Hilton HHonors - OAK Hilton

Checked in for two nights as lowly gold. Given breakfast coupons, HHonors floor, etc. without even asking :)

Also booked a weekend getaway to Toronto next weekend. Hilton.com rate was $140. Booked priceline at $65 per night and got the Hilton :) No points or stay credit, but for over a 50% discount I'll pass.

Checked in for two nights as lowly gold. Given breakfast coupons, HHonors floor, etc. without even asking :)

Also booked a weekend getaway to Toronto next weekend. Hilton.com rate was $140. Booked priceline at $65 per night and got the Hilton :) No points or stay credit, but for over a 50% discount I'll pass.

Make sure you know that the Toronto Hilton lounge was closed at last report. Not sure if it has reopened.

Checked in for two nights as lowly gold. Given breakfast coupons, HHonors floor, etc. without even asking :)

Also booked a weekend getaway to Toronto next weekend. Hilton.com rate was $140. Booked priceline at $65 per night and got the Hilton :) No points or stay credit, but for over a 50% discount I'll pass.

I just booked a room for a post night after our trip to Cancun in February. That place is expensive. The best rate I could get was for $125. Did you do any better? And, I had to pay now, no cancellation.

Also, we are staying there one night before our flight out of Oakland. We went through SunTrips because their flight was the only one I could find that was straight through, good price too.

They had a great contracted rate through the hotel. We paid $129 (oddly enough, no tax was added) and we can park there for 11 nights!

Question: Will HHonors give me a credit for that stay although I did not book it directly with them? I called the hotel and they don't even show my name yet...he said it will probably come over a week or two with a bunch of other names. I would like to give them my hhonor number.

Will be at the Hilton Cancun for 10 nights in Feb...can't wait to check out the new spa....

You did better than I did. My rate was $139 from Carlson through my corp travel website. You may not get credit since it wasn't booked through Hilton, but I get credit every time when I book through the corp travel site. I think that people who have booked through sites like Expedia have had problems with getting credit.

FYI they charge $5/day for parking also.

The rates at the OAK Hilton vary greatly depending on whether it is during the week or on a weekend. Weekends are much lower.

They also have a "Park Sleep & Fly" rate that covers 1 night's stay and 7 days of parking. Looking at hilton.com, the Park & Fly price midweek (for a date in early Feb.) is showing $184, whereas it is $119 on the Friday night. AARP rate w/o parking for the same days was $164 midweek, $89 Friday. So, depending on the days of your stay, it sounds as if you both got rather good rates.

The rates at the OAK Hilton vary greatly depending on whether it is during the week or on a weekend. Weekends are much lower.

They also have a "Park Sleep & Fly" rate that covers 1 night's stay and 7 days of parking. Looking at hilton.com, the Park & Fly price midweek (for a date in early Feb.) is showing $184, whereas it is $119 on the Friday night. AARP rate w/o parking for the same days was $164 midweek, $89 Friday. So, depending on the days of your stay, it sounds as if you both got rather good rates.

...that I got included in the rate of $129 from Suntrips making the booking, I can't complain. I'm pretty sure that I won't get the Diamond acknowledgement (which pretty means just b-fast and a bag of nuts in the room), but I would still like to get the stay credit if nothing else. I think I should be able to because it was not a priceline or hotwire bid, but we'll see.

It is a decent enough hotel, but nothing special. Although I must say that have one of the best workout rooms I've ever been to in a hotel!

Dawn

kymbakitty[/B] I'm pretty sure that I won't get the Diamond acknowledgement (which pretty means just b-fast and a bag of nuts in the room), but I would still like to get the stay credit if nothing else. I think I should be able to because it was not a priceline or hotwire bid, but we'll see. Dawn

When we stayed at the Hilton Budapest as part of a Tauck tour this fall, I got the Gold amenities (room on Executive floor, access to Executive lounge, bottle of wine in room) and a stay credit. But it is not automatic. Here is what I did:

1. I sent a fax to the hotel ahead of time telling them of my arrival and asking (very nicely and deferentially) if it would be at all possible to have access to the lounge, with the understanding that our reservation was indeed with a tour group and so I did not expect to be put on the Executive floor, just hoping for lounge access. Granted, there's no lounge at OAK, but a similar request might work (room on the executive floor and/or breakfast, e.g.).

