Hilton 5th Night Free: How It Really Works

All information about the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card has been collected independently by 10xTravel.

If you frequently stay at Hilton hotels and resorts, you’re probably a member of the Hilton Honors program. Through this program, you can earn Hilton points by staying at Hilton properties, transferring points from several credit card rewards programs (in fact, Bilt Rewards just recently added Hilton Honors as a transfer partner in early May 2024) and in several other ways. These points can then be redeemed for free stays at Hilton hotels and resorts.

Of course, not all Hilton points redemptions offer the same amount of value per point. You’ll typically get more value out of Hilton points when redeeming at upscale properties when cash rates are high. However, one of the best ways to maximize the value of your Hilton points is to utilize the “fifth night free” perk, which gives you every fifth night free when booking Hilton Honors award stays of up to 20 days.

This benefit is only available to Hilton Honors elite status members (Silver, Gold and Diamond). Luckily, Hilton Honors Silver status is one of the easiest hotel elite statuses to earn in the whole industry, and you can achieve it by simply signing up for the no-annual-fee Hilton Honors American Express Card (see rates & fees). You can also earn Hilton elite status by signing up for any of the other Hilton co-branded credit cards as well as with The Platinum Card® from American Express (see rates & fees).

It’s worth noting that similar benefits are also available with other hotel programs. For instance, the Marriott Bonvoy program offers a fifth night free perk, which is available to all Marriott Bonvoy members, not just elite status members. IHG One Rewards offers a fourth night free benefit that’s available to members with certain IHG co-branded credit cards. Nonetheless, the Hilton Honors fifth night free benefit is still a fantastic way to get great value if you have a balance of Hilton points.

So, if you’re interested in booking a stay of five days or more with Hilton Honors points, you should definitely look into the fifth night free benefit and how you can use it to get free stays at Hilton hotels and resorts. In this article, we’re going to cover all necessary information about the fifth night free perk, including how this benefit works, how you can earn it, other perks that come with Hilton elite status and how to quickly earn Hilton points to use toward your next award stay.

What Is The Hilton Honors Fifth Night Free Benefit?

The Hilton Honors fifth night free benefit is a feature available with any Hilton Honor elite status level (Silver, Gold and Diamond). This feature, however, is not available to Hilton Honors members without elite status.

The fifth night free benefit applies when you book a Standard Room Reward stay of five or more nights. For instance, if you book a Standard Room Reward for five nights at a nightly rate of 20,000 Hilton points, you’d only have to pay 80,000 points (20,000 points per night x 4 nights) if you had Hilton Honors elite status. However, if you didn’t have Hilton Honors elite status, you’d have to pay 100,000 points for the same stay (20,000 points per night x 5 nights) without the fifth night free benefit.

Elite status members can utilize the fifth night free benefit on an unlimited number of stays per year. And, you can use this benefit multiple times on the same booking on stays of up to 20 days. For instance, if you were to book a 20-night stay, you would receive the 5th, 10th, 15th and 20th nights free.

This benefit applies only to Standard Room Rewards and not to paid stays or stays booked with the Points & Money option. A Standard Room is defined by each hotel and is subject to availability. This benefit also doesn’t apply to stays booked as part of a Reward Stay offer, package or promotion offered by Hilton or any of its partners.

Hilton Honors Membership Tiers

To gain access to the fifth night free benefit, you must be an elite status member in the Hilton Honors program. When you first sign up for the Hilton Honors program, you will automatically gain Member status, which is not an elite status and doesn’t include the fifth night free benefit. However, by completing a certain number of qualifying nights at Hilton properties or earning a certain number of Hilton base points within a calendar year, you can move up to the three elite status tiers: Silver, Gold and Diamond.

Almost all night stays at Hilton properties will help you achieve elite status. However, there’s also a certain number of separate stays required for each elite status. For example, to achieve Silver status, you need to complete 10 qualifying nights and four separate stays.

Alternatively, you can reach elite status by earning a certain number of base points within a calendar year. Base points are Hilton points that are earned on stays at Hilton properties, excluding elite status tier bonus points. Hilton points earned from credit card spending, with car rental partners, through Hilton Honors Dining and in other similar ways are not considered base points.

You can automatically achieve Hilton Honors elite status by signing up for one of the Hilton co-branded credit cards, all of which are issued by American Express.

