Hilton Food & Beverage Credit: How It Works - NerdWallet (2024)

For the folks out there who skip breakfast — or who just value the flexibility to eat breakfast anywhere they want rather than the hotel restaurant — this relatively new benefit from Hilton Honors should come as welcome news. A Hilton Honors Daily Food & Beverage credit offered to members with Gold or Diamond elite status are now entitled to statement credits that cover purchases made at hotel restaurants at eligible hotels.

The Hilton Honors Daily Food & Beverage credit appeared in 2022, at the same time that the free breakfast benefit formerly bestowed upon Hilton Honors members with Gold or Diamond elite status traveling at certain brands disappeared.

Depending on your travel style, the replacement benefit to the usual, complimentary continental breakfast is actually even better. That's because the credit can be used toward eligible food and beverage purchases charged to your room — at any time of day. You could use it toward the hotel breakfast buffet, or you might opt to put it toward dinner, a fancy coffee from the lobby cafe or snacks at the grab-and-go market.

If you’re a Hilton Honors member with Gold or Diamond elite status, you’ll automatically receive a credit for each night you stay at hotel brands in the U.S. where you previously would have received complimentary continental breakfast.

If you’re traveling with a buddy in the same room, you’ll get twice the credit. Up to one additional guest registered to the same room receives the credit. To use it, charge eligible food and beverage purchases to your room.

The amount of the credit varies by hotel brand. Generally speaking, more upscale hotel brands offer a higher credit. Here's what you can expect, broken down by Hilton brand:

Each credit is "use it or lose it" per night. So, you can’t stack a week’s worth of credits to blow on one fancy dinner.

And since it’s a room charge, you’ll owe whatever you spend beyond the credit’s value. If you have a $25 credit but you've spent $30, you’ll owe $5 upon checkout. Yet if you charge only $20, you won’t get $5 back. Though, you don't have to make all the charges at once, so you could spend $20 on breakfast and have $5 left for an afternoon snack.

Hilton offers three credit cards that offer Gold or Diamond elite status, which in turn provides a daily food and beverage credit (or free breakfast) depending on the hotel. Here are the cards, along with their perks.

Hotel breakfast offerings have significantly evolved since COVID-19 rocked the travel industry. Early in the pandemic, many hotels that offered breakfast buffets swapped them out for prepackaged, brown bag breakfasts. These days, some Hilton properties have reopened their buffets, but typically with modifications. For instance, sometimes an employee now scoops up food from behind a plastic barrier for you.

But here’s why this latest iteration might be the best:

While the new Hilton food and beverage credit is generally better than the former continental breakfast option, it still has issues.

In general, Hilton’s daily food and beverage credit for Gold and Diamond members is significantly more flexible than the old complimentary continental breakfast benefit. But it might end up costing more than you intended if you don’t pay attention to what you’re ordering.