Guide To Hilton Honors Gold Status Benefits

Hilton is one of the largest hotel groups in the world, and Gold status is Hilton’s mid-tier elite level in the Honors program. To me, Honors Gold is arguably the most valuable mid-tier status offered by any major hotel group. Best of all, it’s easy to earn.

I recently wrote a post about the benefits of Hilton Honors Diamond status, and in this post I wanted to take a closer look at the benefits of Hilton Honors Gold status.

How to earn Hilton Honors Gold status

There are several pathways to earning Hilton Honors Gold status — you can earn it through stays, you can earn it just for having a credit card, and you can earn it by putting spending on a credit card.

Earning Hilton Gold status with hotel stays

If you want to achieve Hilton Honors Gold status through hotel stays, you ordinarily need to earn any of the following in a calendar year:

• 40 nights
• 20 stays (with each check-in and check-out counting as one stay)
• 75,000 base points (you typically earn 10 base points per dollar at most brands, so that’s like spending $7,500 per year)

Note that both award and revenue stays count toward the night and stay total. These requirements are on the high side for mid-tier hotel status, though fortunately there’s a much easier way to earn Honors Gold status with credit cards.

Earning Hilton Gold status with credit cards

Hilton has a suite of co-branded credit cards that can earn you status. Specifically, all of the following cards offer Hilton Honors Gold status for as long as you have them:

• Hilton Honors American Express Business Card (review) — $95 annual fee (Rates & Fees)
• Hilton Honors American Express Surpass^® Card (review) — $150 annual fee (Rates & Fees)
• The Platinum Card® from American Express (review) — $695 annual fee (Rates & Fees), registration required
• The Business Platinum Card® from American Express (review) – $695 annual fee (Rates & Fees), registration required

On top of that, you can earn Hilton Honors Gold status if you spend $20,000 in a calendar year on the Hilton Honors American Express Card (review), which has no annual fee (Rates & Fees).

Lastly, just to be thorough, I should mention that the Hilton Honors Aspire Card from American Express (review) offers Hilton’s top-tier Diamond status for as long as you have the card.

That card has a $550 annual fee, but offers a slew of other amazing benefits, including an annual free night certificate, up to $400 in annual Hilton resort credits, up to $200 in annual flight credits, up to $189 in annual CLEAR Plus credits, and more.

The information and associated card details on this page for the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card has been collected independently by OMAAT and has not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Hilton Honors Gold status benefits

With the requirements to earn status out of the way, what are the benefits of Hilton Honors Gold status? Below are the benefits, roughly in the order that I value them.

Complimentary continental breakfast or hotel credit

As far as I’m concerned, the single most valuable hotel elite benefit is free breakfast, and that’s something that Hilton Honors Gold offers… sort of. Across Hilton brands outside of the United States, Honors Gold members have the option of selecting breakfast as a benefit. While this benefit is technically only for continental breakfast, in practice many hotels will offer Gold members full breakfast.

For properties in the United States, Honors Gold members receive a hotel credit in lieu of complimentary breakfast.

The amount of the credit ranges from $10-25 per person per night, and depends on the brand and location. For full service and lifestyle brands, high-cost markets include Boston, Chicago, the District of Columbia, Key Largo, Key West, New York City, San Francisco, the county of Los Angeles, and the state of Hawaii.

Unfortunately, realistically those credit amounts won’t cover a “reasonable” breakfast including tax and tip. However, some do appreciate the flexibility of these credits, as you can instead choose to use them toward something other than breakfast, like lunch or an evening cocktail.

Executive lounge access, subject to availability

The executive lounge access policy for Hilton Honors Gold members can be a bit confusing:

• Hilton Honors Gold members are entitled to room upgrades up to the executive level
• If a Hilton Honors Gold member receives a space-available upgrade to an executive-level room, they’ll also receive executive lounge access
• However, generally speaking if a Hilton Honors Gold member isn’t upgraded to an executive room, they won’t receive lounge access

This is a point of differentiation between Gold and Diamond status, because Diamond members receive lounge access even if they’re not otherwise upgraded to an executive room.

Executive lounges offer complimentary breakfast, evening snacks, and a place to grab a coffee or drink during the day. You can generally expect that executive lounges outside the United States (in particular in Asia) will be significantly better than domestic ones.

Upgrades to preferred rooms, subject to availability

Hilton Honors Gold members are entitled to room upgrades, though individual hotels have a lot of discretion. As the terms explain, Hilton Honors Gold members may receive upgrades to preferred rooms, and that may include upgrades all the way up to executive rooms.

Suite upgrades are technically excluded from the upgrade pool for Hilton Honors Gold members (they’re available for Diamond members), though I have sometimes received suite upgrades back when I had Gold status, so it’s not totally unheard of.

All of these upgrades are at the discretion of the hotel, and are officially granted on a space-available basis for the entire duration of the stay at the time of check-in. However, Hilton is nowadays sometimes processing upgrades in advance.

This language is a bit different than what you’ll find with Marriott Bonvoy and World of Hyatt, which promise certain types of upgrades subject to availability, rather than at the discretion of the hotel.

