When is an overbooked hotel not an overbooked hotel? Apparently when booking on hilton.com according to the hilarious responses from this small town Hampton Inn General Manager.
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A Simple Reservation Gone Wrong
One of our travel agency (ScottandThomas.com) clients had an issue with a hotel, it was oversold and the guest was notified while at the airport, on the day they were due to arrive. The guest was calm, didn’t use foul language or escalated voice levels, just as any professional would operate especially in a public place. The guest was told a variety of things that were confirmed when we called shortly after to sort the situation out. It really was not a complex situation, the hotel was oversold and the General Manager continued to state that there were no hotel rooms available because Rural King had secured every room in the small town of Mattoon, Illinois.
Oh, the mighty Rural King – prepare the trumpets, clear the peasants. To be entirely clear, Rural King has nothing to do with the problems of the hotel management’s inability to manage their property’s reservations. However, invoking their name repeatedly is odd, and unwisely puts a corporate guest at odds with other guests.
I doubt that Rural King has any knowledge that they were used as a scapegoat by the General Manager of the hotel though that could have consequences for the brand with guests that have been walked or told about the situation, not due to any fault of the big box outlet.
This was a simple problem, with a simple solution conflated by a frustrated General Manager and a local hotel who failed to follow the procedure. Instead of a service recovery, the General Manager lashed out to both the client and then myself as I called to attempt and resolve the matter. I wasn’t recording the call, I had no reason to do so as this was just to re-accommodate the guest – but I wish I had. As such, these are paraphrased but similar comments made to the client, and I had a witness to the phone call (on speakerphone) at the time I spoke to the GM.
His hilarious responses will be included below, but his first should be addressed here: “A booking confirmation is not a confirmation.”
What Does A Confirmation Number Confirm?
Below is the booking confirmation the client received. As we made the booking, I can confirm it was made more than two weeks prior to arrival on Hilton.com. This is not the guest’s first time booking in a small town Hilton, and we are no stranger to booking with the brand.
For those in the back, I will repeat the critical data:
“Guarantee Policy
This reservation can be held until 4pm on the day of check-in, or guaranteed with a credit card for late
arrival.
If you use a debit/credit card to check in, a hold may be placed on your card account for the full anticipated
amount to be owed to the hotel, including estimated incidentals, through your date of check-out and such
hold may not be released for 72 hours from the date of check-out or longer at the discretion of your card
issuer.”
The cancellation policy suggests that some reservations may be cancelled if fraud is suspected, a claim that neither the hotel General Manager nor Hilton Public Relations asserted.
As a matter of course, I reached out to the Hilton Public Relations team to clarify what confirmation entails, here’s what they said.
“Hilton properties work hard to accommodate all our guests at all times. In the rare event we are unable to accommodate a reservation, we make every effort to provide alternate accommodations at one of our nearby properties.” Hilton Spokesperson
Some of the Hilarious Responses
Once I reviewed the confirmation the client had received, I reached out to the hotel and the front desk staff claimed there was “no reservation” and connected me with the General Manager, Joshua Henne. What was so odd, is the language used because (as you can see above) there is very much a reservation.
During the exchange, I asked for his name as I had introduced myself, and defensively he said that I can “contact Hilton, whoever you want” and then spelled his email address: joshua.henne@hilton.com for me to share as I stated I would and offered his cell phone number but then declined to provide it.
I will preface this by stating the following, Mr. Henne was likely on the receiving end of other callers (including our client) who may have been upset by finding themselves without a place to stay for the night on the day of check-in. He was defensive from the start, but escalated quickly making a number of outlandish statements and talking over me:
- Hilton.com is a third-party because “we are a franchised location.” FALSE
- He’s not walking the guest because there’s nowhere to walk the guest to. (but he’s also not honoring the reservation) FALSE
- The hotel doesn’t receive confirmations until the day of check-in. ABSOLUTELY FALSE
- The guest was offered a free future stay, but then was also not welcome at the hotel, then was threatened to be placed on a do-not-rent list. No, actually the guest is welcome at the hotel.
