Simon Schus

Hi all,

I hang out mostly on the BA board but thanks for having me along! I had a strange experience which I've not had before at any of the Hilton properties, and thought I'd ask you if it was bad form of the hotel or if my expectations were set at the wrong level.

I entirely understand that a Diamond room upgrade on check-in is based on availability and is not guaranteed in any way. I checked-in to the Dublin Conrad at the weekend and asked to see if there was an upgrade. I could see that various rooms types were available on my mobile app and so thought I might be lucky to get an upgrade to the next room category. However, I was told that there were no complimentary Diamond upgrades available but that I could pay 50 Euro for an upgrade if I wanted. My original booking was made in cash rather than being a points booking.

I thought that this offer to pay for a room upgrade was really strange given the wording on the Hilton website - presumably if they were willing to sell room upgrades for 50 Euro then this meant that they had rooms available? It was was a really disappointing experience as I had a discussion with the staff at reception for about five minutes about the Diamond benefit being a space-available upgrade, and I'll probably not book at the Conrad in Dublin again because it left a really sour taste (possibly I'll keep away from Conrads too but I don't really use them anyway as they aren't as common in the specific cities I travel in the UK, Europe and US). To be honest, they could have just shifted my room to the one next door and pretended it was an upgrade and it'd be fine- I wouldn't have known the difference. Instead, I ended up having a conversation that wasn't enjoyable for either myself or the kind person at reception where I felt like I had to prove that there were rooms still being sold in the hotel a category higher (Premium King) than the (Superior King) room that I had booked. It wasn't a suite upgrade but simply to the next category room - it seems odd to have such an advertised benefit misapplied.

I wasn't sure if this was a normal experience with Conrads in general, or if it was an isolated experience. Usually, I have very good experience with asking for a room upgrade upon arrival at the hotel in Europe albeit I've only stayed at the Hilton Dublin Airport in Ireland before.

Simon.