Hilton Honors free night certificates are among the most valuable hotel perks available, letting you save hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars at top properties worldwide.
Unlike most programs that restrict free nights to certain categories or point values, Hilton certificates can be used almost anywhere — even at the brand’s most luxurious resorts.
These certificates are issued through select Hilton cobranded credit cards, either on your card anniversary or after meeting specific spending thresholds.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to earn these certificates, redeem them and maximize their value.
Related: The best Hilton hotels in the world
Overview of Hilton free night certificates
Let’s start with the basics. Hilton free night certificates come with some simple rules and features:
- Standard award rooms only: They can’t be used for upgraded “Premium Room Rewards.”
- No blackout dates: If a standard award room is available, you can use your certificate.
- Valid for 12 months: Certificates expire one year from the date of issuance.
- Any night of the week: There are no weekend-only restrictions.
- Easy to track: You can view unused certificates (and those redeemed in the last 12 months) in your Hilton Honors account.
Each Hilton credit card awards certificates differently, which we’ll cover next.
Related: The best hotel credit cards that come with an annual free night
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How to earn Hilton free night certificates
The following two Hilton credit cards offer ways to earn valuable free night certificates.
Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card
With the Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card, you’ll receive one free night upon opening the card and then one each year after your account renewal.
The information for the Hilton Aspire Card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
You can earn a second annual free night by spending $30,000 on the card in a calendar year and a third night when you spend $60,000 in a calendar year.
TPG director of content for credit cards and points and miles, Carly Helfand, is a big fan of the Hilton Aspire:
“I’ve maximized free night certificates from the Hilton Honors Aspire to stay at some of Hilton’s top properties worldwide, including the Conrad Maldives, Conrad Bora Bora, Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos, Waldorf Astoria Grand Wailea and Conrad Punta de Mita. The fact that they’re not capped at a certain number of points makes it easier to get immense value from them and means they’re unaffected by the devaluations we’ve seen from Hilton twice in the last year.”
The card comes with a $550 annual fee but also includes benefits like complimentary Hilton Honors Diamond status and up to $200 biannually (up to $400 each calendar year) in statement credits for eligible purchases at eligible Hilton resorts.
Current welcome bonus: Earn 175,000 bonus points after spending $6,000 on purchases on the card in the first six months of card membership. Offer ends Aug. 13.
Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card
Both new and existing holders of the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Card can earn a free night certificate after spending $15,000 on eligible purchases on the card in a calendar year.
The card also provides complimentary Hilton Gold status, plus up to $50 back each quarter (up to $200 per calendar year) on Hilton purchases.
Current welcome bonus: Earn 130,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first six months of card membership. New cardholders will also enjoy a $0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then a $150 annual fee (see rates and fees). Offer ends Aug. 13.
Related: Hilton Surpass vs. Hilton Aspire: Do you want Gold or Diamond status?
Where can Hilton free night certificates be redeemed?
While each certificate is valid at virtually any property in the worldwide Hilton portfolio, just over 60 are excluded, including many Hilton Grand Vacations properties and other “distinctive properties.” You can see the full list of these excluded properties on Hilton’s website.
Still, the vast majority of Hilton Honors properties, including aspirational hotels and resorts in places ranging from Bora Bora and the Maldives to Kyoto, Japan, and Park City, Utah, accept these certificates.
This makes Hilton free night certificates more valuable than comparable ones offered by IHG One Rewards, Marriott Bonvoy and World of Hyatt, which generally restrict certificates to certain hotel categories or points redemption values.
When will you receive your Hilton free night certificate?
Hilton free night certificates are sent electronically to your email address on file.
The Hilton Aspire’s terms and conditions indicate that your initial free night certificate should arrive within eight to 14 weeks after opening the card. Then, your annual certificate should arrive within eight to 14 weeks of your card anniversary date.
For certificates earned through spending, you’ll receive them eight to 12 weeks after reaching the spending requirement.
However, we’ve found the process to be much quicker in practice. That said, your experience may vary, so don’t plan on using these certificates too soon after you earn them.
How to use Hilton free night certificates
Once you’ve earned one (or more) of these certificates, the process to redeem them is straightforward. Historically, this had to be completed over the phone, but you can also do it by online chat. Either way, we’ve found the booking experience to be relatively hassle-free.
However, before you even pick up the phone, you’ll want to verify that your desired property has standard award inventory available for your desired dates. If standard rooms are sold out or you would rather book premium rooms, you must either pay out of pocket or redeem Hilton points.
To check availability, go to the Hilton website, enter your search criteria (be sure to check the “Use Points” box) and then look for any property with “Standard Room Reward” listed in the results.
In this example, for a one-night stay in Los Angeles, you couldn’t use your free night certificate for the first property (the DoubleTree) because it only has Premium Room Rewards availability. Conversely, you can use your certificate at any of the other three hotels shown.
