Can someone knowledgeable please provide an overview of the architecture of these systems? (Not sure if this is the right forum, but there doesn't really seem to be a forum in which this fits.)

I have stayed at a certain out-of-the-way property outside the U.S. more than 15 times. I made the reservations on the Hilton web site each time, and they acknowledged my membership/status at check-in, yet each time the points didn't post. The front desk, naturally, just shrugged their shoulders and said it was "their" fault, meaning Hilton Honors I suppose.

They said that points post "automatically," at which I laughed and said, exactly, there's obviously some problem because they haven't. They told me to call Honors.

After five stays of this, I eventually demanded (politely) that they call Honors. They did, and got all of the points to eventually post. After another five stays, same thing. After another five, again, etc. I kept imploring them that there is obviously a problem with their system interface, or whatever, but no one seems to care.

My basic question is, how do the systems work? The hotel is locally-owned, managed by Hilton somehow. Does Hilton provide the software used by the front desk? Or does each hotel choose its own third-party system (perhaps some klugey locally-sourced solution in this case) and build its own interface? (Of course it's not rocket science, and Hilton must at least provide the protocol.) When one checks out, is there supposed to be some automated interface to the Honors database, or does someone at the hotel have to manually intervene to push the information to Hilton?

I am not cynical enough to believe that this is intentional on the owner's part to save on points (would there be a financial benefit to doing so, other than perhaps IT development costs?), but rather incompetence. They probably get few elite or even repeat guests, and most of the stays seem to be on wholesale packages, many all-inclusive, so perhaps not even points-earning, so this is not a focus.

But how can the systems even be set up to achieve this result? Of course I've had glitches with points posting here and there at various hotels in all chains, like everyone, but never something so systematically ineffective.

I don't feel the need to name the hotel, as the staff have been earnest once I prodded them, and they treat me great otherwise. Perhaps I could call Honors and ask them to look into it.