- He will not call other area hotels to [re-accommodate] VIOLATES STANDARD OVERSELL PROCEDURE
- He will call the guest’s client they are staying on behalf of to let them know the guest isn’t welcome at their hotel.
- He will tell the guest not to use our travel agency again.
- He invoked the name of a corporate guest several times as the reason for his failure to perform.
- The guest is just a [Hilton Honors] “blue” [no status guest] member.
- [We] are just protecting our 7% travel agency commission.
I’ve stayed over 500 nights with Hilton and almost all of them were at franchised locations. Nearly every reservation at the chain has been booked on Hilton.com which is not a third party. If it were a third party, my agency wouldn’t get a commission at all (a life-changing $20 on this stay) and neither the call nor my follow-up with the chain and this post would be worth my time. Our client needed a place to stay and, at that point, it was the Hampton Inn Mattoon’s duty to source that per their own terms. When Mr. Henne abandoned that duty, we filled the gap.
I have received calls many times from hotels (franchised mostly) well in advance of my stay about a change. The notion that the hotel only gets these on the day of check-in is laughable. We know that was a complete fabrication because Mr. Henne offered to comp the guest’s future stay at the same property, and stated the date and duration.
After berating the guest for their status, use of a travel agency, and lack of calling to confirm their confirmation with the property directly (yes, he really said that, and yes, it’s one of the most arcane and stupid things I have heard from a hotel manager) he then threatened his own guest’s business.
The guest was staying in the property as a consultant on behalf of a large area business. To threaten that he would shame the guest to their client is beyond the pale and can’t possibly coincide with any Hilton, Hampton Inn, or even the franchisee’s desires. Should he choose to banish this “blue” member, from the property, that is his choice – but for someone that doesn’t have time to contact other area hotels to do his job, this seems like an egregious use of his time, and frankly, vindictive.
Lastly, this is a simple oversell situation but Mr. Henne told the client that they didn’t have a confirmation which I have included above. He failed to state whether he was or was not walking the guest to avoid the consequences of finding the guest a room per Hilton’s terms. He stated the Hampton Inn by Hilton Mattoon had no rooms and no place to put the guest because it’s not a genuine reservation which was partly true (they didn’t have any rooms) but partly false as it was a genuine reservation confirmed with Hilton.
For what it’s worth, my agency was able to book our client accommodation elsewhere within ten minutes of completing the call with Mr. Henne. We completed that booking online and our client didn’t need to confirm that their confirmation in fact confirmed they had a reservation for the night – revolutionary! While using a travel agency isn’t necessary for many travelers, in this instance, our client was able to end the call with us at TSA and had everything sorted by the time they got to the gate.
Other guests should be wary of a management staff who fails to simply acknowledge an unpleasant but common situation, de-escalate, and source a solution. Mr. Henne was belligerent, even cocky, with the guest and then with myself and refused to face the situation and solution as a consummate professional.
If staying at the Hampton Inn by Hilton Mattoon, Illinois remember that:
- Your reservation and confirmation are invalid unless you call the property direct
- If the property is oversold, they may opt to skirt Hilton’s policy
- Hampton Inn by Hilton Mattoon may offer you a free stay in the future, only to ban you, then potentially remove your ban, for which they will not notify the guest in any case.
- They may contact your employer as retaliation for asking them to follow their own procedure
- They do not like travel agencies and actively encourage the guest (confirmed to me by the guest and Mr. Henne himself) to not use them
- Blue members might as well be strangers to the brand (for what it’s worth, the guest is actually a Silver member)
- They reserve the right to berate their guests and representatives with catty statements like “the sky is still blue” while they fail to honor their commitments
- The 61-room hotel is undergoing a multi-million dollar renovation (nice non-sequitur he threw in)
Hilton’s Response
I outlined a series of questions I submitted to Hilton PR in a prior post about their walk policy because I wanted to ensure that I had not been confused about the facts of what the hotel’s duties are in such a situation. Many of those questions are pertinent to his comments. I wouldn’t want to assume that Hilton.com is not a third party unless I at least asked, maybe franchised locations don’t have to follow Hilton policies. I’m happy to learn and report back.
