Five steps to increasing your points and stays

Get a Hilton Honors credit card and build points through purchases. You can get Visa or American Express or both. Hilton Honors gives generously giving up to 10 points for each dollar spend depending on product.

1. Check into a different Hilton Hotel each night. Moving up in status is quicker with stays. The Diamond status starts with 26 stays, not nights. For example, when I travel for a week, I stay in four different hotels. Sometimes they are quite close to each other. One night in a Hilton, the next in a Double Tree, next a Homewood Inn and Suites and etc. That comes out to four stays. If I just spend the week in one hotel, it only counts as one stay.
2. Look for values and specials. Sometimes Hilton offers double  points for stays at selected hotels. If your schedule is flexible, take up their offer.
3. Set your Hilton Honors profile to earn points. You can select to receive points instead of breakfast. Some hotels don’t offer free breakfast automatically, so they will offer points instead of the meal. Go through your profile and determine what you can exchange for points.
4. If you have a good chance of making Diamond status, don’t cash in your points. If you redeem points for a free stay, you don’t get credit for the stay. You can save a few hundred bucks, but wait until you reach diamond status. Then, you can redeem points and still get credit for the stay.
5. Use Airline miles and other awards programs to feed your Hilton points.

That's it, five ways to get the most out of Hilton Honors point opportunities. Join us for more information later.