Hilton Honors Membership: Member

To achieve Hilton Honors Member status, you only need to enroll in the Hilton Honors program. You can do so by visiting the Hilton Honors website and clicking the “Join” button in the top-right corner of the screen. Then, you can simply enter your personal information and join the program for free. While those with Hilton Honors Member status don’t have access to the fifth night free benefit, this status does include the following perks:

• Guaranteed Hilton Honors Discount rate on cash bookings
• No resort fees on reward stays
• Ability to choose from available rooms up to 24 hours in advance
• Free Wi-Fi
• Access to exclusive Hilton Honors Experiences
• Access to digital check-in, digital checkout and digital room key through the Hilton Honors app

Once you enroll in the Hilton Honors program, your Member status will ensure you remain eligible for life.

Hilton Honors Membership: Silver

To achieve Silver elite status in the Hilton Honors program, you’ll need to either complete 10 qualifying nights at Hilton properties (and four separate stays) or earn 25,000 base points in a calendar year. Alternatively, you can automatically achieve Silver status by signing up for the Hilton Honors American Express Card (no annual fee).

Hilton Honors Silver elite status comes with the following benefits:

• All benefits included with Member status
• 20% bonus points on stays
• Fifth night free on award stays
• 15% off at all-inclusive spas within the Hilton portfolio of brands
• Two free bottles of water when you arrive (only at select hotels)
• Elite rollover nights toward next year’s status

Once you earn Silver elite status (or any other elite status tier), you will retain that status for the calendar year in which you earned it as well as for the following calendar year. For instance, if you earned Silver elite status in June 2024, you would have Silver status for the remainder of 2024 and the entirety of 2025. However, during the year 2025, you’d have to once again meet the requirements for Silver elite status in order to keep that status for 2026.

Hilton Honors Membership: Gold

To reach Hilton Honors Gold elite status, you’ll need to either complete 40 qualifying nights at Hilton properties (and 20 separate stays) or earn 75,000 base points in a calendar year. Alternatively, you can automatically receive Hilton Honors Gold status by signing up for the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card ($150 annual fee; see rates & fees), The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card ($95 annual fee; see rates & fees) or The Platinum Card® from American Express ($695 annual fee).

Here are the benefits included with Hilton Honors Gold status:

• All benefits included with Silver status
• 80% bonus points on stays
• Daily food and beverage credit or complimentary continental breakfast for the member and one guest for each night of your stay
• Space-available room upgrades up to Executive Floor room types
• Milestone bonuses: earn 10,000 bonus points every 10 nights stayed after you’ve stayed 40 nights in a calendar year

Once you achieve 40 nights in a calendar year, you’ll earn 10,000 bonus points for every additional 10 nights that you stay in that calendar year. For example, you’ll earn 10,000 bonus points when you reach 50 nights per calendar year, an additional 10,000 bonus points when you reach 60 nights per calendar year and so on.

Just as with Silver status, once you achieve Gold status, your status will be valid for the remainder of the year in which you earned it as well as the entire subsequent calendar year. However, you’ll again need to meet the qualifications for Gold status in the following year of your membership period in order to requalify for Gold status.

Hilton Honors Membership: Diamond

You’ll need to complete 60 nights (and 30 separate stays) or earn 120,000 base points in a calendar year in order to reach Hilton Honors Diamond status. Alternatively, you can earn Diamond status by signing up for the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card ($550 annual fee; see rates & fees).

These are the benefits included with Hilton Honors Diamond status:

• All benefits included with Gold status
• 100% bonus points on stays
• Executive lounge access
• Premium Wi-Fi
• Space-available room upgrades up to a 1-bedroom suite
• 48-hour room guarantee (some restrictions apply)
• Ability to gift Gold status to another member when you reach 60 nights in a calendar year (that member will also be upgraded to Diamond status when you reach 100 nights in a calendar year)
• Receive a one-time Diamond status extension of one year when you have been a Diamond member for three years and stayed 250 Lifetime nights or earned 500,000 base points

It’s worth noting that the Hilton Honors program also offers Lifetime Diamond status to members who have had Diamond status for 10 years (these years don’t need to be consecutive) and have either completed 1,000 nights at Hilton properties (either paid or award nights) or earned at least 2 million lifetime base points. Lifetime Diamond status members receive all of the perks of regular Diamond status without having to meet the requirements each year.

With regular Diamond status, you’ll enjoy the benefits for the remainder of the year in which you earned your status as well as the entire following year. If you want to retain your Diamond status after that membership period is over, you’ll have to meet the requirements again.

