On a recent stay at the Hilton Americas-Houston, I booked a standard room with Hilton Honors points and we were upgraded to a standard suite with our Hilton Honors Diamond status. A standard king room was going for about $208 (with tax) and was available for 38,000 points which comes out to about .54 cents per point which isn’t bad for Hilton Honors points. We went with Points and Money and booked the standard room for around $55 plus 12,000 points which I felt really good about.
At check-in and upon request, we were given an upgrade to a standard suite due to Hilton Honors Diamond status and we were off to the 18th floor to room 18007.
Since this was a suite with two adjoining rooms, we actually had two doors though we always just went through the door that took us through the living room since it was closer to the elevator.
The standard suite is essentially two adjoined standard rooms with one room furnished as the bedroom and the other as a living room (both have their own bathroom). The doors separating the units remain in place and so you’ll have to open them up from the inside of each room. It’s kind of an odd set-up, but I like having the ability to close-off one section of a suite from another. I think you can even connect a third room to open it up to a 2 bedroom suite as well.
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The suite
As soon as you enter the suite, there’s a large closet with an iron board, pillow, and plenty of room for your luggage.
Right next to the closet is the Cuisinart Coffeemaker along with two complimentary bottles of water.
Below that is a bit of cabinet space and a mini-fridge, which while compact, is still always welcomed in a room by me.
I’ve heard that if your room doesn’t have a mini-fridge you can request one (and a microwave as well). I haven’t tested that out yet, so I’m not sure if they will honor your request.
The suite felt very spacious with 686 square feet and I also liked that in the living room there’s a number of different sitting options.
There’s an L-shaped sectional couch taking up most of the room and sitting across from a large 37″ LCD TV. It’s got a sleek coffee table in front of it with some trendy striped art hanging over it which gives the room a modern feel.
My only issue with couch is that it was very firm and not very comfortable. There was another armchair seat with an ottoman and two cube cushion-seats as well, so you could find sitting room for a number of people in this suite if you were having a little get together.
The desk is also a great working station, as it’s pretty big and I liked the office chair and found it ergonomical. It’s also pretty cool to be able to look out from your desk and see the Houston skyline.
Each room had 3 to 4 lamps which lit the room up nicely — there was even a lamp that hung over artwork on the wall.
The bedroom was almost a mirror image of the other room, just with a king bed in place of the couch. The bed and bedding were very comfortable and I got great sleep. It was also nice having an outlet/USB on the side of the bed with the alarm clark.
The bedroom also had an additional desk, TV, coffee maker, mini-fridge, and also had its own bathroom.
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The views
I’m big on views so my favorite feature of the room had to be the view. From the 18th floor we had a fantastic view of the Downtown Houston skyline, and I really enjoyed watching both the sunrise and the sunset.
I work on the other side of the Downtown Houston, so I don’t always get to appreciate the skyline from this side of the city.
It’s also pretty cool to be able to look down and see the roof lit up on the Toyota Center.
This view was much different from the view at the Marriott Marquis that we had last year, I really like both views so it’s hard to choose one over the other, especially since the Marquis’ view of the lazy-river looks sick at night as seen below.
The bathrooms
The bathrooms in each room of the suite were identical. The sink and vanity were nicely lit with a decent amount of space on the granite countertop.
The bathroom amenities offered were from PeterThomasRoth. I tried them out and I thought they were at least decent. No complaints there.
The shower was a bit of a let down. I gauge hotels a lot on the quality of the shower and the tub/shower combo never does a lot to for me. The tiled walls surrounding the tub/shower, curved shower curtain bar, and deluxe shower head did give it a bit more of a luxurious look, however.
Final word
My experience in the Hilton Americas-Houston Standard Suite didn’t blow me away with elegance but it was still a very good hotel room. Having the amazing views of the Downtown Houston skyline certainly made the room feel a lot more luxurious and it was nice having so much room to roam around in the suite. I wish the showers were a bit nicer and the furniture more comfortable (besides the bed) but all things considered this was a solid room that I very much appreciated being upgraded to.
Daniel Gillaspia is the Founder of UponArriving.com and the credit card app, WalletFlo. He is a former attorney turned travel expert covering destinations along with TSA, airline, and hotel policies. Since 2014, his content has been featured in publications such as National Geographic, Smithsonian Magazine, and CNBC. Read my bio.