As I mentioned in that post, I chased Hilton PR hard for the answers (4 emails, 2 phone calls in five days) and never got an answer to any of them. Here’s Hilton’s response on the matter.
Thank you for confirming the appropriate permissions. I appreciate your patience as we confirmed the details of [guest name redacted] case.
Hilton properties work hard to accommodate all our guests at all times. In the rare event we are unable to accommodate a reservation, we make every effort to provide alternate accommodations at one of our nearby properties.
We can confirm that an unfortunate technical error resulted in the confirmation of [guest name redacted] original reservation, despite the property’s available inventory. [guest name redacted] was immediately contacted by the property to make alternative arrangements at a later date.
In the spirit of hospitality, these alternative arrangements were complimentary on behalf of the management of the independently owned and operated Hampton Inn by Hilton Mattoon.
What’s more shocking to me than anything else, is that neither Hilton PR, nor the hotel itself contacted the guest until days after this response. “Confirm[ing] the details” of the guest’s case didn’t require contacting the guest at all prior to this response. Further, when Hilton PR finally did reach out to the guest, nearly a week had passed (Monday morning to Friday afternoon and six touchpoints in between), they promised an email confirming the correct compensation details but never delivered it; the Hampton Inn by Hilton Mattoon never called the guest after the initial denial of service.
Conclusion
Walking a guest is never fun. My brother was Night Audit for a large hotel chain. It’s a regrettable situation that nearly always fell on his shoulders as that chain prioritized by status and then check-in time – last to check-in without high status is staying somewhere else. A highly-educated guest, who travels 75% of the year, was one of (likely several) guests that needed to be walked. A professional management staff would empathize, offer a solution, and comport themselves in a professional manner. Mr. Henne of the Hampton Inn by Hilton Mattoon didn’t do that. He went far out of bounds and failed his duty. Hilton Public Relations made that problem worse by not contacting the customer before responding and failing to answer basic questions about a policy that should be public anyway.
My overall experience with Hilton outside of this matter has been excellent, but frankly, it will be hard to reset my expectations for the brand.
What do you think? Have you been walked from a hotel? Have you experienced Mr. Henne’s wrath at the Hampton Inn by Hilton Mattoon? How would you have responded if you were the guest?
There was that guy in Kiev who went for a bike ride like he normally does everyday, but this time while the tanks were on the streets waiting for the fight to begin. This was a couple of days ago. He was not going to let a war interfere with his life.
Your three articles today remind me of him.
Bicyclists…always think they own the road even in a war.
Bicyclists, the Dodo birds of society.
They constantly violate traffic laws and then wonder why they keep becoming asphalt pancakes.
Debit, your analogy is a credit against logic…..
While I can understand an oversell situation it is always honored with a walk to a new property. While it’s rarely happened to me, I usually am notified ahead so as to directly go to the changed property.
However, once a few years ago I booked at, coincidentally, a Hampton Inn in Goleta, CA for one night. I arrived late and was told that they had my room but unfortunately it had no power as there was some sort of electrical issue to the room. They said I could stay there though. I was going to just accept it but insisted that I at least receive a reduction in the rate as compensation for not having any electricity. They refused. Take it or leave it. As well they refused to walk me to another property or even call anyone else. They even had the gall to charge me as a no show the next day saying it was me that refused a room when offered.
Bottom line is, and I was told the same, “Yes, your reservation is guaranteed, but no, we aren’t required to honor it or provide you with alternatives.” Not much you can do. Although Hilton properties have been a very last choice for me as a result the past years. And I spend on average 250-300 a nights a year in hotels. I am sure there are many many nights since that incident where I chose alternatives when a Hilton property had plenty of beds sitting empty nearby.
So Hilton doesn’t know the definition of guarantee…..
Shocking.
How accurately this word conveys the magnitude of the situation.
I was reading news non stop today, but nothing prepared me to the horror of a human soul walked from the Hampton Inn, and the shameless way the perpetrator justified his actions.
I also wish you had recorded the call. It would have been a cornerstone of the history of our time.
Keep focusing on what really matters.
Sir, this is a travel blog.
(This site isn’t trying to be CNN reporting from the front lines and Matt and Kyle have never pretended they are providing critical news that affects life and death events in the world. Take a deep breath.)
I myself had a terrible experiences at the Hampton Inn South in Santa Fe, New Mexico…my personal belongings were intentionally kept by the staff when I left them there mistakenly…only for 3 days…then the manager on duty…learning g of my inquiry for my new toothbrush system and my new shaving technology system…she had the audacity to call the police and file trespassing charges against me if I ever stepped foot on their property again…furthermore when I went to another property in Peguoi New Mexico…called The Buffalo Thunder Resort Casino and Spa…I was intentionally and with malicious forethought…intentionally food poisoned with raw Gazelle meat…I had to be transported to the nearest hospital 911 style to save my life…due to the fact that I mistakenly licked the times of my fork because there was grease on the fork tines…and just out of an instinct response I wanted to put the fork back down on the table clean…I know that Paris Hilton herself was involved with this act…because I made a huge mistake and reached out to her trying to bait and switch her into thinking I actually had the hots for her Satan worshiping self and her whole entire family…it does not surprise me one bit to think through other’s experiences…the Hiltons all think they are above the law because they idolize money…which it is written in the Holy Bible goes exactly against the core principles of True Believers…which know in their hearts that Jesus Christ is the One True Living God…Please do not be afraid to share on here or reach out to me on Facebook…you can feel free to friend me Shawn Auer and I am not the least bit afraid of the Hiltons or anyone else like Richard Branson…who is a Pedophile Monster his darn self…I pray all of you True Believers out there keep your heads up in these challenging times, and I pray you have a most-blessed day and many of God’s Blessings I pray for you all and God Bless you True Believers…
My question, and it’s a serious one, why do people use an agency to book hotel rooms, or any travel? Do you get a cheaper price to pass on than the price listed on the website? I can see these customers being placed lower on a priority list because of the extra fees paid to the agency. No different than how hotels.com or other 3rd party customers are often treated.
Open to being shown where I’m wrong and what I’m missing. Just seems strange to me to not book direct yourself .
One reason may be that they work for a company that has retained the travel agency and are required to make all bookings through them. My join has one, but they allow me to book my own travel so long as I abide by our clients’ and firm policies. My company’s agency also allows us to use them for personal travel at no cost to us.
Why might a travel agency be better? I just experienced this on a trip I booked through my company’s agent: My connecting flight was delayed by 6+ hours and I was almost certain it would eventually be canceled. A later flight was available but United wouldn’t let me change it for whatever reason. Presumably a United agent would have put me on standby, There was one seat left.
After trying to do everything on my own like I usually do I called the travel agency and after a brief hold I was booked on the later flight. It made me decide that if I am traveling and have to connect to a location with very few flights, I will use the agency. For direct flights between hubs I will stick to booking on my own so I get the credit card points.
I go out of my way to avoid the likes of booking.com (will often email the hotel to ask for a price match, or even a discount if it’s a longer stay), but with flights it sometimes makes perfect sense to go to a travel agent if your needs are somewhat elaborate (e.g. mixing classes of service, wanting to avoid the cheap booking class that gives no miles to partner programmes, arranging an overnight connection that the airline website doesn’t want to sell), particularly if you happen to be too pressed for time to risk having to waste hours of your life dealing with airline cost centres.
Thanks for the replies!
Dave – I am glad you asked this and as I stated in the piece, it’s not for everyone but here’s why many choose to use our service. First, when we book a company’s flights and hotels, we don’t charge for the service, the hotel pays a commission and offers the same rates to us that they do to you, so it doesn’t cost you more. The second thing is that we handle the details so our customer doesn’t have to and we use a technology piece that keeps everything organized on your itinerary. The third thing, is when something goes wrong we take the time and effort to deal with it until it’s solved. Right now, this means that when the airline makes a material change, it’s us on hold with them for four hours (I am looking at you, Delta) not our client. In this instance, the guest was left completely in the cold and they were busy making their way through the airport and trying to understand what the problem was especially when they were looking at their confirmation email and were told they didn’t have a reservation.
