may be better suited to stick with the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card.
Hilton Honors Aspire Card from American Express* cardmembers can get up to $400 per year in statement credits (up to $200 semi-annually) on eligible purchases made directly with participating Hilton Resorts, an annual Free Night Award and up to $200 in airline credits (up to $50 per quarter, enrollment required). Cashing in on those perks is already worth more than the fee, and earnings go as high as 14 points per dollar spent at hotels and resorts in the Hilton portfolio.
You’ll also get complimentary Diamond status with the Hilton Honors Aspire Card from American Express*, which means a 100% bonus on all of your earned base points when you book a stay, as well as robust travel insurance and consumer protections.
The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card is another option to consider if you’re a small business owner. At $195 per year, it costs slightly more than the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card.
Both cards give you 12 points per dollar spent at Hilton on eligible purchases made directly with hotels and resorts within the Hilton portfolio. The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card also offers a flat 5 points per dollar rate across all non-Hilton purchases up to the first $100,000 spent for the year (3 points thereafter), which is ideal for business owners. The Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card’s bonus earnings are focused on everyday spending categories: Earn 12X Hilton Honors Bonus Points for each dollar of eligible purchases charged on your Card directly with a hotel or resort within the Hilton Portfolio. Earn 6X Hilton Honors Bonus Points for each dollar of eligible purchases on your Card at U.S. restaurants, U.S. supermarkets, and U.S. gas stations. Earn 4X Points for each dollar on U.S. Online Retail Purchases. Earn 3X Hilton Honors Bonus Points for all other eligible purchases on your Card.
As for perks, both award complimentary Gold Status and annual Hilton credits. The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card does not offer a Free Night Award, but its welcome offer is bigger than that of the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card — though it requires a higher minimum spend to qualify.
While Hilton points are not worth much, you can squeeze more value from them by choosing the best redemption option. Based on our valuation research, there can be big swings in point value depending on the property, time of booking and room type. Hilton does not use an “award chart,” so you’ll have to shop around to find good deals. The Points Explorer tool can help, as can being flexible on your travel date, hotel level and room type.
In general, booking a stay with Hilton is going to be your best redemption versus redeeming your points on other things. While Hilton stay redemptions average .48 cents per point, other options have a lower point value.
Hotel | Cash price (incl. taxes) | Points required | Points value | |
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Budget | Tru by Hilton Nashville Downtown Convention Center | $436 | 70,000 | .62 cents |
Hampton Inn & Suites Chesapeake-Square Mall | $259 | 45,000 | .57 cents | |
Mid-Tier | Embassy Suites by Hilton Colorado Springs | $366 | 75,000 | .48 cents |
DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Austin Downtown Capitol | $516 | 218,000 | .23 cents | |
Luxury | Grand Wailea Maui Waldorf Astoria | $1,017 | 100,000 | 1 cent |
Conrad Dubai | $133 | 39,000 | .34 cents |
Maximizing your Hilton points comes down to choosing the best possible redemption and taking advantage of the key program benefits.
The most common and best use of Hilton Honors rewards points is to redeem them for stays at a Hilton property. There are 24 brands under the Hilton umbrella, with over 8,000 properties worldwide from which to choose. There are budget, mid-tier and luxury options in over 140 countries around the globe.
The Hilton Honors rewards program uses dynamic pricing, however. This means that prices for award nights will fluctuate based on demand. In other words, you may find a hotel room you like, but the price may change before you book the room.
Hilton’s points explorer can help you narrow down hotel options based on the number of points you are working with. This can speed up your research significantly as you can choose a location, hotel type and points value to filter your results.
Hilton points can be redeemed in other ways outside of hotel bookings.
→ See LendingTree’s picks for the best credit cards for rental car insurance.
Hilton rewards can be transferred to partner airline loyalty programs. You just have to log in and navigate to the page that lets you “exchange your points.” From there, you can select your desired airline program from the drop-down list and the number of points you wish to convert. You’ll need your membership number from your selected program.
The full list of airline transfer partners include:
→ See our picks for best airline credit cards.
If other family members or travel partners are Hilton Honors members, you can pool your points together, which is a nice feature. Called Points Pooling, you can do 1-to-1 points transfers in increments of 1,000 points and up to 500,000 points (terms apply).
There are some scenarios in which it might make sense to refrain from using Hilton rewards. For example, if you find that a booking you’re considering comes out to be less than the average .48 point value, you might be better off paying cash and holding on to your points for a more lucrative use later on. (To find the point value, divide the total room rate plus taxes by the number of points needed to book.)
Status Levels | Requirements to earn | Benefits |
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Hilton Honors member | Anyone can join |
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Hilton Honors Silver Elite | 10 nights, four stays or 25,000 base points | Member benefits, plus…
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Hilton Honors Gold Elite | 40 nights, 20 stays or 75,000 base points | Silver benefits, plus…
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Hilton Honors Diamond Elite | 60 nights, 30 stays or 120,000 base points | Gold benefits, plus…
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Booking stays is the easiest and fastest way to earn Hilton Honors points, but having one of Hilton’s co-branded credit cards can propel your earnings even further.
