Hilton HHonors - Not possible to arrive on a Friday / Saturday ?

A first for me: I was trying to book a weekend stay at a Hampton in Michigan arriving Friday night, checking out on a Sunday end of October. No way.. "arrivals not possible on a Friday / Saturday".. while arriving Thursday and staying until Sunday is no problem :confused:

So.. where's the clue there ? No fair, no game and no other big event in 200 miles going on..

Anybody ever experienced this and is there a way to get around this what seems to me pretty silly restriction ?

Could be a million reasons, but many properties do this during periods of high demand. Doesn't have to be the Super Bowl. Could be somebody's wedding.

I don't bother speculating because it's not important why the property has restricted sales. I do place a call directly to the property (not the 800#) to see if they can acommodate me. Many properties will.

If they can't, I either stay someplace else or swallow the extra night.

Could be a million reasons, but many properties do this during periods of high demand. Doesn't have to be the Super Bowl. Could be somebody's wedding.

I don't bother speculating because it's not important why the property has restricted sales. I do place a call directly to the property (not the 800#) to see if they can acommodate me. Many properties will.

If they can't, I either stay someplace else or swallow the extra night.

If a wedding or some other big party is there, it's likely to be very noisy ....

as good a reason as any to shop around.

Bob H

If a wedding or some other big party is there, it's likely to be very noisy ....

as good a reason as any to shop around.

Bob H

I'd call this an even better reason :D

But if they rly have limited capacity why then make it available Thu-Sun and not Fri-Sun ? This still somehow baffles me.. maybe i'm just thinking a little too logical and as we all know logic and travel sometimes do not go together well ;)

It's pretty common actually and I've never really understood it. They may make smaller date ranges available as they get closer, but for whatever reason they don't feel the need to do so now.

I think it has to do with housekeeping, parties they have, weddings or reunions, and don't want to turn over the rooms, but instead want to book them for the four days or whatever.

I know one Hilton where it was always done, but if you called the hotel and told them you wanted a room for one night they would say no problem and reserve it for you.

Calling is a good idea if you need to stay there, as you can ask if there's a convention or whatever there. The one hotel we use to use all the time that did it would always have a Clown Convention there that weekend, which was pretty funny, but as they were in dress the entire time, not fun if you are scared of clowns. So they may be able to tell you what group is booking it if it's a big block.

Some hotels will do this because they have very high demand for weekends (selling out the weekend) but very low occupancy the rest of the week. By holding some rooms for "more than weekend" occupancy, they have some available later for those willing/able to book some non-weekend dates also. They may lift this restriction as they get closer to the date if those longer reservations don't materialize.

A first for me: I was trying to book a weekend stay at a Hampton in Michigan arriving Friday night, checking out on a Sunday end of October. No way.. "arrivals not possible on a Friday / Saturday".. while arriving Thursday and staying until Sunday is no problem :confused:

So.. where's the clue there ? No fair, no game and no other big event in 200 miles going on..

Anybody ever experienced this and is there a way to get around this what seems to me pretty silly restriction ?

Where in Michigan? Perhaps it's a block because of a college football game nearby?

Where in Michigan? Perhaps it's a block because of a college football game nearby?

Read the OP's message again -- 200 miles from a game, could mean a resort type destination (such as Traverse City) during fall color season.

Bob H

Wouldn't end of October be past peak fall colors as far north as Traverse City?

If the OP is Diamond can't he use the 48hr guarantee?

Seems totally normal situation to me. As said before, can be a million of reasons but probably the hotel is almost full on these two days and try to get 3-4 nights bookings instead of being empty on thurs and sunday and full on friday saturday. Hope this helps!

Seems totally normal situation to me. As said above, can be a million of reasons but probably the hotel is almost full on these two days and try to get 3-4 nights bookings instead of being empty on thurs and sunday and full on friday saturday. Hope this helps!

There are many reasons why hotels do this, I have seen it several times. Staffing reasons come into effect as well. If they have 300 people checking in on a certain day and only 1 person working that day, it isn't possible to check in that many people in the time frame needed, so they may close out inventory to arrival. Hard telling what the situation is for that hotel though.