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You may have heard it through the rumor mill in the past few weeks that Hilton Honors is set to announce major changes to its program. Now the news is official: Hilton Honors is making elite status easier to earn starting in 2026. Plus, the program will introduce a new top tier called Diamond Reserve for its most frequent guests and biggest spenders.
The changes will go into effect in January, so there’s still time to digest this news. Here are some of those nitty-gritty points — including details from a roundtable discussion I had with Hilton executives this week.
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Hilton Honors Elite Status Will Be Easier to Earn in 2026
In recent weeks, there has been a sense of anticipation and unease due to the emergence of some unconfirmed rumors that have been circulating. But gladly, there is no need for alarm or concern, as Hilton's changes for next year are quite positive and promising.
Starting in 2026, achieving elite status with Hilton Honors will become relatively more accessible, thanks to the introduction of newer and more attainable thresholds for qualification:
- Hilton Silver: 10 nights (no change), 4 stays, or $2,500 in spending
- Hilton Gold: 25 nights (down from 40 nights), 20 stays, or $6,000 in spending
- Hilton Diamond: 50 nights (down from 60 nights), 30 stays, or $11,500 in spending
Even though Hilton is making elite status easier to earn by lowering the night requirements, it isn’t planning to scale back any benefits. Every benefit you currently have will remain unchanged for at least the next program year.
It's worth noting that base points are still around, but they are not used for status qualification any longer as annual spend is the metric to keep in mind from now on.
Introducing Hilton Honors Diamond Reserve Status
The most exciting part of this announcement comes in the way of a new elite tier added to the status journey. Diamond Reserve will take its place at the top of the status levels, displacing the prior top-tier Diamond status. This new level comes with a slew of new perks that weren’t available to members in the program before. These include guaranteed late check-out and confirmable upgrades, among others.
How to earn Hilton Honors Diamond Reserve
This new tier comes with new status qualifiers. To earn a place at the summit of this status ladder, you’ll need to accrue a total of 40 stays or 80 nights per year as well as a total of $18,000 in eligible spend annually. Eligible spend continues to mean room rate and incidentals (including for reward stays) and not any kind of credit card spend.
With the launch of these changes next year, Hilton Honors plans to release a spend tracker so members can see how close they are to reaching this new level.
There will be no shortcut to achieve Diamond Reserve through any of the existing Hilton cobranded credit cards, as this is considered a purely stay-driven product.
This tier is intended to be exclusive — as opposed to massive. It's meant to reward those Hilton Honors power users just a tad more than the rest of the Diamond elites in the program. It takes the best of Diamond and supercharges it. There will be no Lifetime Diamond Reserve level, but any Reserve member who does not qualify for the following year will soft land at Diamond.
Benefits of Hilton Honors Diamond Reserve
These changes are sure to excite anybody who’s already hitting these qualifiers or is relatively close to doing so in the future. The most exclusive perks reserved for this status include:
- Confirmable Upgrade Rewards (CUR) for premium room upgrades.
- Guaranteed 4 pm late check-out for every one of your stays.
- Exclusive customer service from a dedicated team of specially trained agents who will deliver priority assistance, called the Diamond Reserve Desk.
- Access to executive lounges and Hilton’s Premium Clubs — a growing collection of exclusive on-property areas found at Hilton’s luxury, lifestyle or full-service hotels (think, Waldorf-Astoria, Conrad, Signia, etc.) where we will find elevated food and beverage offerings as well as quieter areas for relaxation or work.
- Highest priority for space-available upgrades, with the earliest confirmation — within three days of check-in.
- Elevated points earning with a 120% points bonus on every stay, making their status more rewarding.
On the topic of Premium Clubs, Hilton will make a comprehensive list of all of the available clubs across its properties in January once all these changes are set into motion, but as an example, the Club Signia at the Signia by Hilton Atlanta Georgia World Congress Center will be one of the U.S.-based ones, as will the Imperial Club at the Rome Cavalieri Waldorf Astoria Hotel.
How will Confirmable Upgrade Rewards work?
Perhaps the most anticipated and coveted of these perks will be the Confirmable Upgrade Rewards. These will help you lock in a premium room upgrade up to a one-bedroom suite for stays of up to seven nights at the time of booking — on both cash rates as well as reward stays.
These confirmable upgrades will work across the full Hilton portfolio of brands at upgrade-eligible hotels, including aspirational properties within the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and Resorts, Conrad Hotel and Resorts, Curio Collection Hotels and LXR Hotels and Resorts brands. SLH properties are, sadly, excluded from these new upgrade instruments as they do not generally provide those elite perks.
In conversations with the Hilton Honors leadership team, they discussed that mixed reservations — those where you are combining a few rewards nights along with some paid nights — will be eligible for these Confirmable Upgrade Rewards for up to seven nights. Though the upgrade reward will not be applicable through the website or the app, agents on the phone will be able to assist.
Members will earn the first Confirmable Upgrade Reward after achieving Diamond Reserve status, and will have another chance at a second reward when hitting the 120-night milestone mark. Optionally, those who do not want another upgrade reward can opt for 30,000 points instead.
How will the Diamond Reserve desk work?
In a conversation with Becky Ploeger, Hilton's Global Head of Reservations and Customer Care, she described how this new perk will work. She affectionately referred to her team as ‘guest whisperers' who are doubling down on enablement and providing little unforgettable moments in addition to the basics.
Agents will provide their services in the guests' preferred language and have a dedicated phone, email, and chat channel to communicate with. However, specific agents will not be assigned to guests. The expectation is that no matter who assists you in every interaction, the service level will be personalized.
The Reserve Desk team members were essentially selected from the top-most rated current team, thanks to rankings from customer interaction surveys Hilton has conducted recently, and will be plucked from the general customer service line into the Reserve Desk because of their innate ability to understand their guests' needs and create 5-minute friendships, and deliver exceptional gestures and unexpected surprises.
You may be familiar with similar programs like the very valuable My Hyatt Concierge, which assigns a concierge to each of its Globalist members and truly delivers value. Or, on the Marriott Bonvoy side, the Ambassadors, where there is a dedicated line but no dedicated person, which used to be exceptional in its inception but has since lost its shine. Hilton expects to drive value for its Diamond Reserve elites with an unrivaled level of service from this team, appealing to the emerging concept of emotional loyalty.
Final Thoughts
We live in strange times. We've grown used to loyalty programs introducing enhancements to their terms as a covert but not-so-subtle way to devalue the program. But this is not the case with the recent changes Hilton Honors is introducing.
While an annual spend of $18,000 won't be achievable to most people — including myself — Hilton's new Diamond Reserve tier is an addition to the program and not a subtraction. Hilton elites who do not reach this new status will continue to receive the same benefits, with even fewer nights required of them.
Those with more spendy stays will perhaps unlock access to this new, more rewarding level, Hilton Honors Diamond Reserve, which is sure to deliver more value to them. Everyone wins this time, it seems.
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