Originally Posted by
SunDevil85
Not sure what else to say. I tried booking the GSA rate for a stay in November at the Embassy in ABQ. I noticed my GSA card was charged for the full amount.
When I called the ABQ Embassy, the agent put me on hold and had me speak with the manager. The manager explained that due to the fact that so many government employees cancel their stays outside of the 24 hour window, that Hilton was going to change their policy across the board. I thought it was weird, so I called the Hampton Inn ABQ and got the same story.
I called the Hampton in DC where I had an October reservation and was told that my rate would be prepaid if I booked under the federal government rate.
Well, I suppose it could be the case that Hilton hasn't updated its website to reflect this - shocking, I know, if Hilton's website isn't perfectly accurate
- but none of the properties I have looked at, including the ABQ one, mention anything about this in the rate details for govt rates for later this year.
Originally Posted by
SunDevil85
I called the HHonors desk and it was explained to me that because government employees block off rooms then cancel them when plans change, that they needed to begin prepayment charges for future reservations starting in November.
I'm, again, not saying that anything is out of the question when it comes to Hilton, but why on earth would they think that govt. employees are more likely than private sector to cancel? As I mentioned before, govt. employees jump through all sorts of hoops to get travel approved; it's not like they can just change their plans when they feel like it.
Of course, this potential issue is the sort of thing that Hilton could very easily clarify and confirm or deny if they had, say, an employee who had a presence on FT...