Some hotels may have multiple room types under the “Standard Room Reward” designation, so be sure to look at each individual property to confirm the available rooms.
Once you’ve verified that standard awards are available, call Hilton at 800-446-6677. Let the agent know that you would like to make a reservation using your free night certificate(s) from your American Express card(s).
Each free night should be associated with your account, but the email you received will have the certificate number in case the agent has trouble locating it.
If you have two or more Hilton free night certificates, you should be able to apply them to a single reservation, like in the following example.
Even though this confirmation listed the regular award cost (100,000 points for a two-night stay), those points weren’t actually used since two free night certificates were attached to the reservation.
Note that these certificates can’t be combined with Hilton’s fifth-night-free perk, so you don’t want to use them on a five-night stay, as you must redeem points for all five nights to get one free. However, you could use a certificate for a sixth night, which can be a great option to extend your stay at a luxury resort.
Finally, it’s worth mentioning that the automatic Hilton elite status provided by credit cards is honored on all stays booked directly with Hilton, including reservations using free night certificates.
Related: When you should redeem free night certificates instead of hotel points
How to maximize Hilton free night certificates
Now that you know how to redeem your certificates, here are some strategies we’ve used to maximize the value of these credit card perks.
Redeem them at higher-tier properties
Your priority should be to redeem Hilton free night certificates at higher-tier properties. That’s because these certificates are valid at virtually all properties around the world, even those pricing as much as 200,000 Hilton Honors points per night.
When you’re deciding how to use these free nights, our advice is to aim for properties that cost 120,000 points or more per night. Since Hilton points are worth 0.5 cents apiece based on TPG’s August 2025 valuations, and since these certificates are essentially substitutes for using points, you’d get $600 of value on a 120,000-point stay.
You can often get far more than that, though.
For instance, the night below at the Waldorf Astoria Seychelles Platte Island costs an eye-watering $2,059. But since this is a standard room reward, bookable with 150,000 Hilton Honors points, you could pay for it with a free night certificate and save yourself over $2,000.
You won’t get that sort of value from most World of Hyatt free night certificates, IHG One Rewards free night certificates and Marriott Bonvoy free night certificates.
Here are some terrific properties that normally require a high number of points per night:
Related: Is the $100 property credit for select Hilton cardmembers worth using?
Look for high paid rates
Another strategy to maximize the value of your certificates is to look for properties with high cash prices. High paid rates tend to correlate with high award rates, but that’s not always the case.
Upscale hotels may have surprisingly low prices in the offseason, while you’ll often see low- to mid-tier properties charging sky-high room rates during special events, even though the number of points you’d need to redeem for a free night isn’t unreasonable.
For example, TPG contributing credit cards editor Matt Moffitt used a free night certificate at the Motto by Hilton New York City Chelsea. While it’s a lower-tier property compared to other Hilton hotels in the city, its convenient location made it the perfect fit, and the certificate helped offset steep cash rates.
Although Hilton dynamically prices its stays, its Points Explorer tool can help with your search.
This resource will highlight the maximum number of points a property can charge and the lowest award rate a member has booked.
Generally speaking, if you find a weekend night when the property is charging the maximum award price, that’ll correlate to high paid rates. So, you’ll receive solid value for your Hilton free night certificate.
Combine with other reservations
If you only have one or two Hilton free night certificates and are planning a longer stay, consider combining them with a paid stay or a regular award stay. While these might need to be booked separately, it does provide some additional benefits:
- It allows you to redeem an award for more expensive nights: There are many times when a weekend night costs significantly more than a weeknight — for instance, in Las Vegas, we’ve seen properties go for 50,000 points on a Saturday night but only 34,000 points on a Sunday night. By combining a free night certificate with a standard booking, you can pay for the cheaper night with cash or points and attach the certificate to the pricier one.
- It can be combined with card perks: Many cards offer perks for hotel stays, and some of these can be leveraged with a free night. For example, you could combine a free night with a separate reservation through a program like American Express Fine Hotels + Resorts via The Platinum Card® from American Express.
- You could talk your way into an upgrade: A final possible strategy for scoring an upgraded room would be to combine a free night certificate (or two) with a premium room reward at the end of your stay. As long as the premium room type you booked is available at check-in, you might have luck convincing the agent to bump you right into the upgraded accommodations for the entire stay. Just be aware that this plan could backfire, forcing you to switch rooms halfway through your stay.
Bottom line
You can redeem free night certificates at most properties in the Hilton Honors portfolio, giving you a multitude of ways to maximize their value.
The Hilton Surpass Card and the Hilton Aspire Card provide a wealth of opportunities to earn these valuable certificates.
So, whether you’re a Hilton loyalist or you only stay at Hilton properties occasionally, it could be worth adding one of these cards to your wallet.
For rates and fees of the Hilton Surpass Amex card, click here.