One other key advantage is when our client is headed somewhere we can provide some insight. For example, another travel blogger is headed to Bangkok in a few weeks and we were discussing the trip. I mentioned that the Waldorf-Astoria (some place they’d not stayed) was incredible and they should consider it. That blogger has spent a significant amount of time in the city, knows plenty of spots, didn’t necessarily need my help. However, our agents travel… a lot. The average number of countries visited by our staff is more than 30, the average number of continents visited is 4.6, each of our conceirges is at least bi-lingual and each have lived aborad on at least one other continent, though the average is now 2.9 continents lived on. That offers a lot to our guests in terms of boots on the ground expertise and keeps us from suggesting the same resorts, and hotels that many other agencies offer. We also can help with miles and points, something almost no other agency does.
I hope that helps, but if you want to see what we do in action, let me know and we can send you a trip plan for your next jaunt.
Funny, I remember when the internet got going it was predicted that travel agents would go extinct.
I’m glad they did not…..
Anyone who travels on a fairly regular basis has absolutely no need for a travel advisor. It’s a baby sitter for a grown adult. WIth schedules changing rapidly and the ability to do most everything yourself with one call to elite desks, using apps, or quick back end work, it is just as fast, mostly faster, on your own. Sure, if you’re overwhelmed by the idea of travel and a Hampton Inn booking in Iowa is stressful to you, ok, have at it. Further, if you really are in desperate need of where to stay in BKK, well, ok. But anyone who travels anywhere knows where to start searching within budget and how to work down the list of the best value. It’s not hard, lol.
Really, the whole travel advisor thing is a bit much. It’s like hiring a personal shopper at H&M to help you with picking out khakis and standing in line with you to make sure the payment goes ok.
I’ll call BS on that. Even though I don’t use an agent for personal travel my company does. The agency is great and has been able to provide me with more options and upgrades without me even asking. And it cost me nothing. So you’re wrong mam in your assumption. A good agent is definitely a load off your mind especially when you’re waiting for a gate at ATL and desperately trying to rebook and the app won’t load and the internet is shut off on the plane.
Glad to know that you actually care for your customers. Of course, if I understand correctly, your customers aren’t the occasional holiday travelers, but rather corporate people, but if it makes any difference, I would like to share that I’ve been booking everything and I mean everything, even delivery food, via 3rd parties up to the pandemic. Having had all 6 of my upcoming flights canceled by the airline due to travel bans in early 2020, I thought it only made sense, that I was due a full refund. Surely enough the agency I had booked my tickets with refunded less than half (!) the total amount to my credit card, because even though I had absolutely nothing to do with the cancelation, they “had to work to process my refunds and don’t work for free”…! I know the travel sector was hit like almost no other from this crisis, but I am sorry I can’t remember when I signed up to become the debitor of said sector. Canceling a transaction, so that the money returns to the payment method used, is a much, much quicker process than actually intervening with the original transaction, so that you deduct a certain amount you consider due as a service fee (which was never even requested!), so they basically did more work, just to get paid for that without any kind of permission.
After spending hours on their “hotlines” to get absolutely nowhere, after writing e-mails that got me nothing, I now book my flights directly with the airlines and very much enjoy paying that 5%-10% higher price, since it saves me the trouble (!) of having to deal with horrifying intermediates.
I do the same now basically almost everywhere, except for the occasional hotel booking, where a very specific, privately-owned travel agency (with privately I mean it’s a personal business, not some branch of any big corporation, I’ve even met the owner) offers competitive prices, that are good enough to make me use them, because a) they grant me more credit card points due to a special partnership and b) knowing that they aim at a relatively small market I can count on them if something goes wrong (and in fact something did go wrong just before my stay at, curiously enough, a Hilton hotel in New York city in 2019 and the owner of said agency was extremely helpful).