2. I charged some incidentals to the room. This was done so that the hotel will issue you a folio, which you can then send in to Hilton with a request for stay credit. You will need to wait the three weeks to see if a credit will post (it likely won't) before sending in the folio and request and then likely will have to follow up once or twice (it took about 5 weeks for my credit to post after making the request).

Be sure to give them you HH # when you call ahead of time and when you check in, if it is not already on your reservation.

YMMV, but it might be worth a try. Good luck.

In my experience, often the bearing on what one is given at the hotel is less WHO booked it than HOW it was booked - e.g. if it is a discounted, group or similar rate, one stands an excellent chance of getting zip (e.g. my stay at Hiltons in Cairo were at a discounted or group rate, and I didn't get much; my stay at Sharm el Sheikh (Hilton Sharm Waterfalls Resort) was not, though it was, iirc, booked via an agency.) If it is a "published" rate, you wil likely get it all. Contracted rates? YMMV... but often, you will, especially if you are as organised as Jassy-50, who makes it easy for them to serve...

Any kind of updates would be appreciated, as i have a stay booked at this property in a couple weeks.

Gold Treatment & Benefits?
Room Quality?
Upgrade likely?
Parking Cost?
Internet cost?

Thanks In Advance

Junkie

As a Diamond they've always given me a nice room in a recently-renovated portion of the hotel, in the building above the lobby. They only have king beds there, though so if you want two beds you will be somewhere else without the nice bedding. They've also only charged me $5/night for parking instead of the advertised $9. I have no idea how they treat Gold members. I'm certain you'll get breakfast coupons, though.

On my only stay there, as a Gold was upgraded to a nice end room, spacious with king bed. very nice bedding and very comfortable room. Breakfast coupons for two for restaurant - iir, came with standard continental breakfast with upgrade to hot contintental breakfast for $4 or so. Plenty of shuttles to airport or BART but I recall calling twice to get picked up at the airport arriving at 11pm. Nothing else nearby of much interest that I could see.

In my stays, what I get will often depend on what events are planned during my stay; brekkies is standard. OAK Hilton can be nice, or it can be harried and not very special at all, it all depends. On the whole it is a fair property with decent service; don't expect anything really special and if you get it, you will be pleasantly suprrised.

If you book via a travel agency, you should get stay /day credit and perks. If you book at a group or highly discounted rate from an opaque or "non-partner website," you are really not entitled to anything other than a discounted room, but if you charge something you create a folio and get some points - often the trigger for a stay credit.

Hotels differ on how they handle this: in Cairo, I have generally NOT received any credit for group rate stays, for instance.

I took a bump on Alaska last night while headed home to Seattle. After having decided NOT to stay at this property while i was in town.....guess where Alaska put me up......The Oakland Airport Hilton.

As a Gold, i got NOTHING. Granted Alaska paid for the room but still, wouldnt it have made sense to show me a little gold treatment and perhaps win a new customer.

I will say, i liked the Bar and the Bed was comfy and the Lobby was nice. My room however in Building 5 left much to be desired.

My first hand expererience revealed.....

Junkie

guess where Alaska put me up......The Oakland Airport Hilton.

As a Gold, i got NOTHING.You should have received Gold VIP recognition/benefits even though you weren't eligible for points.

You should have received Gold VIP recognition/benefits even though you weren't eligible for points.

NADA, ZIP, ZERO, ZILCH...No Water's , No Breakfast Certs, and most definately No Upgrade.


:td:

I guess it could be argued that it was similar to a PL booking in that you didn't choose the hotel at the time of booking. But still...

Hilton Hotel Oakland Airport (http://www.hilton.com/en/hi/hotels/index.jhtml?ctyhocn=OAKHIHH)
1 Hegenberger Rd.
Oakland CA 94261
Tel. +1.510.635.5000 / Fax +1.510.383.4062

Stay: December 1-2, 2006

This is a large hotel in the old style, several wings three stories high, airport-close (regular shuttle service,) on mile from McAfee Coliseum and full of conferences and meetings. Amenities include a pool, fitness room, sports bar, Amelia’s (Earhart) restaurant for breakfast and lunch (breakfast: Continental, US$9.50, buffet $13.50,) and Stanley’s Grill for dinner (beautiful sandblasted glass panels depicting African animals as dividers between booths, decent food and glacial service.) Parking is advertised as $9.50, but $6 appears on your bill. HSIA is cabled at $9.85 per 24 hours. I am staying at a cancelable AAA rate of $105 (taxes are 11% additional.)

