How do Hilton treat you as an Elite?

[simongr]

Diamond
HOTP
Booked king guest
Got King Relaxtion suite - I prefer the suites with a xx01 room number rather than xx13 as the walk from the lift/lounge is shorter...
One bottle of water...

Great to meet RG1 in the lounge - just saw AFF on his iPad as I was walking past and very unusually for me said "Oh Hi - I see you were reading AFF - I too am a member of that forum". I do feel that anyone listening in not only would have needed a translator but would have been quite bored

 

[scwappy]

Gold
Hilton South Wharf
Booked: Cheapest
Received: Yarra Suite with Executive lounge access.

1st Time staying there and won't be the last. Very Happy.

 

[anat0l]

Gold
Hilton South Wharf
Booked: Cheapest
Received: Yarra Suite with Executive lounge access.

1st Time staying there and won't be the last. Very Happy.

Wow... someone struck lucky! (And I'll underline lucky, unless you become a regular / upgrade to Diamond)

 

[k3nnis]

What day of the week was this?

Gold
Hilton South Wharf
Booked: Cheapest
Received: Yarra Suite with Executive lounge access.

1st Time staying there and won't be the last. Very Happy.

 

[GoldCanyon340]

Diamond. Always upgraded to a Club room from the cheapest room. At South Wharf I have received suite upgrades too.

 

[drron]

Hilton Sydney
Status-mrsdrron diamond
Rate-$349
booked-King hilton room
Received-King executive room
Plus-1 apple and 1 glass water.
No newspaper.
Had to have internet removed from bill.
Sorry but for us SPG are much better value for money.

Suite upgrades-Mrsdrron 0/3
-Drron SPG 4/6.

 

[simongr]

Where was this?

 

[scwappy]

What day of the week was this?

Saturday night

 

[trblvb]

Sorry to have a WHINGE in this section but:

HSW
Gold
Last Fri to Tues
$214/night Great Getaway
Poor customer service and rude reception staff (they lost our booking and tried turning us away)
No upgrade ('apparently' due to a convention on that weekend)
First and last time at this hotel
Time to give Accor or Starwood a go...

 

[beardoc]

Status-mrsdrron diamond
Rate-$349
booked-King hilton room
Received-King executive room
Plus-1 apple and 1 glass water.
No newspaper.
Had to have internet removed from bill.
Sorry but for us SPG are much better value for money.

Suite upgrades-Mrsdrron 0/3
-Drron SPG 4/6.

Which hotel, drron?

 

[beardoc]

Sorry to have a WHINGE in this section but:

HSW
Gold
Last Fri to Tues
$214/night Great Getaway
Poor customer service and rude reception staff (they lost our booking and tried turning us away)
No upgrade ('apparently' due to a convention on that weekend)
First and last time at this hotel
Time to give Accor or Starwood a go...

This seems a bit weird, given all bookings generate a confirmation which goes to your email address. Were you able to retrieve the confirmation from your email and show it to them when they said you didn't have a booking?

 

[drmikki]

Hilton Fiji - HHG
Dates: 7-10 August
Booked: Studio Garden view
Received: One-Bedroom ocean view
Price: Great Getaway 1 night (AUD $240), Points and pay 2 nights (17500 + $57 per night)
Inclusions: Internet, breakfast in restaurant, invite to drinks with gen manager on the 2nd night (it was pelting with rain, I didn't go). Hand written card from guest relations manager, two personalised printed letters on arrival (!), mini wooden kava bowl. 2 bottles of water per day

I can't provide much info on the facilities as it rained much of the time! Loved the one-bed villa though, esp with massive bathtub and washing/drying facilities. Great customer service- a phone call Day 2 to check on problems, and when the restaurant mixed up my room service order and it took 90mins there were multiple apologies and the order was on the house. Which was great cos that was my "splurge on food" night so it was about $70FJD.

 

[straitman]

Sorry to have a WHINGE in this section but:

HSW
Gold
Last Fri to Tues
$214/night Great Getaway
Poor customer service and rude reception staff (they lost our booking and tried turning us away)
No upgrade ('apparently' due to a convention on that weekend)
First and last time at this hotel
Time to give Accor or Starwood a go...

Like other here I find this very surprising but then have to ask whether you had a reservation number?
We have a booking for next Monday night and can already see the room type allocation online.

 

[trblvb]

Like other here I find this very surprising but then have to ask whether you had a reservation number?
We have a booking for next Monday night and can already see the room type allocation online.

Thanks Bill however I can assure you that they could not find my reservation in the system. I had to logon to HHonors (out in the car on my iphone) to find the reservation. In addition, it was booked online back in Feb. (on sale) and prepaid (a condition of the 'sale') - I got charged twice for the accommodation.

Again emphasise the fact that staff were rude and wanted to argue with me. I have never experienced this before at any other Hilton around the world - I have sent through details to HHonors USA.

Not a good experience to go through when you are on holidays.

Hope your stay is more enjoyable and less stressful - good luck though...

