My Hilton HHonors Nightmare in re: "Best Rate" Guaranteed

Let me start off by saying that I loathe Hilton. LOATHE. Ever since Blackstone bought them from the Hilton Family, the HHonors programme has made a steady progression toward the bottom. Their farce of a BRG programme is just one example of this.

Two days ago, I was researching hotel rates for two additional nights I needed in Toronto during TIFF. I went on galahotels.com and found two properties with rates that were much lower than those found on Hilton's website. The properties were the Hilton Suites in Markham and the Hampton Inn in West Mississauga. Clearly, I did not care where I stayed as long as the rate was reasonable. The Markham property ("Hilton Suites") was US$137,25 a/i on galahotels.com, whilst Hilton wanted CA$196.04 a/i. The West Missassauga property ("Hampton Inn") was US$127,58 a/i on galahotels.com, whilst Hilton wanted CA$145,77 a/i.

[The password for the screencaps is: flyertalk]

I figured this would be a slam dunk, so I submitted two claims on the BRG site. Additionally, I decided to call into Guest Assistance and have them file the claims on my behalf, since a claim I had submitted the week before was denied after being ignored for over 48 hours. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts to get these claims approved within a 24 hour window, Hilton went above and beyond to ensure that I would be challenged at every stage of the process.

This go-around, I called 25 hours after I heard no response to either of my claims and drew a Guest Assistance representative that had me spend the next 50 minutes on hold as she tried to figure out what happened. She saw one claim I had made for a reservation that I had cancelled, but didn't see the other two claims I had made with the Guest Assistance representative from the day before. Eventually, she asked for screen caps, and my claim was approved.

I received an E-mail from the Guest Assistance represenative initially indicating that I would receive a US$50,- credit on the bill for each of the properties. A half-hour later, the representative had backpeddled, and instead indicated that I would receive an AmEx Gift Cheque for each (as per the BRG T+C). I responded by kindly asking her to elevate this matter to a supervisor, so that I would get a credit instead given the frustration I had encountered getting these claims approved.

However...

... upon reviewing the reservations, I noticed that Hilton changed the rate, but tacked on an additional 13% (HST) for rates that had already included the HST. As such, the Hilton Suites would cost me CA$159,21 instead of CA$135,86, and Hampton Inn would cost me CA$142,85 instead of CA$126,29. The effect of this double taxation was that I would end up paying a near similar rate to those rates initially found on Hilton's two-bit website. I wrote another message to inform the Guest Assistance representative of this error, but I never heard back. I assume she had left for the day.

I thought all was almost well until a couple of hours ago when I received two E-mails from the person charged with the task of approving/denying BRG claims.

The first E-mail was regarding the claim I had submitted for the Hampton Inn:

I blew a stack when I saw this, and mustered the following response:
In hindsight, I should have also drawn attention to the fact that the rates were for the same dates as my reservation, but it's 3h now.

The second E-mail was regarding a claim I had submitted for Hampton Inn, which I cancelled, so I could book the Hilton Suites:

I didn't really come up with a better response to this message:

Given my experience, which I am sure is not unique, I am left wondering why Hilton offers a "best rate" guarantee at all. They've clearly pulled out all of the parlour tricks to prevent me from getting any claim approved. Further, when I attempt to take them to task on their denials, there is no one to receive those challenges. It seems like the ultimate lose-lose situation.

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad: