An odd HH experience!

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I've had 4 nights booked at Hilton Colombo residences for some time now for next January. My preference would have been the Hilton Colombo hotel due to the lounge availability but it was completely booked out for many weeks either side of the dates I wanted (in fact months I believe).

Well I was web surfing looking at various things to do in Sri Lanka and up pops www.hoteltravel.com which listed Hilton Colombo hotel for about the same rate as the residences I have booked. Wondering if rooms had become available, I looked via the Hilton web site and no go.....all booked out. I decided to ring HH to enquire as to why I could book through a third party but not with Hilton and the lady told me Hilton has no control over third party sites so I asked why I wasn't even offered the 48 hour guarantee. She could not answer that and transferred me to the "diamond" desk who told me the same thing (Hilton have no control over third party sites). I asked again about the 48 hour guarantee and she stated that the hotel would be over supplied and can't offer it. So I asked her whether I can book through the third party site and claim the best rate guarantee, to which she replied......wait for it.......that she didn't know they had a best rate guarantee :shock:. I asked her whether this was Hilton Honors diamond desk to which she growled "wait on, wait on, wait on.....just hold on a bit and I'll check" to which she placed me on hold. Well I must say I was very polite (best way to get something I've found) and very understanding, but she absolutely ripped my tonsils out with the abrasiveness. On top of that, neither of the ladies checked dates with me and I got the impression they may already know about this issue and it may be a recurrent problem for them. A recalcitrant hotel that prefers to release rooms to third party interests rather than Hilton, perhaps?

I have looked up the Best Rate Guarantee and it doesn't apply. You need to be able to book the same room which I cannot through Hilton. Even if they offered their 48 hour guarantee I may be able to invoke the BRG but they won't even do that. Perhaps that's the reason why.

Very odd response by HH.
 
No, no, this is an enhancement by HH. They'd prefer you to look at it like this- "at Hilton, every guest is treated like a Diamond guest".
:rolleyes:

I've had 4 nights booked at Hilton Colombo residences for some time now for next January. My preference would have been the Hilton Colombo hotel due to the lounge availability but it was completely booked out for many weeks either side of the dates I wanted (in fact months I believe).

Well I was web surfing looking at various things to do in Sri Lanka and up pops www.hoteltravel.com which listed Hilton Colombo hotel for about the same rate as the residences I have booked. Wondering if rooms had become available, I looked via the Hilton web site and no go.....all booked out. I decided to ring HH to enquire as to why I could book through a third party but not with Hilton and the lady told me Hilton has no control over third party sites so I asked why I wasn't even offered the 48 hour guarantee. She could not answer that and transferred me to the "diamond" desk who told me the same thing (Hilton have no control over third party sites). I asked again about the 48 hour guarantee and she stated that the hotel would be over supplied and can't offer it. So I asked her whether I can book through the third party site and claim the best rate guarantee, to which she replied......wait for it.......that she didn't know they had a best rate guarantee :shock:. I asked her whether this was Hilton Honors diamond desk to which she growled "wait on, wait on, wait on.....just hold on a bit and I'll check" to which she placed me on hold. Well I must say I was very polite (best way to get something I've found) and very understanding, but she absolutely ripped my tonsils out with the abrasiveness. On top of that, neither of the ladies checked dates with me and I got the impression they may already know about this issue and it may be a recurrent problem for them. A recalcitrant hotel that prefers to release rooms to third party interests rather than Hilton, perhaps?

I have looked up the Best Rate Guarantee and it doesn't apply. You need to be able to book the same room which I cannot through Hilton. Even if they offered their 48 hour guarantee I may be able to invoke the BRG but they won't even do that. Perhaps that's the reason why.

Very odd response by HH.
 
Various chains often release rooms via third parties when they have nothing on offer officially, for the express purpose of not worrying about the BRG.
 
No, no, this is an enhancement by HH. They'd prefer you to look at it like this- "at Hilton, every guest is treated like a Diamond guest".
:rolleyes:

Well for as long as I'm diamond, I'd prefer that they didn't instead take the view "at Hilton, every diamond guest is treated like every other guest".
 
Well for as long as I'm diamond, I'd prefer that they didn't instead take the view "at Hilton, every diamond guest is treated like every other guest".

Yeah, that was pretty much my point. Diamond is only a minor improvement on Gold and few hotels go above and beyond. Mainly Conrads I have found.
 
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A follow up to this, I telephoned HH complaint line and the drivel continued. This time I was told they could not offer the 48 hour guarantee as the hotel was fully booked.

Fully booked? :shock:

WTF! Even if that were true, that's exactly what the 48 hour guarantee is all about. A benefit to diamond members where if fully booked, a room will still be made available to a diamond member if booked further out than 48 hours. The conditions are provided the hotel is not overbooked by 110% or is not during a peak demand period. Given I can book the hotel on a third party site, I can be fairly confident it is not overbooked by more than 110% and is not in a peak demand period. Other hotels, including the Hilton residences, have heaps of availability and I doubt January is a peak demand period for conferences and the like.

From what I've been told, despite it being a Hilton brand hotel, Hilton only get a portion of the available rooms. Well, too bad. Hilton can buy the room back off the third party booking engine and on sell it to me as a 48 hour guarantee. Where's the problem? My guess is that the problem is that they would need to on sell it for more than I could buy it and hence invoke the BRG.

What a con.
 
Another update.

I've received a reply to the email I sent the hotel directly and the response.....
Yes, We do have rooms available and please provide us the details to go ahead with the booking.
Make of that as you will, but I see Hilton through Hilton Honors, Hilton diamond desk and Hilton complaints dept just spiel out a fob-off load of cough whilst there is indeed rooms available. Funny old game is loyalty.
 
Another update.

I've received a reply to the email I sent the hotel directly and the response.....

Make of that as you will, but I see Hilton through Hilton Honors, Hilton diamond desk and Hilton complaints dept just spiel out a fob-off load of cough whilst there is indeed rooms available. Funny old game is loyalty.

I was going to suggest email the hotel directly but see you've done that already. Good outcome for you then. Had friends stay there and we're impressed with the hospitality. They got good treatment as golds. SL is a place where personal relationships count, so it's great you've been able to make contact with them via email.
 
I was going to suggest email the hotel directly

Not the easiest feat in itself. Try finding an email address on the Hilton Colombo hotel site. I've looked and I don't believe it exists. I had to do a Google search and it came up through a non-Hilton site.

Nice to know the hotel is good when one finally gets there, but to be honest, we probably now won't be staying at Hilton (or maybe just one night). I'm looking closely at the touristy things to do and apparently it takes forever by road to get anywhere, so from what I was thinking could be day trips, most likely need overnighters and hence not at either of the Hiltons.
 
This is a bit OT, but has anyone staying at the Hilton Colombo got the base level of HHonors points post to their accounts? I booked directly on Hilton.com, so I was expecting to get at least the base point earn. Both stays have posted as 0 point.
 
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This is a bit OT, but has anyone staying at the Hilton Colombo got the base level of HHonors points post to their accounts? I booked directly on Hilton.com, so I was expecting to get at least the base point earn. Both stays have posted as 0 point.

Shrek stays there semi-frequently and has always had his points post.
 
Shrek stays there semi-frequently and has always had his points post.

Update: So I did claim two missing stays (even though the stays had already posted with 0 point in my account activity statement) and I finally received my 10,000 points one month later. I guess activity is manually credited or something...or me checking in at 3 AM for both stays meant that something was not properly entered in the system.
 
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