On the bookings themselves, if you use a Hilton card, you’ll get extra earnings beyond what your Hilton Honors membership level is already offering. So, for example, let’s say you are a Silver Elite member and you book a stay for $337. You’re already getting 12 points for every $1 spent with Hilton (10 base points for being a Hilton Honors member, plus 20% bonus for Silver status), so that would equate to 4,044 points earned.
Now, let’s say you used the Hilton Honors American Express Card to pay for that stay. That means you’ll earn another 7 points per $1 via the credit card rewards program, which is an additional 2,359 points. So your earnings for the trip would become 19 points per $1, a total of 6,403 points.
In addition, the Hilton credit cards let you earn bonus points on non-Hilton purchases. For example, the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card awards 6 points per $1 spent on eligible purchases at U.S. restaurants, U.S. supermarkets and U.S. gas stations. If you spend $500 a month in those categories with the card, that’s another 36,000 points per year you could earn.
The more you stay with Hilton, the more you will be rewarded. For instance, Hilton awards 10,000 bonus points if you reach 40 nights, and then 10,000 bonus points for every 10 additional nights thereafter. You can also earn a one-time 30,000 bonus points if you reach 60 nights.
Top Hilton customers get to share the love with others through status gifting. If you stay 60 or more nights, you can gift a fellow Hilton Honors member with Gold status. At 100+ nights per year, you can gift Diamond status. If you become eligible for this perk, you’ll receive an email from Hilton with a claim code that your family member or friend can use to activate their status boost.
If you’re a super Hilton loyalist for a decade or more, you can achieve the status of Lifetime Diamond Member. To earn this status, you must be a Hilton Diamond member for 10 (non-consecutive) years, plus meet one of the following qualifications:
Hilton will notify you if you reach Lifetime Diamond status.
Hilton rewards | Marriott Bonvoy rewards | World of Hyatt rewards | |
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Redemption value | .48 cents per point* | .9 cents per point* | 2 cents per point* |
Elite perks |
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Ease of earning | Earning Hilton rewards is simple. Just book a stay or make on-property purchases. Additional earnings can come from using a co-branded Hilton Honors credit card. | Marriott Bonvoy points are easy to earn. Earn base and bonus points on Marriott purchases. Marriott’s six co-branded credit cards also earn points in various spending categories. | World of Hyatt points are easily earned by booking stays and spending at Hyatt properties. Hyatt has one personal and one business co-branded credit card as well, to earn points on other purchases. |
Hotel preference can depend on the type of trip you’re taking, but in general, certain types of travelers might gravitate to one hotel chain rewards program over another. Some considerations:
→ If you can’t decide between brands, you might want to look at our list of the best hotel credit cards.
Hilton’s hotel portfolio is vast, so there are options for all travel styles and budgets. While Hilton doesn’t officially categorize its properties by tier (like World of Hyatt, for example), certain brands in the portfolio tend to fall within a budget, mid-range or premium price level. Here are some examples of the different property categories you can find when looking for the best ways to maximize your Hilton rewards.
Best for: Road trips, families and budget travelers
Best for: Business trips, family vacations and predictable comfort
Best for: Luxury getaways, milestone trips and maximizing rewards
Because prices are always in flux, it’s hard to generalize the “best brands” for point value, but many people in the loyalty travel community believe that luxury/premium level brands tend to offer the best point value potential. You will need to accumulate more points to cover such stays, but those points can take you further and deliver an amazing experience.
As a random example, we looked at a one-night stay at the Grand Wailea Maui Waldorf Astoria. The total cost was $1,017 per night, but only 100,000 – that’s a 1 cent per point value.
Signing up for Hilton Honors is simple. All you have to do is navigate to the Hilton Honors sign-up page and fill out the form. You’ll have to share your contact information and create a password. Once confirmed, you’ll get a Hilton Honors membership number.
Joining Hilton Honors is free and definitely worth doing if you plan to stay at a Hilton property. Even at the base membership level, you’ll unlock a lower membership rate on stays, earn points and get free Wi-Fi and digital check-in.
Hilton Honors rewards points only expire if your account is inactive for 24 consecutive months. To keep your account current, you can do any of the following:
There are no blackout dates when booking a free night with Hilton Honors.
To book a free night using Hilton points, you will need a minimum of 5,000 points per night. Standard rooms can go up to 95,000 points per night, while specialty accommodations can go up to 150,000 points. You do have the option to use points and money as well to partially offset the cost of a night.
The fastest way to earn Hilton points is to book a stay at a Hilton property. If you have a Hilton co-branded credit card, you can also earn points on everyday purchases.
Hilton Honors does allow you to transfer your points to other Hilton Honors members. To do it, log in to your account, choose “Points,” then “do more with your Points” and then select “transfer points.” From there, just enter the recipient’s name and Hilton Honors number to complete the transfer.
To see rates & fees for American Express cards mentioned on this page, visit the links provided below:
The information related to the Hilton Honors Aspire Card from American Express has been independently collected by LendingTree and has not been reviewed or provided by the issuer of this card prior to publication. Terms apply.
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