Can Hilton Travel Agent Rates really save you money on your hotel booking?
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What are Hilton Travel Agent Rates?
Like other major hotel brands and travel providers, Hilton Hotels & Resorts is known for offering preferred lower rates to travel agents, either for the agents themselves or for them to book on behalf of their clients.
Launched ten years ago, Hilton Worldwide Travel Agents does more than just offer travel professionals a booking portal to get a discount, however. In addition to a discount that’s said to be up to 50%, Hilton offers travel tools and resources, pays commission and participates in the ‘Unlimited Budget’ program, the travel agent incentive program that pays cash rewards. There’s also a useful educational tool – the Hilton Travel Professionals Program – where you can learn more about the brand to benefit your clients.
Hilton Worldwide Travel Agents has a promotional page, where you can find exclusive rates, discounts and points offers for travel professionals and consumers. Right now there’s just one promotion for travel agents, to encourage you to stay at each of Hilton’s brands:
As expected, the T&C state that valid IATA/IATAN photo ID is required at check-in and the offer is for Travel Agent personal travel only.
It’s interesting to see that some individual Hilton properties seem to advertise the travel agent site information more than others. Right now, the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort, which we reviewed here, has this dedicated page:
How do I use Hilton Travel Agent Rates?
You can directly access the site here and search for rates. However, with several San Francisco searches we tried, including the Hilton San Francisco Union Square, no travel agent discount showed:
The only difference was that when ticking the ‘Travel Agent’ box under ‘Rate Types’, it then showed which rates were commissionable and non-commissionable:
Then we finally found a Travel Agent Rate at the Hilton Garden Inn San Francisco / Oakland Bay Bridge – one night for $134 plus taxes instead of $144 plus taxes for a Hilton HHonors member:
This is a fairly small discount and it does seem that YMMV on whether you get a discount or not and with the amount, depending on the property and your dates.
The Hilton HHonors Travel Agent and Airline Employee offer…
Hilton HHonors has a special promotion that’s been running for at least a couple of years, where travel agents and airline staff can get a discount of up to 50% when you book a stay at one of 250 hotels worldwide.
We searched San Francisco again and the same hotel that showed no travel agent discount earlier, the Hilton San Francisco Union Square, came up at $199.75 before taxes for travel agents and airline staff, instead of $423 before taxes for the HHonors Semi-Flex rate:
After taxes, that’s a saving of $281.34, which is a 55% discount off the HHonors member rate!
What else do I need to know about Hilton Travel Agent Rates?
Our tests didn’t conclusively show that you can always save money on your Hilton hotel booking by using travel agent rates via Hilton Worldwide Travel Agents, but if your search fails there, it seems you can certainly benefit from using the special promotion instead. It’s just a shame that it’s limited to only 250 Hilton properties! To get this rate, you’ll need to show valid travel agency or airline employee identification when you check in.
It’s always best to compare rates on the main Hilton site before booking, just in case.
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About the author: Torsten is a serial entrepreneur who started almost a dozen ventures on four continents. Torsten's love for travel has brought him to 130+ countries and travel with most of the world's airlines. You can reach Torsten at [email protected]
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