But my general experience shows that most travel agencies that will appear at price comparison websites etc. are owned by pretty much the same corporations and if you ever need any support, you basically get nowhere (or best case, you get connected to Pakistan or Bangladesh, where you are offered to “have your issue recorded and forwarded”).
The invasion of Ukraine by Putin is a horrible thing.
Reprimanding anyone who writes about anything other than the invasion of Ukraine will help Ukraine.
Seriously?
We’re sorry sir but due to the p̶a̶n̶d̶e̶m̶i̶c̶…l̶a̶b̶o̶r̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶r̶t̶a̶g̶e̶…U̶k̶r̶a̶i̶n̶e̶ we are unable to honor reservations, provide housekeeping, breakfast or even hot water or electricity in the building. Elite benefits?…..ha ha ha
Thanks your understanding……”We’re all in this together!”
Hilton shows their true colors. Until they brushed you off repeatedly I might have given them the benefit of the doubt.
I felt like I went out of my way to give them the benefit of the doubt and an opportunity to respond properly. At a certain point, they’ve responded by failing to respond to the questions. I shouldn’t further interfere with what they choose to communicate.
Based on my recent experience with Hilton Customer Service I have come to the conclusion that its pretty mediocre and that they don’t care. Rather than saying I will never used them I consider Hilton as my last option if they are only ones in the area or if they offering rates or awards that are a steal
How is one supposed to call the property to confirm the reservation if the property doesn’t receive their reservations until the day of?
…and how did they have the details to offer a comped upcoming stay? Which is it? It’s a lie.
Exactly. Very sketchy behavior here, and Hilton’s (non) response is all the more troubling.
Kyle, I’ve been critical of some of your posts here in the past, but you’re dead on with this one. Keep us posted.
So lucky they aren’t dealing with my tax man. No doubt it he would sue them in small claims court – and win!
He wouldn’t cry if he lost but he never has, it is the right thing to do – to “make” the hotel accountable.
The hotel’s view: they let the guest know (by contacting his travel agency) before the guest arrived that they had no rooms. ‘Walking a guest means telling them there is no room after they arrive. So, the staff at the hotel don’t consider this a ‘walk’.
Under pressure, Hilton might tell a different story. But, if the same thing happened again, it would be handled the same way – especially if it happen at a different property.
Factual correction from the post, “One of our travel agency (ScottandThomas.com) clients had an issue with a hotel, it was oversold and the guest was notified while at the airport, on the day they were due to arrive. The guest was calm, didn’t use foul language or escalated voice levels, just as any professional would operate especially in a public place. The guest was told a variety of things that were confirmed when we called shortly after to sort the situation out.” and;
On the difference between oversell/walk policy – your assertion may be correct. Hilton had (6) opporunities to simply provide that policy or answer questions about it. They didn’t so there’s no way to know whether or not this was in or out of compliance.
https://liveandletsfly.com/hilton-oversell-policy/
Chris: walking a guest means getting them a room at another property, hence, they have to “walk” with them there (figuratively)…..
Certainly a weird situation. I still maintain that airlines, hotels, etc. should not be allowed to ever overbook. It is selling a product they don’t have. This situation seems strange, like some sort of IT error. Rural King is a very large chain of farm supply stores and is headquartered in the small town of Mattoon. I live near this area and I’d be surprised if Rural King hadn’t booked every hotel room in that hotel long before the reservation was made on your end.
I’m not sure it is proper to dox the hotel manager and his email on your blog. Nothing good could come out of that. I can imagine Debit or Uri emailing him.
@DaninMCI – We disagree about overbookings, but that’s neither here nor there. I agree that it could have been an IT error, Hilton said as much, but the GM confused the issue by stating the guest didn’t have a reservation (as they were looking at it), then admitting they were oversold, then declining to walk the guest. Rural King probably did book out the town, but there were options nearby, we found one and booked within ten minutes.
As far “doxing” the GM, I asked his name so I knew with whom I was speaking, it’s a simple thing we all do when we meet someone, “My name is Kyle, what’s your name” and then he immediately got aggressive, gave his name, email (and also a personal email which I didn’t publish) and was clear I could share it. That’s not doxing. If anything, I was more hesitant about publishing that they used Rural King as some sort of a scapegoat because that business did nothing wrong.
