The Hilton Phoenix Airport was the 8th stay of the trip and the one that would tip me over into Diamond status. It is located close to the airport on the south east corner and has a shuttle bus. I took an Uber as I didn’t want to wait and I was there in less than 10 minutes.

Check in was painless, and I booked the shuttle back to the airport for the following morning. The hotel has a central pool area which the room looked out over.

The room was well furnished, but nothing special. For $80 it is hard to complain.

By this point in the trip I was looking forward to getting home. I ate in the hotel restaurant and was pleased at the range of craft beer on tap. I had a vegetarian burger which was great (but not particularly photogenic!) and relaxed in the bar for a bit, before getting an early night ahead of a 0430 start the following morning.

Check out was easy, although I did have to wait for the shuttle bus as the first one didn’t show up.

Shortly after the stay, my status was upgraded to Diamond through to March 2020. This has been extended by a year due to Covid-19, so I will have had 3 years of top tier status at Hilton thanks to the status match. Happy days!