A few weeks ago, I got serious about my hotel status and did a "fast track to Gold" challenge with Hilton Honors. (You can find my post about it here.)

Basically, I called up HHonors customer service, and they offered me a deal whereby I could get myself quickly to HHonors Gold VIP status by with four stays or nine nights in the next 90 days. This was a great deal for me since I was already booked to stay at a Hilton property for seven days for a ...