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Again emphasise the fact that staff were rude and wanted to argue with me. I have never experienced this before at any other Hilton around the world - I have sent through details to HHonors USA.

I'm in the "have a printed copy of booking" brigade as well but another thing I look out for with Hilton is the confirmation email. If I haven't received it a couple of days out from the stay, I contact them. I agree we shouldn't need to do this, but it beats an arguement when all you want to do is check in. I've only been to HSW once and although the check-in staff were far from rude, they certainly weren't the best I've experienced (I've had better at motels to be honest). Hopefully my next stay will show the true HSW spirit!

EDIT......I will add though, the lounge staff were great, as were the valet parking guys........first rate and worth every cent extra over the "park yourself" option.

 

[turtlemichael]

Hilton Sydney
Status- Diamond
Rate-$199 Weekend special then $179 BAR
Duration- 4 nights early August.
Booked-King Hilton room
Received-King Executive room
Plus-1 apple and 1 sm bottled water, one small pack of chocolate covered nuts. Water replenished daily.
Newspaper.
Internet on preliminary bill but not final.
3 Breakfasts in Glass, one in Executive lounge. All good.
Three nights drinks in Executive loune. Food very good and many were obviously making it dinner. Unpleasant crowded atmosphere akin to a rugby scrum.
Dinner in Glass one night. Excellent food and good service.
Overall, very good value for many and good service.

 

[Danger]

Property: Hiton Sydney
Date: mid-week stay this month
Room booked: King Hilton Guestroom Plus (although on the day of check-in my reservation was showing Executive Room but that didn't prevail)
Rate: $226
Received: King Hilton Deluxe, two mini Tim Tams, one apple, welcome card, a 400mL bottle of water, breakfast in Glass, other Diamond privilleges (lounge access, complimentary internet)

I really like the Hilton Sydney but I think it's one of those Hilton properties that creates room categories purely for the purpose of meeting the HHonors upgrade benefit. Now that the wording has changed to "Upgrades for Diamond HHonors guests may include the next-best available room from the room type booked. Upgrades may also be rooms with desirable views, corner rooms, rooms on high floors, rooms with special amenities . . ." it's a lot easier for a property not to provide less than they would previously have to. I can't for the life of me work out the difference between a Guestroom and a Guestroom Plus or an Executive Room and a Deluxe Room. As far as I know every room has slippers and a bathrobe. Anyway, that's probably more for a thread on HHonors changes.

 

[Moopere]

I really like the Hilton Sydney but I think it's one of those Hilton properties that creates room categories purely for the purpose of meeting the HHonors upgrade benefit. Now that the wording has changed to "Upgrades for Diamond HHonors guests may include the next-best available room from the room type booked. Upgrades may also be rooms with desirable views, corner rooms, rooms on high floors, rooms with special amenities . . ." it's a lot easier for a property not to provide less than they would previously have to. I can't for the life of me work out the difference between a Guestroom and a Guestroom Plus or an Executive Room and a Deluxe Room. As far as I know every room has slippers and a bathrobe. Anyway, that's probably more for a thread on HHonors changes.

Mmm, yes, and its not only SYD doing this.

From another hotel which I like but shall remain nameless:

Guest room = floor 2-7
deluxe rooms = Floor 8-20
deluxe plus rooms = floor 12-20 and may include a specific view
Executive rooms = floor 17-20


So, as an hhonors gold or above, book a guest room and you could well "only" receive an upgrade to the 8th floor. I wouldn't feel upgraded if this were the case. So far, been pretty lucky and managed exec upgrades inside Australia, but there is plenty of scope for hotels to manage their upgrades with the new wording.

I specifically email hotels with room names like the above now and ask what the differences are as they are generally not made clear in the room blurb on the hilton booking site.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I really like the Hilton Sydney but I think it's one of those Hilton properties that creates room categories purely for the purpose of meeting the HHonors upgrade benefit.

An old hotel I guess. Our one and only stay at Hilton Sydney saw us receive an upgrade to a "larger" corner room (with our choice of Pitt St view or George St view). The room was nice, but if that was a "larger" room, I'd hate to see the smaller ones........broom cupboard perhaps?

Having said that, we did very much enjoy the Syd Hilton and will certainly be back.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I specifically email hotels with room names like the above now and ask what the differences are as they are generally not made clear in the room blurb on the hilton booking site.

I've also noticed this lack of clarity and I might start doing the same thing. Slightly OT, but I've found asking the central reservations is often misleading as their info seems to be no better than what we see on screen. Recently, I was trying to see if Hilton Syd could sleep two adults and 1 child in the cheap rooms but when I rang the hotel they put me through to central reservations who told me only one room type could achieve the config I wanted (an expensive room type). I rang the hotel back and asked for in-house reservations and they were able to give me other choices as well including the cheapest on the web.....with a $60/night trundle bed. Although I consider $60/night for a trundle as excessive, it was considerably cheaper than the only alternative offered by central reservations.

It pays to enquire directly with the hotel in question!