Hilton HHonors - hilton.com higher price

Tried to reserve room because of child's graduation at the Hampton Inn on Hilton.com. I was given a rate of $67.50 with AAA discount. When I called Hilton to modify reservation 15 minutes later, I was told the rate decreased on Friday night, but couldn't do this online. Cancelled the Hilton.com reservation and used the phone reservation which was cheaper. Will lose the booking bonus for online, but what kind of company is this. I told the agent about hilton.com being more expensive, and she just laughed. BTW Hilton Gold, but not for long.

Actually it's been my experience that Hilton.com marks a rate change on the website, with an asterisk after the rate. They always show the higher rate on the main page. However, if you click on the link for the room description, they will then provide you with the rate breakdowns for your stay. :)

Will lose the booking bonus for online

What booking bonus for online? Is it some targeted promo? Also, if you indeed have a reservation that earns you an online booking bonus, there is a simple way of getting your cheaper rate and keep your bonus. Simply call the hotel and ask to change the rate without changing the confirmation number. Worked like a charm for me.

AlanB-The rate wasn't on the site. In fact the confirmation with the total price was less after the phone call. I thought Hilton had a 1,000 point bonus for online booking.

Everybody, not just Hilton, has different prices available through different chanels. There are times online is way better then you can get any place else, and there are times it's not. It's not worth getting upset about. Hilton sometimes has different rates, lower if you are not logged in, higher if you are, so you need to check both ways too.

You will get the same booking bonus online as you do on the phone, nothing.

One reason that higher rates may appear when you're logged in is that the system is showing you rooms that satisfy criteria in your profile. When I log in, the boxes for nonsmoking and one bed are automatically checked. If I don't then change what's checked in those boxes I won't see the rates for, say, smoking rooms with 2 double beds that may be cheaper than king nonsmoking. Which is not to say that other things aren't going on as well, natch.

Straying further off topic, my own personal paranoia about rates involves my checking rates for a stay that is many months away and then finding the next day or week that the rates have gone up. This has happened so often that it makes me wonder if Hilton keeps track of how many inquiries are made about rates on specific dates at specific properties and then ups the rates when there are a lot of inquiries (i.e. inquiries but not necessarily actual reservations.) I'm sure that someone out there can shoot holes in this theory, but it happened again last week for a stay in December. And yes, I know that if I found a decent rate I should have just booked it there on the spot knowing that I could change it later. Such is life.

Are other people having this experience?

Went to the Embassy website to check rates for this week for the ES Niagara Falls. Best rate I could come up with for my criteria was $159 CAD, even with the AAA/CAA discount. Called the hotel direct, and they came up with $99 CAD for the base room (I'll get upgraded--HHonors Gold, and they haven't failed to upgrade us yet), but with the upgrade to the fallsview jacuzzi room, it sure beats the website rates for the same rooms. This time, it even beat the casino rate (from Casino Niagara) which is usually the lowest of all.
So it pays to check all your options, although I've found in the past, that calling the hotel is often the best way to find lower, sometimes unpublished rates. The website booking bonus (if any) isn't worth the $60 difference, and I'll still get full HHonors points and bonuses when booking directly with the hotel.

bj-21.

Honestly....

Lets use the Airlines as an example...How quick and how many websites or calls can you make with dozens of quotes???????

Rates change CONSTANTLY! A savvy person checks ALL!

The rate you might pay today might change tommorrow!

Your looking at multiple computer systems working here! Each one of them updates according to eachs system sweep schedule...Some slower...Some faster....

I've seen rates change before my eyes booking Airline Tickets....

A little common sense goes along way! 8-)