How do Hilton treat you as an Elite?

[QF WP]

Just thought I'd create a thread for this - looking back over the last year, I thought I'd done a thread here as well as on Priority Club.

I'm a Gold member.

Friday, 22 May to Sunday, 31 May (yes, 9 nights)
Property: Hilton Cairns
Room booked: King Room
Rate: Travelzoo $135 package rate (included bottle of red wine)
Received: Upgrade to King Suite, card from GM and the wine, obligatory 2 free water bottles per day

Wednesday, 8 July
Property: Hilton Parmelia Perth
Room booked: King Room
Rate: Award room
Received: Upgrade to King Suite, card from GM and the obligatory 2 free water bottles

Thursday, 9 July
Property: Hilton Adelaide
Room booked: King Room
Rate: Award room
Received: Upgrade to Exec Floor, card from GM and the obligatory 2 free water bottles

Saturday, 11 July
Property: Hilton Brisbane
Room booked: King Room
Rate: Met Package (birthday present for Mrs LW, included 2 buffet breakfasts at Atrium Cafe & 2 tickets to Qld Art Gallery for Impressionists Showing from Metropolitan Museum New York - to get some culture)
Received: Upgrade to Exec Floor, card from GM and the obligatory 2 free water bottles

Got some more travel to do to Melbourne this Friday, so hoping to fly down Thursday night to sample the new Hilton.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Status: Diamond
Property: Hilton SYD

H-SYD is such an extraordinary hotel. They almost seem to be schizophrenic in their attitudes. I too gave up on the place simply because the tiny rooms are not worth the usually over-the-top rate (IMHO) and the upgrades to a decent room (read suite) was like extracting teeth. Then, to rub salt in the wound, they started the stupid Hilton AU trend of charging $5 for a cup of coffee which really sealed the embargo for me.

But.....they seemed to recognise the folly of their ways and we started to see more AFF reports of actually good status upgrades with little or no pain.......the reports seemed to be commonplace enough to have me thinking I might give them a go again. Just as I was deciding this however, they put a bullet in their other foot by removing Glass from the status breakie choice and shove their most loyal guests into the lounge without so much as thinking of upping the variety of that breakfast to, if not meet the Glass standard, a level even marginally close to Glass and with further insult by apparently approaching other AU Hiltons and attempting to direct them to do the same whilst lying about it to their status guests with the "we offer so much more than the other Hiltons" throwaway line.....errr, no you don't, perhaps you need to ask the guests rather than make up fictional stories, but more importantly H-SYD....you don't do it as well as many of your own SYD opposition hotels!

A song was written about H-SYD. "How Bizarre, How Bizarre"!

 

[boomy]

Gold only get lounge access if they get an exec room.

I checked that with someone in the know and some Hiltons in Australia (not sure about SYD) allow lounge access to Gold regardless of the room type they are staying in.
As it's not part of the T&Cs it's an individual decision for each hotel GM to make.

 

[Aeolus]

My suite upgrades came to a sudden halt at DTMEL (there's no suite to start with). Anyway, what made me laugh was this morning, during breakfast, I was informed that I cannot go for the hot food that they have on the counter as a HH Diamond/Gold, only the continental that is on their main table. Not that they were any good to have anyway!
I fear that this would be a Australia-wide rollout, staying at HSW tonight, will report back on the breakfast "treatment".

 

[JessicaTam]

My suite upgrades came to a sudden halt at DTMEL (there's no suite to start with). Anyway, what made me laugh was this morning, during breakfast, I was informed that I cannot go for the hot food that they have on the counter as a HH Diamond/Gold, only the continental that is on their main table. Not that they were any good to have anyway!
I fear that this would be a Australia-wide rollout, staying at HSW tonight, will report back on the breakfast "treatment".

Frankly that is absurd! What a ridiculous way to treat status guests.

 

[kyle]

I wonder why no one posted those lying excuses on social media like Facebook and see how HSYD responds. If those breakfast enhancements are being rolled out with HSYD taking the lead, can posting cause any more damage?

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Frankly that is absurd! What a ridiculous way to treat status guests.

Been going on for years in other countries / hotels.

 

[Cynicor]

Been going on for years in other countries / hotels.

Very true CE, and to the letter of the T's and C's too. But I have never actually encountered it in anywhere outside of the USA. I've only ever had a lounge breakfast in Conrad Tokyo in fact.

 

[boomy]

I've only ever had a lounge breakfast in Conrad Tokyo in fact.

Why would you do that? As diamond you can enjoy full buffet AND a-la-carte in the restaurant, much better then the lounge.

 

[Buzzard]

boomy, you mentioned the $5 coffee at HSYD, +1 and I were charged $4.50ea for coffee at HSW a week or two back. This was even after I mentioned to the waiter that my cup on the table was certainly not clean

 

[Cynicor]

Why would you do that? As diamond you can enjoy full buffet AND a-la-carte in the restaurant, much better then the lounge.

I know, it was a time thing. No point heading down to the restaurant for a pretty much a single croissant!

