We just took a roadtrip that involved three separate stays at Hilton Hotels. The first three nights were at Chicago Waldorf using our two free certificates from the Citi Reserve card. The third night we paid for. Fabulous place to stay and they treated our two dogs as if they were human guests.
Then on to the Indianapolis Hilton for a conference. Kind of dated hotel, but all in all a nice stay for which we as gold members got an upgrade. They are apparently updating from the top floors down.
Last stop was Madison WI Hilton. Beautiful hotel. We used points for this one. Originally it was fully booked, and I booked elsewhere, but a few days before, a King room became available for 40K points and snagged it. Happy to get three stays from this roadtrip.
When we arrived, there was no bellman or valet outside or inside. I went to the check in and the gal started the checkin process. A manager came up and profusely apologized, and told us our King room was not available b/c people from Friday night decided to stay longer and they couldn't very well kick them out. Instead we were getting a room with 2 double beds.
He offered us two free drink tix and comped our Valet for which we felt *at first* was a fair trade... until we got into bed. Not only were there myself and my husband in the double bed, but also the two dogs. The other bed had our luggage on it b/c there wasn't space in the room for the luggage and the two dog crates. I hardly got any sleep whatsoever because we were all so squished in.
The next morning at checkout, she asked how the stay was and I asked her, "Honestly?" and I proceeded to very politely tell her that we were originally ok with the downgrade, but experienced great discomfort when it came to sleeping in the double bed. I would have never used points for a room with double beds. I explained I felt like we were downgraded from business class to economy and why was it ok to downgrade us, but they couldn't downgrade people who decided to stay BEYOND their reservation? She asked what I would like to fix it and I suggested a redeposit of some points. She said she couldn't do that, but to call the GM on Monday.
I did just that and left a very polite voicemail explaining the situation and he promptly returned my call notifying me that my complaint was valid and all 40K points will be redeposited back to our account. He apologized profusely and agreed that the downgrade (even though king and double beds are standard rooms), for our situation compromised our comfort.
Very happy and pleased with how this was handled. It really is a very nice hotel and we would go back again, hopefully at a time when there isn't a convention and wedding at the place.
Then on to the Indianapolis Hilton for a conference. Kind of dated hotel, but all in all a nice stay for which we as gold members got an upgrade. They are apparently updating from the top floors down.
Last stop was Madison WI Hilton. Beautiful hotel. We used points for this one. Originally it was fully booked, and I booked elsewhere, but a few days before, a King room became available for 40K points and snagged it. Happy to get three stays from this roadtrip.
When we arrived, there was no bellman or valet outside or inside. I went to the check in and the gal started the checkin process. A manager came up and profusely apologized, and told us our King room was not available b/c people from Friday night decided to stay longer and they couldn't very well kick them out. Instead we were getting a room with 2 double beds.
He offered us two free drink tix and comped our Valet for which we felt *at first* was a fair trade... until we got into bed. Not only were there myself and my husband in the double bed, but also the two dogs. The other bed had our luggage on it b/c there wasn't space in the room for the luggage and the two dog crates. I hardly got any sleep whatsoever because we were all so squished in.
The next morning at checkout, she asked how the stay was and I asked her, "Honestly?" and I proceeded to very politely tell her that we were originally ok with the downgrade, but experienced great discomfort when it came to sleeping in the double bed. I would have never used points for a room with double beds. I explained I felt like we were downgraded from business class to economy and why was it ok to downgrade us, but they couldn't downgrade people who decided to stay BEYOND their reservation? She asked what I would like to fix it and I suggested a redeposit of some points. She said she couldn't do that, but to call the GM on Monday.
I did just that and left a very polite voicemail explaining the situation and he promptly returned my call notifying me that my complaint was valid and all 40K points will be redeposited back to our account. He apologized profusely and agreed that the downgrade (even though king and double beds are standard rooms), for our situation compromised our comfort.
Very happy and pleased with how this was handled. It really is a very nice hotel and we would go back again, hopefully at a time when there isn't a convention and wedding at the place.