Hilton HHonors - Pop-Under When Clicking "Find It" Button on hilton.com

I was surprised today when I was looking for a hotel at hilton.com that a pop-under menu from something called "Room Plus" showed up. This displayed rooms from non-Hilton brands and had several hotel family logos displayed at the bottom. I thought I might have a virus but it looks like (after a web search) that this is a last room marketing scheme.

I never liked pop-ups and pop-unders and I am not liking this one. Added to my pop-up blocker.

Exactly! I just tried to find Berlin Germany opportunities on hilton.com. A pop-up/pop-under appeared one minute or so after "find it".

It is called "Roomkey":

http://www.roomkey.com/i

and says:

(on top the Hilton brand and "roomkey")

Founded by a group of leading hotel companies, Room Key's mission is simple: offer travelers direct access to a broad network of hotels around the globe, provide accurate and comprehensive information, and make it easy for travelers to discover the hotel that's right for them.

The following companies by showing their logos appear as participants:

- Choice
- Hilton
- Hyatt
- IHG
- Marriott
- Wyndham

Seven Berlin located hotels of these chains have been offered, showing the cheapest rates: Grand Hyatt, Ritz Carlton, Holiday Inn Express, Marriott Berlin, a Worldhotels property, a Quality Inn, another HI or so. If you press "book direct" an overview of the particular property appears. Next step is a link to the chain´s homepage. If you return (right mouse button/back) some offers are substituted by new ones, e.g. IC Berlin appears or an HI Garden Court. Or go on "see more hotels".

EDIT:

The link above gets me targetted offers for destination "Berlin". Don´t know what you get.

I hate pop ups and pop unders. My usual plan is aggressive. If a page does this to me, I block the pops and every other ad I see on the page. If I remember, the next time I visit, I get the new ones.

How long would we tolerate a department store that had movable displays that "saw" the path you were taking and rolled them in your path as you were going to the department you entered the store to visit? What if you turned to leave after shopping and found that one had been placed on your way out? What I would do it not go back to the store or at the least push the rolling display out of the way and complain to management.

I can not understand why web sites think they can get away with rude behavior that would be unacceptable in a brick and mortar store.

After doing this a while, a lot of my pages are beginning to load real fast.

I do not like pop-ups/unders either.

But I think the joint marketing activity itself is worth to discuss, the fact that these 6 hotel chains recommend eachother by a tool they have founded, or if you would like to hear it this way: Hilton recommends non-Hilton hotels. It is also not the fault of the website, it just does what the owners let it do.

EDIT

These are the offers by hilton.com / roomkey.com for Berlin hotels for this night Aug 5th/6th:

page top
http://gallery.flyertalk.com/gallery/album88/Roomkey_Berlin_top

page bottom
http://gallery.flyertalk.com/gallery/album88/Roomkey_Berlin_bottom

The button "see more offers" should be in the second image line fourth image from left but disappeared meanwhile. It will appear again probably when the site gets reloaded

EDIT 2

The window probably appeared in the moment I pressed the "find it" button on hilton.com. I oversaw it that moment as it "popped under", just recognized an empty frame opening and disappearing in the same moment.

Just noticed this as well. Didn't bother to read it, as my first reaction is always to close the window asap.

Given the ownership of RoomKey.com, we'll all be seeing the pop-unders from other hotel sites soon enough.

Six of the world's largest hotel companies have collaborated to create a Web site that allows travelers to search listings and then book rooms directly on hotel sites, effectively cutting out middlemen like Expedia. The site, Roomkey.com, is owned by Choice Hotels International; Hilton Worldwide; Hyatt Hotels Corporation; InterContinentalHotels Group; Marriott International; and Wyndham Hotel Group, part of the Wyndham Worldwide Corporation. The companies own more than 50 hotel brands.

Yes, I think it's annoying as hell.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F04E0DB1231F931A15752C0A9649D8B 63&ref=travelandvacations

roomkey.com lists also offers from chains not belonging to the founders like Accor

I just saw this for the first time today. I thought "Ah, maybe Hilton isn't my best choice in Reykjavik after all!"

Then I wondered why Hilton was pushing me (via obnoxious pop-under) to their competition.

Now it all makes sense - a joint venture.

Cutting out the middle man sites (like mine).

Perfect.

Also being discussed in other threads

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hyatt-gold-passport/1327934-pop-up-roomkey-dot-com.html

Hyatt Company Rep Announcement
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hyatt-gold-passport/1312546-note-re-roomkey-com-pages.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/online-travel-booking-bidding-agencies/1301279-roomkey-com-new-hotel-booking-service.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/intercontinental-hotels-priority-club-inter-continental-ambassador/1301256-new-hotel-search-engine.html

and others.

Yes I just saw this.

Hilton is doing two things here to get rid of travellers.
#1 - Annoying them with pop-ups
#2 - Only recommending non-Hilton properties.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/members/parvez-albums-random-picture4377-hotel-room-search.jpg

I've not seen one of these yet. Firefox + NoScript working exactly as designed ^

Roomkey.com and maxymizer.com show up as blocked scripts when I right-click.

My IE pop-up blocker blocks it when I set it on High. If I need to use pop-ups during the reservation process I allow them at that point and the ad doesn't show up.

I emailed the hh box... first reply was this:

I apologize for any inconvenience, however I am unable to advise why this pop-up is coming up on your computer. You may wish to change the settings on your computer so that these sites do not come up on your screen during your reservation searches. Your feedback will be shared with our website administrators, however the settings on your computer could play a big part in why these notifications appear.

then when I sent them a link announcing hilton was doing this, I got this reply today:

Thanks for your reply. That pop-up is not part of the Hilton website. Please clear your Temporary Internet Files/Cache and Cookies.

Frustrating. To the point that when I'm on my crappy 3g connection I just booked via the marriott mobile site, which is snappy and popup free. Good job, Hilton.

regards,

Mike

I'm getting pop-under from the Holiday Inn website as well as Hilton's....very annoying

I have created a free Chrome browser extension that effectively blocks the Room Key popup on all associated hotel web sites. It can be installed via the Google Chrome Store here:
Chrome Web Store - RoomKey Ad Blocker (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/search/roomkey)

Enjoy and please add a positive rating while you're there.
~ Blu

I have created a free Chrome browser extension that effectively blocks the Room Key popup on all associated hotel web sites.

Or just use AdBlock Plus or equivalent and block the URL
http://api.roomkey.com/js/connector/connector.js

If you are logged in when you make your search you shouldn't get the room key screen.