First of all, this General Manager (?) NEEDED to be doxed. As far as I can tell you did nothing wrong. I stopped at a Hampton Inn in Kentucky about 60 miles East of Louisville, I had lost my wallet while on a trip to Virginia. I was a single traveler, 72 years old, and had cancer. I explained my circumstances to the Front Desk clerk and was told that they did have a room and it would be $115. They knew beforehand that I had lost all of my credit cards, my Drivers License—basically my entire wallet. After they accepted cash for the room I was told that they needed a credit card for the deposit. I told the front desk clerk that I had lost my wallet and all of its contents AGAIN. This front desk clerk was very rude and condescending and said he needed a credit card “for incidentals”. For the third time I explained that I had lost my wallet and if I had it I would have paid the entire bill with a credit card. It was around 9:00 o’clock at night. All I wanted to do was check in and go to bed. I offered to leave a cash deposit and he would have none of it. I went right down one exit and was accommodated immediately after I explained my situation. I have no problem with the Hampton Inn enforcing their policy regarding check in procedures, but I did have a problem with the front desk clerk being rude and condescending. Especially after I explained my situation to him IN ADVANCE.
The problem with not overbooking is the hotel or airline or whatever ends up with unused product as there are always cancellations, no shows, whatever. If you ban overbooking suppliers will have to charge more to make up for unsold inventory.
Well,Ernie, that’s their problem. They could make everything non refundable or require a security deposit that you lose if you no show (free money!)
then sell to someone else or use the space for free upgrades. Raise prices? That would be a good thing, too many poor people flying today who don’t know how to behave plus less frequent use at more profit means not taxing the environment as much. The airlines want to be McDonald’s (billions served crap!) and it is not sustainable…..
Matoon! Birthplace of the great writer Will Leitch, co-founder of Deadspin, who’s latest book “Lucky” is rocketing up the charts!
The real crime here is someone being willing to pay $300 for a Hampton Inn on the side of a highway in rural Illinois. I’m no travel agent, but I think the hotel did him a favor.
Lol – but it was two nights.
I missed that. I suppose that rate is more reasonable.
There are some very interesting Google reviews like this one:
“Upon checking in, the manager made himself clear that he was unhappy that my partner and I had used a hotel booking service to receive a cheaper rate than what they were offering us at the front desk. And then he proceeded to tell us that we will have to eat breakfast elsewhere because they weren’t offering much for breakfast due to covid19. Our room key didn’t work on the side doors to our dismay. This wouldn’t have been a problem but having two young children and our luggage made this experience a hassle. And the pool just happened to be drained due to plumbing issues, but not once during my stay i didn’t see any plumbers. I wont be staying here again”
Happened to me at a Hilton Garden Inn in Portland OR. Had resy guaranteed w credit card. Was HHonors Gold at the time. Arrived 9 PM. No room. No help. Left to fend for myself. Since then I’ve stayed at Hilton Properties only handful of times in past seven years.
With diamond status usually d ont get turned away but even so this is inacceptable that a guest not be provided alternate accomodations regardless of status
It really makes you rethink where you make your reservations
Good afternoon readers,
Some clarification is needed here. This was an IT issue from the onset as it was booked through OHW online, and although in fact a confirmation number was generated “as explained to the caller” there were no rooms on our end available to assign. We attempted to be proactive and call the guest early as possible opposed to waiting until they arrived which would have resulted in a “walk” situation which we would have been happy to do and even pay for the stay in doing so, but this could have have further inconvenienced the guest or worse left them no where to stay had we have waited until they arrived to notify them.
We called the guest as soon as we saw the overbooking in the a.m. “early”, and was advised by the guest that they also had an upcoming stay in addition to this one. When we found this out we offered to pay for their next stay for their inconvenience. I asked if the guest could call back with the later confirmation so we could apply the discount, but instead received a call from the travel agent. The travel agent never identified themselves only referred to the guest as their “client”. When we tried to explain what could have potentially happened all the individual would do is cite they had a confirmation number and argue in circles with the hotel and its staff. There was no attempt during the course of this conversation to work with hotel to find a resolution for the guest.
