dynomite

I'll start off by saying I do work at a Hilton family hotel and I don't classify my hotel as "non-caring" most of the time, but it does happen. Nothing in this post should be surprising to most of you. I'm not apologizing for any hotel or offering excuses. Right or wrong, this is a mindset that you probably come across frequently, as much as Hilton corporate hates to admit it.

That mindset is that a guest who stays 100 nights a year and is not a HHonors member is more important to the hotel than a diamond member who spends 250 nights/year across the family but only 50 at that specific hotel. Hilton will try to drum into the franchises' head the importance of being a member but the local hotel knows who brings in the money. Sometimes it's the HHonors members, sometimes it's not. There are several reasons why your status may not bring any special recognition:

1) Fees. 5% goes to pay the program, Blue, Diamond, doesn't matter. Some hotels may not feel like being forthcoming about signing up members knowing they'll lose 5% off the stay and the guests may never come back anyway. This means in a duel between a diamond and a non-member who stay the same amount of nights and pay the same rate, the non-member becomes more profitable. On any given night at our hotel, the vast majority of guests are paying the same rate, members and non-members.

2) Lack of LOCAL loyalty. I know this cuts both ways, HHonors can be very unloyal itself. However, and this is pretty obvious yet seems to be forgotten, staying 100 nights/year at a Hilton on the opposite coast doesn't make us a single dime. We have members who fly out for a one time wedding and use a reward stay (which HHonors pays us $15/night for, regardless of our normal rate). If you had to choose between him and a local who stays once a month, who do you think the hotel will choose to cater to?

Why should we care? (I say "we" because I'm a member also but personally don't care about recognition) The hotels signed up for this when they became a franchise right? Very true. But many hotels don't understand the relationship Hilton has with their franchises. It's not the guest's concern but it needs to be stated. Hilton treats it's franchises very poorly, even those tops in customer service and who play by all the rules. Hilton, and it's family of brands, change standards on the hotel side frequently, at the hotel's cost and with complete disregard for how recently it was changed. We frequently argue with corporate and HHonors about their own policies (we hate the 800#s as much as you do) and have had times when we knew the standards better than they. If corporate keeps treating it's hotels poorly and another chain becomes popular while offering lower costs, hotels may decide to switch brands. Status and points are useless if the city you stay in doesn't have a HHonors hotel.

I hope this shed some light on how some hotels view HHonors members but not all act this way. My hotel tries to treat every guest equally and with respect, not having a piece of plastic doesn't make someone less of a person.

underpressure

A rather interesting post....

What is not mentioned is that even though I have never stayed in the particular Hilton property that I am using a reward stay on; there are hundreds of rooms booked every week in this property because of the rewards program. To suggest that the loyalty program is disfunctional because hotels are not rewarded for their own frequent guests is a bit narrow.

And I can not believe that the reward stay reimbursement is $15.00. They may do something with the points that the property has to pay for and reimburse a handling charge of $15.00 but there is more going on than that. Otherwise, what is the need for different award levels.

RedVee

I found this information about reimbursment on the Hilton franchise site:

How am I reimbursed for reward stays?
Each hotel is reimbursed for any reward stay accepted. The amount is determined by a monthly threshold of rooms, which is calculated by computing the number of rooms at your property X 30 days X 1.8%. This number is your threshold number of rooms per month. For months in which the number of reward rooms taken as a percentage of available rooms is less than or equal to 1.8%, you will receive a base rate (determined by brand, see below) plus tax for all reward nights (excluding rewards taken on sellout nights). For months in which the number of reward rooms taken as a percentage of available rooms exceeds 1.8%, you will receive 90% of your 2004 annualized ADR plus tax for all reward nights taken above the 1.8% threshold (with the exception of rewards taken on sellout nights). On nights when your occupied revenue rooms occupancy is at or above 96.0%, you will receive 90% of that day’s gross ADR plus tax for all HHonors rewards taken that night regardless of whether you are above or below the 1.8% threshold. For a new property, your forecasted ADR will be used.

What is the minimum reimbursement (base rate) for each brand?
$15 for Hampton, Scandic and Hilton Garden Inn
$20 for Doubletree, Embassy and Homewood
$30 for Hilton (worldwide) and Conrad

So $15 would be the minimum for a Hampton, but will vary according to how busy the hotel was with reward redemptions. It looks like a certain number have to be absorbed at this lower rate, but once exceeded the reimbursement is higher.

Regards
RedV

Roger Lococco

OP. Appreciate your insights.

That said, I think you're missing the other side of the ledger. In the information age, word will get out that your hotel does not take care of HHonors members and we will stop staying there.

darthbimmer

Welcome to FlyerTalk, dynomite. It's always interesting to get the perspectives of people who work on the other side of the front desk, so to speak. I have a few questions about what you wrote:

How often does this really happen, where a non-member stays 100 (or even 10) nights a year at your hotel without signing up for HHonors? My belief is that most people out there are aware that airlines, hotels, rental car companies, etc. have rewards clubs. While those who travel infrequently may decide there's no value in joining the clubs for 1-2 flights or nights per year, those who travel regularly are pretty much all going to join.

You understand that the HHonors program is the primary reason I choose your hotel when I visit your town once a year, right? Otherwise I'd stay with your competitor who's $10/night (or even $30/night) cheaper. Multiply that across all the out-of-town travelers you get.