 

[boomy]

boomy, you mentioned the $5 coffee at HSYD, +1 and I were charged $4.50ea for coffee at HSW a week or two back. This was even after I mentioned to the waiter that my cup on the table was certainly not clean

Yes, this bad practice which started at HSYD was quickly adopted by HSW and other Hiltons in Australia.
Fortunately, some properties still offer complementary barista coffee and that's gives me some hope the new breakfast "enhancement" HSYD just introduced won't be adopted by all Hiltons.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

boomy, you mentioned the $5 coffee at HSYD, +1 and I were charged $4.50ea for coffee at HSW a week or two back. This was even after I mentioned to the waiter that my cup on the table was certainly not clean

But......the grimy cup was provided free of charge! It was just what they poured over the grime that cost $4.50!

 

[moa999]

HSYD still provides free coffee in the EL... And to be honest the selection is better than many Euro Hilton's have in their main restaurant (granted its not Glass however)

 

[Aeolus]

Happy to report, full breakfast at HSW and I reckon it's the right move since their poor cousin across the road decided to adopt the policy of HSYD, I'll vote with my feet and use HSW as default from now on. When the EL is less busy, I'll ask Christian if there's any intention of them moving to the dark side. Hopefully not.
Yarra suite, best bed of all the Hilton hotels in Australia, it was indeed a good start to the day after the fab AFF gathering last nite

 

[Moopere]

H-SYD is such an extraordinary hotel. They almost seem to be schizophrenic in their attitudes. I too gave up on the place simply because the tiny rooms are not worth the usually over-the-top rate (IMHO) and the upgrades to a decent room (read suite) was like extracting teeth. Then, to rub salt in the wound, they started the stupid Hilton AU trend of charging $5 for a cup of coffee which really sealed the embargo for me.

I am now at the point of no longer pursuing status with HH. Somewhat easier for me to say now that I've secured gold through april 2017 via velocity. Its not that I don't like Hiltons, its simply a value judgement by me on status chasing with them. Used to be almost 100% Hilton, to the extent that I'd plan vacations around where Hiltons were located in order to rack up those all important status points/nights/spend.

I've whinged about about the declination in value before, did the numbers and decided (with your input as I recall) that it was still worthwhile - but was borderline...and a big piece of the remaining perceived value at the time was the possibility of a decent breakfast. With breakfast fast disappearing from the AU properties, coffee costing, upgrades more and more becoming preferred rooms rather than decent exec or suite upgrades ... well, in my view, if HH AU wants to descend back into the mass of their competition they are going the right way about it.

For me, thats about the long and the short of it. I still like the AU properties and I'll leave them in the mix when deciding where to stay, but other brands will now factor in a way that they previously didn't. The decision becomes more and more one of 'best price of the day' as status has very little real world value. I still value gold, but really only in Asia.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I agree that the breakfast is a big part of HH worth. I'm lucky (touch wood) insofar as my most common Hilton property (CNS) still honours the AU perceived benefits and still don't charge for coffee. If those benefit levels change at CNS, there are other hotels I'd be happy to stay at (even perhaps some of the Accor hotels :shock:, which I think number about 5 in CNS).

 

[boomy]

I agree that the breakfast is a big part of HH worth. I'm lucky (touch wood) insofar as my most common Hilton property (CNS) still honours the AU perceived benefits and still don't charge for coffee. If those benefit levels change at CNS, there are other hotels I'd be happy to stay at (even perhaps some of the Accor hotels :shock:, which I think number about 5 in CNS).

There are hotels in the same category as Hilton who provide very good breakfast in the lounge, some even have chefs who prepare eggs to order exactly like in the restaurant (more common in Asia).
If there is a genuine space issue in the restaurant it's very much possible to create similar breakfast experience in the lounge to make all guests happy.

 

[Cruiser Elite]

Very true CE, and to the letter of the T's and C's too. But I have never actually encountered it in anywhere outside of the USA. I've only ever had a lounge breakfast in Conrad Tokyo in fact.

We encountered it at Waldorf in London 3 years ago - very acceptable breakfast in EL incl scrambled eggs and bacon - EL overflowed one morn and we were sent to main restaurant on ground floor - explicitly instructed on entry not to attempt to consume any hot food at all - continental items only - what a disgrace!

 

[Moopere]

There are hotels in the same category as Hilton who provide very good breakfast in the lounge, some even have chefs who prepare eggs to order exactly like in the restaurant (more common in Asia).
If there is a genuine space issue in the restaurant it's very much possible to create similar breakfast experience in the lounge to make all guests happy.

Yes, indeed, and I think you've captured the nub of my whinge actually. If HiltonAU wants to reduce numbers in the main restaurants then thats perfectly fine by me, but why not then up the quality of the offering in the EL? I mean, for goodness sakes, some poor mugs are actually paying top dollar outright for exec rooms and this is the offering? Its quite laughable. Up the quality of the lounge offering and instantly almost all the wind goes out of the argument (or my argument at least

The thing I find strangest about AU properties is that many of them seem happy to be rated in the top classification of hilton properties, 7's and 8's, yet act as if they were a 4 or 5.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Happy to report, full breakfast at HSW

I'm also happy to report that HSP are still happy to extend the HH Diamond breakfast benefit to a full buffet in Salt.