Originally Posted by
corporate-wage-slave
That would be the norm the world over these days, relatively few hotels are directly managed, let alone owned, by any of the major chains. The notable exception is Accor but even they have half their hotels under franchise.
I would have to agree with the other posters above that it is difficult to give advice in this case, I think you can legitimately hide your privacy by changing a few details if you think it is important, but with every bit of dodgy grouting in hotel bathrooms being gloriously photographed on Tripadvisor, my feeling is that hotel chains are now fairly impervious to public criticism. That said hotels do own their customer service remedies - and have to pay for them. Occasionally Hilton Corporate will intervene and pay some points over to their better customers in particularly bad cases, but they would still look to recover them from the local hotel operator. So if your German hotel feels that you are not owed anything then I can see why there would be a stand off here. On the same lines, since the USA properties agreed that something(s) bad had happened, then it's in everyone's interest to resolve the matter with a generous point / certificate award. So I suspect the specifics matter more than you suggest.
The one thing we do very occasionally see on this forum are people who try it on just a bit too much and Hilton Corporate then close down the shutters on them. One case involved inter alia a hotel in Poland which I (and others) know to be pretty good if not outstanding in looking after guests, so having a string of complaints there and elsewhere eventually led to Corporate asking, well, telling them to find another hotel programme. Now 3 significant complaints over 3 or 4 years wouldn't be on the same scale, but at some point Corporate will lose interest. By way of comparison I think I've had 2 fairly modest sets of compensation points awarded to me over the last 500 stays in Hiltons globally, and one of those (for non-operational wifi at the LHR HGI) I didn't ask for. The other case was a bit more serious, being asked to leave the Conrad New York at 2 am, due to a bathroom flooding incident upstairs. Maybe 3 to 5k points each time?
I will say that for each of the 3 hotel stays - there were a dozen issues I complained about - some minor (which if any of them was the only issue, I would not have complained) and some more major. Collectively, I was successful the first two time in getting full compensation for the 2 stays.
The first time, for the Hampton Inn in Denver - the hotel manager dealt with the issue - I met him shortly before checking out. He dealt with my issues directly and verbally.
The second time, for the Embassy Suites in Philadelphia - I sent an email to the hotel manager a few weeks after check-out. No response (later I found out that the manager had changed around the time I sent the email - that was why no response). So I sent my concerns to the Hilton rep on this forum, who in turn forwarded my case with the North American customer service. This FT person was the only one who I communicated with about my issues, and agreed to the compensation I mentioned above. I was then sent by the customer services department (based in USA?) the 2 one-day Embassy Suites free certificates.
In this case in Germany, I met the manager at the end of my hotel stay. She did not dispute my version of the dozen issues of my complaint, but told me she personally could give very few points - she did not have the authority and ability to give more than a few HHonors points. My travel agent told me that the reason may be that the management companies of hotels with the Hilton family name find it very expensive to give out points - unlike Hilton owned or managed hotels.
I then decided to ask the Hilton rep on this forum to connect with Hilton customer service - she connected me with the customer service based in the UK. So we have communicated so far by email - she has discussed some of the issues by email; she has doubled the compensation offered by the manager. However, this compensation pales in comparison to what I got in the above 2 instances.
I have not told her in the email about my concern related to the compensation she has offered me - but I have arranged to speak to her later this week about the issues that I experienced during my stay at this hotel. I plan to go over the issues in more detail with her, than what I was able to state by email.
The question is - that is why the post on this forum - is it worthwhile for me to bring up the fact that I really was expecting more in compensation that what she has offered - with the premise of my statement being the precedent set by the 2 stays being offered a lot more in compensation.
PS-just for comparison - I would not have considered the bathroom issue you have mentioned, worthwhile for a complaint to the manager (let alone the Hilton customer service department) , but perhaps useful to state the issue on this forum or on Trip Advisor.