80% bonus points

Hilton Honors Gold members receive an 80% points bonus on Hilton stays. Members ordinarily earn 10 base points per dollar spent, so Gold members earn an additional eight points per dollar spent.

Hilton Honors also often has global promotions to earn more points, and Hilton’s co-branded credit cards offer an excellent rate of return for Hilton spending.

When you combine all of these factors, racking up Hilton Honors points for hotel stays is quite easy.

Hilton MyWay Benefits

Gold members receive what’s known as a “MyWay” benefit with each stay, which varies by brand. In some cases if you want continental breakfast you’ll have to select that as your choice. Here’s a breakdown of these benefits by brand:

• At Canopy by Hilton, choose 250 Honors bonus points or continental breakfast
• At Conrad, chose 1,000 Honors bonus points or continental breakfast
• At Curio Collection by Hilton, choose 1,000 Honors bonus points or continental breakfast
• At DoubleTree by Hilton, choose 1,000 Honors bonus points or continental breakfast
• At Embassy Suites, choose 500 Honors bonus points or two snacks/refreshments
• At Hampton by Hilton, choose 250 Honors bonus points or one bottle of water and one snack
• At Hilton, choose 1,000 Honors bonus points or continental breakfast
• At Home2 Suites by Hilton, choose 100 Honors bonus points or one bottle of water and one snack item
• At Homewood Suites by Hilton, choose 250 Honors bonus points or two bottles of water and a snack
• At LXR, choose 1,000 Honors bonus points or continental breakfast
• At Motto by Hilton, choose 500 Honors bonus points or a daily food & beverage credit
• At Signia by Hilton, choose 1,000 Honors bonus points or continental breakfast
• At Tapestry Collection by Hilton, choose 1,000 Honors bonus points or continental breakfast
• At Tru by Hilton, choose 250 Honors bonus points or a bottle of water and a snack
• At Waldorf Astoria, choose 1,000 Honors bonus points or continental breakfast

Note that in each of the above cases where continental breakfast is listed, the benefit would actually be the food & beverage credit at properties in the United States.

Fifth night free on awards stays

While this is a perk for all Hilton Honors elite tiers, I still consider it to be extremely valuable. Hilton Honors elite members receive a fifth night free on award redemptions, which can stretch your Hilton Honors points further.

Late check-out, subject to availability

This is an area where Hilton Honors lags. Technically all Hilton Honors members receive late check-out subject to availability. However, this is entirely at the hotel’s discretion. Unlike at Hyatt and Marriott, no Hilton elite members receive guaranteed late check-out.

Milestone Bonuses

This will only be of value if you stay with Hilton a lot, but the program offers 10,000 bonus points every 10 nights after you’ve stayed 40 nights in a calendar year.

Differences between Hilton Gold & Diamond status

In helping people decide what status to go for, I think it’s worth just briefly comparing Hilton Honors Gold and Diamond status. Diamond status is Hilton’s top-tier status, and is also offered just for having the Hilton Honors Aspire Card from American Express.

The most significant differences between the status levels are as follows:

• Gold members receive 80% bonus points, Diamond members receive 100% bonus points
• Gold upgrades explicitly exclude suites, while Diamond upgrades include suites (though still only at the discretion of the hotel)
• Gold members only get executive lounge access when upgraded to an executive room, while Diamond members get executive lounge access even if not upgraded to an executive room
• Gold members receive standard Wi-Fi, while Diamond members receive premium Wi-Fi

Both elite tiers offer free breakfast (or food & beverage credit) and some sort of room upgrades, so both can be worth having. However, you will definitely notice a difference in treatment at some properties, especially outside the United States.

If you stay at Hiltons frequently, I do think it’s worth trying to attain Diamond status, at least if it’s easy to do so.

Bottom line

Hilton Honors Gold status is in my opinion the most useful mid-tier hotel status, given that it consistently offers complimentary continental breakfast (or a hotel credit in the United States). Other perks include things like room upgrades, executive lounge access (sometimes), and bonus points.

Given how easy Hilton Honors Gold status is to earn, I think this is a great elite tier. Both the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass^® Card and Hilton Honors American Express Business Card offer Honors Gold status for as long as you have the card, so that’s great.

For the more frequent Hilton guest, I absolutely think it’s worth getting the Hilton Honors Aspire Card from American Express in order to earn Hilton Honors Diamond status. This could lead to better room upgrades, more consistent lounge access, and more bonus points.

Hilton Honors Gold status compares pretty favorably to other mid-tier hotel statuses, including IHG One Rewards Platinum status and World of Hyatt Explorist status.

If you’re a Hilton Gold member, what has your experience been like?

The information and associated card details on this page for the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card has been collected independently by OMAAT and has not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

The following links will direct you to the rates and fees for mentioned American Express Cards. These include: Hilton Honors American Express Card (Rates & Fees), The Business Platinum® Card from American Express (Rates & Fees), The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card (Rates & Fees), The Platinum Card® from American Express (Rates & Fees), and Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card (Rates & Fees).