[ARCHIVE] Hilton Family MVP Rate - 2016 through 2019
 

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ARCHIVE THREAD for Hilton Family MVP Rate

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Kiwi Flyer
Hilton HHonors forum moderator

This is a great group for walkers - with scheduled and flexible events nearly everywhere you go. I am already a member anyway.

http://www.ava.org/

Has anyone seen this before where the MVP rate causes a 90 day cancellation policy? Happened to me at the Doubletree Times Square. Never heard of this before so it just screwed me over and no one will cancel it for me. I booked only 2 weeks out so it was effectively a non-refundable reservation.

I'm used the the Hilton website making it very clear when it is non refundable. Unfortuntaly this was only clear if I read the cancellation policy. I've booked hundreds of times so I don't read that stuff closely anymore.


edit: Looks like it is just a hotel policy. What the hell? Is there no brand standard here? If I book through hilton.com I expect normal policies and that includes easy cancellation unless it clearly says advance purchase.

This property seem to have earlier cancellation policies in general. In another booking of mine the cancellation policy is at least 72 hours before arrival.

Similar early cancellation deadlines I have seen at the newest HGI in NYC.

90 days sounds crazy though.

Depending on your situation, I have found a sympathetic front desk agent able to assist with this scenario at that hotel. I accidentally entered the wrong dates and called the hotel to have them adjust the dates and stated up front I knew I had a 90 day policy on it and they changed the reservation on their end. (I called at 3am hotel time, too, btw).

Good luck.

I ran into that nonsense with that exact same hotel with MVP. I was eventually able to cancel but only after I complained on TripAdvisor (I was so pissed off I was motivated to complain there as a first time poster since complaining and at Diamond Desk was unsuccessful). I also made the reservation within the 90 days and there was no warning I was do so and three weeks out to the reservation I tried to cancel and it took a week to finally get it cancelled. Ever since I have been paying a lot closer attention to cancellation periods.

I think there's your answer.

Really, 90 days just does not seem normal for it not being NYE, Super Bowl, etc. I wonder if that was leftover language from NYE? And most times when it is non-refundable there will be prominent language on the booking page to that effect, that the time for cancellation is past, etc. I went and looked and you do have to scroll down and read the cancellation policy. Yes, we should all read it every single time, but this didn't seem very obvious to me, but thanks for the wake-up call to start doing it in the future.

Did you cancel within 24 hours of the original booking?

Isn't there some sort of law about providing a refund if a non refundable booking is canceled within 24 hours of the purchase? I think the airlines honor this rule and also Marriott seems to on its advance purchase rates...

Good reminder to all of us to check the cancellation policy but it seems unreasonable and seems like something they should be able to help you out with.

This is a DOT rule, and is only a requirement for airlines (and even then not in all cases).

Kudos to Marriott for having something similar, but there's no legal requirement for them to do so.

I booked it a few days ago anyway.

I'm going to try again today now that it is a weekday. May have more luck with management.

Spent like 30 minutes on the phone and they still wouldn't cancel it. Though I think the phone routes you through corporate and they just call the hotel. They said the manager there refused.

Unfortunately, it is their right not to allow cancellation in accordance to the terms you agreed during booking. Also, rather than outright cancel, consider asking if they would allow changes to the reservations instead e.g travel at a later time. Regardless the outcome, I think most of us here have learnt a lesson. Do not assume the terms are the same. We kind of know it in the back of our heads but sometimes we just get "lazy".

After having wasted many days on attempting to get a cancellation for that hotel a few months ago, the impact has been that I don't even look at it as an option even it is priced competitively in a search so they have lost a few potential stays by me.

A 90 day cancel policy for a non-holiday, non-special event stay is absurd, whether you were informed about it or not.