Rooms for Houston Quilt Market 2010

[Tom the DH]

The Hilton $151 Quilt Market group rate is no longer available. The rate advertised on the Quilt Market Hilton booking page says $151, but the lowest available rate is $269. They must have filled the block of rooms they set aside for Quilt Market.

The Hilton has a covered walkway adjacent to the convention center, so I thought that'd be ideal for the wife. I also checked 9-days ago and it was the same rate situation.

If you are a Hilton Diamond member, you can use Diamond Special Assistance to get a rewards stay even though they are sold out of reward stays for non-Diamond members. In fact, I actually submitted a "special request" to book 9-nights (to include some days at Quilt Festival) they approved it. So if you want to use your Hilton Honors rewards points for this hotel during Quilt Market and the sold-out nights for Quilt Festival, you can as a Hilton Diamond member.

Unfortunately for us, I learned that if you use the Diamond Special Assistance to book rooms, they require that the Hilton Honors cardholder be present. For a normal reward stay, I can assign it to any family member. I wanted to book a reward stay for my wife as a surprise gift but I would have to fly out there just to check-in. That wouldn't be so bad, actually, if the rates for flights to Houston that week didn't sky rocket.

I booked the wife's travel from CA to IAH for $200 round-trip on Continental. The next day, when I had the idea to use my Hilton Honors reward points but was told I'd have to be there to check-in, I looked at booking the same flight and it went up to $700. Sure, we could go separate airlines and I would have to take additional stops to get to Houston for under $300 round-trip, but it's just not worth 12-hours of travel.

So in the end, I booked the DW at the Hyatt instead using the $150 Quilt Market group rate for 5-nights (no Festival for her this year). There's no walkway but as one of the host hotels, there will be a shuttle. It's only 0.7 miles anyways, not that bad, right?

Besides, isn't it more fun to meet fellow Market attendees on the shuttle each morning?