Hi Mike and all,
I totally agree with you and I
always make the new res, then cancel the other and
print out the confirmation page with all the hotel details, rate, dates and special requests. On the odd occasion when there was wrong info at check in, all I had to do was whip out my print out and no more questions asked.
The old Promus hotels (Hampton Inn, Emb Suites, Doubletree) are on a different system than the Hilton properties. I can tell you there are still problems with intergration. For example, I always told people to update their profile (the front desk cannot do this), because special requests or changing your airline/car rental can throw off all your info. Case in point, your bedding pref is king and one time you need a room w/2 doubles, I can tell you that fries your profile at times. I also know from my recent stay experiences, if you book online and change something in your profile, the info at the time of reservation will stick throughout your stay till checkout, even if the front desk manually overrides it. GRRR...
Also, most Hamptons are independently owned/operated...Hilton owns I believe a grand total of ONE
and few of the other Promus Hotels. Hampton has the ability to change rates in the system 4 times in a year, unlike Hiltons, which can change em hourly. Rates are set by your owner, and any price adjustment our front desk made would go on a special report ran each evening that our owner would scrutinize..sigh. I have seen the complete spectrum of humanity from pure evil to unbelieveable patience while working at the HI. I went out of my way many times, without so much as a thank you for things like: 1. Shoveling out snowed in vehicles, 2. loading endless amounts of baggage into cars. 3. Finding a specific food for guests on my own time, 4. Lending my OWN clothing (ties mostly
) on and on. That is why it is the HOSPITALITY business.
If you look at it from the owners point of view, you start with rack rate and work your way down to AAA/AARP and MAYBE Gov't on very slow days for walk ins or phone res. If I didn't do it that way, I would be fired. Owning a Hampton is very costly with HI Brand rules and Hilton rules that come in binders so giant they are volumonous, especially with all the new expenses involved with the new breakfasts, room upgrades, etc...and this is a business after all. I thought the rates were high, but hey this is NJ and the cost of everything is high, so not much wiggle room. That is the beauty of competition...shop around for the best rate if you don't like ours. It is what I do now as a traveler unless I really like one property in particular.
But again, I met some wonderful guests too when working at the HI who really were a pleasure, some week after week. To wrap up, I totally agree making a new reservation, then canceling the other and print and keep everything, and you will never have a problem...the front desk can't argue with the printed word
Have a Diamond Day all the time!!