JDiver

Welcome, dynomite.

I tend to agree with darthbimmer - I may have 100 - 120 nights at Hilton family hotels, and I may only visit your city / property infrequently - business is very disseminated for me, and I go where business takes me. I understand of course the hotel will reward a frequent guest at that property; it's a very sensible thing to do, and those properties I do stay at frequently, year after year, are sure to greet me and treat me well (or I move on to another property that will get my stays and dollars, after I give them feedback, and usually an opportunity to make things right.)

As a Hilton HHonors Diamond member, when I am not at a property I stay frequently at, I will probably choose a Hilton property because I am loyal and want to maintain my status, earn points I can spend on holiday, and because I will get more for my spend than I would at La Quinta or ?

If the hotel treats me right, I will definitely return next time I am in town, and I will definitely promote the property to others - here, elsewhere and by word of mouth. I know how this works by feedback from those who read my reports, or who tell me how they stay was.

If the property treats me poorly or diffidently, I will look at other HHonors properties, as well as at Starwood properties (I also have status there,) and will also inform others - who may well (and it is documented here) will choose another property.

If a property goes all out, and it has happened even on an award stay, I will become a rabid advocate of that property, and will try to return myself.

FlyerTalk is a good example, IMO, it is a smaller world than some of your colleagues care to admit when they provincially decide to slight someone merely because that guest has HHonors status but is not a frequent guest of the hotel. We guests have our own ways of promoting, or passing negative comments about, hotels we stay at.

As to the HHonors system, we didn't invent it, Hilton doesn't make anyone agree to allow them to provide management and badging, and the hotel ownership has made a decision to accept HHonors conditions as part of the entire package they obviously want and are willing to pay for - or, they would have remained an independent property or gone to another chain's management. They can be the "Hilton Bumblestick" and be connected to a central reservations system, a website series and centralized marketing that promotes them, a world-recognized brand name and standards - or be the "Bumblestick Dewdrop Inn" with discount coupons in the local highway hotel and attraction fishwrapper given away at gasoline stations; it's entirely their choice - there's a price to be paid for each.

Nobody held a gun to the owner's head here, he/they/she made a choice based on competitive factors in a free market environment - it's a good thing for managers / employees to remember when they feel like griping about the onus of the HHonors program.

PCMflyer

This is really good news for me. All I need to do is drop my Honors account to get some respect and good service from this guy.

If this Hilton employee represents the predominant attitude toward Honors guests, then that helps explain why they won zero Freddy awards last year.

When I first joined Honors in 1995 it was the best program hands down. It also swept the Freddy awards in all Hotel catagories for several years.

The decline in service and lack of respect for its highest ranking members is a disgrace.

omegadeal

So let's use an example hotel that has 300 rooms and an ADR (Average Daily Rate) of $150.

The reward threshold would be 300 X 30 X .018 = 162 Rooms per month or an average of 5.4 per night, which doesn't seem like a whole lot. These rooms are given minimal compensation by Hilton corporate, but to be fair it is only a small amount of inventory that the hotel gives up.

For award stays above the 5.4 rooms per night, Hilton will reimburse the hotel $135 per night in this specific example, which seems reasonable, and perhaps even more if the hotel is close to being full.

Given the above, I can't see how hotels would want to restrict award rooms. I typically spend more at the hotel when on an award stay anyway and if they can get 90% of the rate then they are in good shape.

Rambuster

The calculation actually looks quite reasonable to me. On average the hotel will have to provide 1.8% of their capacity to award stays at the nominal rate of $15-$30. This is ok, as hotels almost never have a 100% occupancy rate over a month. The incremental cost incurred by offering an award room is close to zero too (just laundry and cost of housekeeping). Most likely this cost will be covered by restaurant or mini-bar charges as well, thus actually generating contribution margin versus just leaving the room empty.

Award levels above the 1.8% threshold are compensated quite generously.

JDiver

And if the hotel has low occupancy, without the award stay they get bupkis for the unoccupied room. @:-) An empty room the day after is to a hotelier kind of like the air above you, the runway behind you or the fuel consumed is to a pilot.

(And I, as you, tend to spend more than I would otherwise on an award stay in a number of places - I didn't see the OP mention this profit possibility, but if his property's reimbursement is $15, I neither normally book award stays nor find much to spend money on at Hamptons.)

Xevus

Not like this matters now, but i find strange that Scandics were put together with Hamptons and HGI. Most of them are very good properties, with rates only slightly cheaper than Hiltons in same location.

Alinlondon

Absolutely spot on, I doubt if any of the many sub standard UK flea pits would get much business if they were independents and I think I would be fairly safe in saying no other brand would take most of them on.

short_b

I, too, work at a hilton property hotel and would like to address your first question about how many people who are non-hhonors members stay more than 100+ nights per year.... alot. At the hotel I work at, there are many business travelers who stay with us regularly and are not hhonors members. However, the hotel I work at absolutely wants the hotel staff to cater to hhonors members in everyway. When I ask non-hhonors members if they would like to join, they say it is either not worth the hassle or the benefits are not rewarding enough to join.

Xevus

Seriously, this is just unbelievable to hear, tbh.

short_b

Many of them don't want to take the time to file out the form. Plus when you think about how many nights you have to stay/pay for to get ONE free night- it really doesn't sound great. Just MHO.