The only reason Rural Kings name was even brought up was when the caller asked why we were booked, and we explained that a local company had rented all of the rooms for a convention. After I said this the caller said we need to cancel one of their rooms to make room for his “client”. I simply explained Rural King rented these rooms out in advance and they could not be cancelled. This was not good enough however for the caller whom kept repeating they had a confirmation number. After some of the same conversation back and forth I advised the caller to call corporate Hilton if they had further complaints or policy questions since they didn’t seem interested in working with us to find other accommodations for their “client”, and the caller said and I quote “I will make it much worse then that” and apparently they have followed through with this promise.
No one was thrown under the bus, and we attempt at all times to make the guest our priority, but after reading this article it is apparent some will do anything and mis-quote anyone for the sake of a few clicks. I am not interested in bashing anyone or even going into detail of the argument that ensued with this caller, but I will say that we do our best and try our best to help the customer and all of our clients whether Diamond member or Blue member or whatever they may be, and this article is both one sided and not even an accurate representation on so many levels. I still apologize to the guest, and still offer the next stay free, but I am saddened what some will do when they “don’t get their way by bulldozing through staff” to attempt to get their way, and twisting the truth to benefit themselves or their agency through an article.
Best regards to all who read and safe travels.
J Henne
I am publishing this comment because I believe that it’s only fair. That doesn’t make it true and some of Mr. Henne’s response underscores and confirms my account of the events. Without responding line-by-line and disputing or clarifying aspects that are mistruths, misquotes, or false I will point out the items that are missing even from his account of the events:
– He never addressed nor acknowledged that Hilton.com bookings are not third-party (though he did refer to “OHW” which is that travel agency protal for Hilton.)
– He didn’t mention threatening to call the guest’s client to tell them she was banned from the hotel, and he never denied this either
– He doesn’t address the guest’s “ban” from the property
– He still will not just state it was an oversell and what was or was not due to the guest
– I outlined in another post the “circular discussion” was a game of “who’s on first” which began with him saying the guest didn’t have a reservation, and our response that they did, which went back and forth for some time. Not having a reservation, and overselling the hotel are materially different and a GM at any level knows that.
– He didn’t mention that he actively encouraged our client to fire our travel agency, which he said he had conveyed to the guest, and, in fact, did.
– He said, “I apologize to the guest” and the guest is always their priority but as of this comment posting (10 days later) the guest has yet to hear back from the property either in email or by phone. Hilton PR reached out on Friday of last week to the guest directly.
And one comment I just can’t let stand is the notion that we would insist on a hotel to “make a room” available for our client. As stated, the guest is highly experienced, has been bumped/walked/oversold many times before – as have we – and this is perhaps the most absurd part of his statement.
I just read that all Hilton and affiliated properties would be 100% pet friendly soon.
Goodbye, Hilton, Hampton, etc.
I am saddened by what has happened at one of our franchise locations. I am personally taking a look into the matter and investigate why Hilton PR did nothing to rectify the situation. Furthermore, we will be conducting a extensive investigation into the procedures that were performed by our franchisee.
LAURA FUENTES
Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer of Hilton
I am actually experiencing a very similar situation right now. I booked a reward reservation on Hilton.com for April 2022 Holiday week last May (2021) – Yes, 9 months ago!!! Last Friday (Feb. 25, 2022) we received an email from Hilton that they cancelled our reservation due to the Hotel (all inclusive) being oversold. That’s it. No -lets make alternate arrangements, lets figure it out. Cancelled the reservation like it never existed. We are Diamond members and that’s it. Our flights are in excess of 5K. I have called multiple times all they say is we didn’t “walk you”. You will receive a call and email from our relocation team tomorrow. well, “tomorrow” hasn’t arrived yet!
Why don’t you see if what their saying is true, by making a new cash booking using a VPN.
I’ll bet the GM was having a bad hair day. Poor boy.
Basil Fawlty is alive and well living in Matoon, IL