On check-in I was told “your upgrade has come through; you are on the Executive floor.” I was assigned room 1319, in the building including the lobby (the restaurant is across the van access and parking, and you could get wet if it is raining.) The floor is actually the HHonors floor (vending, but you must go to the second floor for ice,) and is not particularly distinguishable from any other floor – though you want to be on the third floor in this hotel, regardless of which wing / building you are staying in.

The older construction means this place can be noisy, and the floors can boom and shake when someone isn’t considerate of fellow lodgers. At least with the third floor, you have no one above you – but you may still hear people walking by, or hear the alarm or television in adjacent rooms; my cabinet doors rattle when I walk by the drawer / tv cabinet, even if I walk softly, and you can feel floor irregularities as you walk thorugh the carpeting. The glazing is older single pane, so you may also hear turboprop aircraft from the general aviation side of the field departing, and some traffic noise is possible in some rooms. This morning, some people were active at 04:30, and it was all certainly audible, :mad: as was the claxon of some fool's motion sensor car alarm this morning.

The room is very spacious, with a king bed with very nice bedding (and a thin but very adequate duvet,) a table with ice bucket, glasses and coffee service, a chest of three drawers with television in the upper portion of the cabinet, small closet with extra covers, iron and board, bathrobes; there are two armchairs and small drum table, a luggage jack and small padded bench that can easily be used as a luggage jack, two night tables, usual Hilton clock-radio, enough pillows for the a family, two telephones, several lights (the room is adequately lit,) a spacious desk with a ridiculous adjustable armchair that requires me to use my laptop in the desk drawer, as the chair does not adjust high enough to allow comfortable use of the desk. The blackout curtains do a very adequate job of blocking extraneous light from the room, which is good given aircrews use this hotel. Air is central, but you can make the room cooler in winter or warmer in summer – not possible in some hotels with central HVAC.

The bathroom is small, square and floored with a marble tile also used for the sink area, a smallish tub with straight (not bowed) curtain rod and good shower head with anemic water pressure. A hair dryer and the usual La Source amenities are provided, but only hand (no bath sized) soaps were provided; a shoe rag and shoehorn are included, a nice extra from a hotel that doesn’t believe in many extras for Diamonds. Toweling is the nice and absorbent HH collection by Martex.

The room appears refurbished, the wall is covered with a light beige-gold paper with a subtle floral effect, carpet is multi-pattern with greens and beiges, all woods are in a medium brown, and everything is clean and bright. Service can be variable, and you can expect most staff will not greet unless you greet first, especially if engrossed in chit chat with each other. This feels like a place that does quite well due to location, so nobody puts much time into hospitality training.

My amenities as Diamond included the upgrade to the “Executive King” room, the robes in the closet, two one pint / 237 ml bottles of water, and a chit for the Continental breakfast (fruits, cereals, yoghurts, juices, pastries but no croissants, or even toast - which must be requested, coffee or tea – a bit miserly.) One can “upgrade” to buffet American (scrambled eggs, hash brown potatoes, bacon, sausage) for an additional US$4.00.

Executive summary: I chose to stay here when it is convenient (using OAK airport, or having a client nearby – last night, I was taking refuge from Friday afternoon / evening traffic to Sacramento and the Sierra, after departing my client’s venue a half-mile away at nearly 5:00 PM,) and when the price is right – it can be high during peaK demand periods, and the rack rate on this room is shown as “Executive King - $289.” (Standard king rack is $269, suite is $999 :eek: .) Caveat: I would never stay here during high school graduation periods – I have seen this hotel chock-a-block with students attending their proms, and their parents secure numbers of rooms for them.

Alternate properties: Hilton Garden Inn San Leandro (www.hiltongardeninn.com/en/gi/hotels/index.jhtml?ctyhocn=OAKSLGI) (south, under five miles from OAK,) Homewood Suites Oakland-Waterfront (homewoodsuites.hilton.com/en/hw/hotels/accommodations.jhtml?ctyhocn=SFOEMHW) (north, near Jack London Square, under 6 miles,) Hampton Inn Hayward (hamptoninn.hilton.com/en/hp/hotels/index.jhtml?ctyhocn=SFOHWHX) (eight miles, south,) and the new Hilton Garden Inn San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge (hiltongardeninn.hilton.com/en/gi/hotels/attractions.jhtml?ctyhocn=SFOBBGI) in Emeryville, just under ten miles away. I like the Homewood Suites, and use them when my clients are in Oakland proper; the new HGI is priced very nicely right now, and is expected to open December 30.)