How The Hilton Fifth Night Free Works

In order to use the Hilton fifth night free benefit, which is only available to Hilton Silver, Gold and Diamond elite status members, you’ll first need to visit the Hilton Honors website and log in to your account. If you aren’t logged into your account, the fifth night free benefit will not be applied to the final award price at checkout.

Then, you can enter your desired hotel location and dates in the search bar on the Hilton Honors homepage. From there, once you press the “Search” button, you’ll see a list of results that match your search query. To book these hotels with points, you can click the “Use Points” box.

Once you find your desired hotel, you can simply click through to the checkout page where you’ll see the award price of your desired stay. As long as you’re logged in, you’re a Hilton Honors elite member, you’ve selected a Standard Room Reward and the duration of your stay is five nights or more, then the fifth night free benefit should automatically apply.

The fifth night free perk may not apply if you book your award stay as part of a promo offer from Hilton.

How to Quickly Earn Hilton Honor Points

Of course, to take advantage of the Hilton fifth night free perk, you’ll need to have a solid balance of Hilton points to pay for the four nights (or more) or your stay that aren’t free. The most obvious way to earn Hilton points is to book stays at Hilton properties with your Hilton Honors credentials. However, there are many other ways to rack up Hilton points, including taking Lyft rides, using the Hilton Honors Dining program and more.

However, if you want to earn a large sum of Hilton points quickly, the best way is to sign up for one of the four Hilton co-branded credit cards (three personal cards and one business card), all of which are issued by American Express. All of these cards offer welcome bonuses of tens of thousands of points to new cardmembers who spend a certain amount on their card in a certain period of time after account opening. These welcome bonuses can instantly give you enough points to book several nights at a Hilton property.

The following table includes all of the most important features of these four co-branded credit cards:

Deciding which card is suitable for you depends on your spending habits and travel plans, particularly with Hilton. However, if you’re looking to speed through the Hilton Honors membership tiers and quickly earn enough points to use your Fifth Night Free benefit, opening a Hilton Honors credit card is a pretty safe bet.

Of course, another way to boost your balance of Hilton Honors points quickly is to transfer points into the Hilton Honors program from American Express Membership Rewards. There is a 4:5 transfer ratio when converting Amex points to Hilton points. For instance, if you were to transfer 20,000 Amex points, you would receive 25,000 Hilton points. You must transfer a minimum of 200 points, and all transfers must be in increments of 40. Transfers from American Express Membership Rewards to Hilton Honors post within five working days, according to the American Express website.

You can quickly earn Amex points by signing up for a new Amex credit card, such as the American Express Platinum card (which comes with automatic Hilton Honors Gold status, unlocking access to the Hilton fifth night free perk) and earning the welcome bonus. Here is the current welcome offer from the Amex Platinum card:

Once you’ve earned that welcome bonus, you can transfer those points to the Hilton Honors program (at a favorable 4:5 transfer ratio) and use them to redeem the fifth free night stay benefit.

The Bottom Line

In general, the Hilton Honors program is one of the best hotel rewards programs out there due to its attractive credit card lineup, easy-to-earn elite status and massive portfolio of amazing properties. By using Hilton’s “fifth night free” perk when booking award stays, you can get some incredible value out of your Hilton points.

The fifth night free perk on rewards stays is only available to Hilton Honors elite status members. However, Hilton Honors Silver status is one of the easiest hotel elite statuses to earn in the entire industry. You can reach Silver status just by signing up for the no-annual-fee Hilton Honors American Express Card. You can also earn Hilton elite status by signing up for any of the other Hilton co-branded credit cards or the Amex Platinum card.

In addition to unlocking access to the fifth night free perk, these Hilton co-branded credit cards offer lucrative welcome bonuses and ongoing spending bonuses that can help you quickly rack up enough Hilton Honors points to book an award stay. You can also rack up Hilton points by transferring points from the American Express Membership Rewards program at a favorable 4:5 ratio. And, of course, booking paid stays at Hilton properties is another great way to rack up Hilton points.

When redeeming Hilton points for free night stays, in general, upscale Hilton resorts offer far more value per point than budget hotels, especially when you consider that Hilton waives resort fees on award stays. And, if you want to get the best possible value for your Hilton points, make sure to utilize the fifth night free perk, which offers every fifth night free when you book award stays of up to 20 nights (up to four nights free) at participating Hilton hotels.