Flying_Duck

I found this old thread after a searc conducted after I got walked From Homewood Suites San Jose. I am a Gold VIP (no, not "send in the mail for being a good AE owner, but earned year after year the "hard" way) with 20 stays for the year, working on 30 before the end. The reservation was made more than a month ago, and I arrived at the hotel at 8 PM. Was unceremoniously told by the desk clerk that they were "overbooked" and was given an envelope addressed to the "Sierra Suites" 1.3 miles down the road. With a "sorry - but there is nothing I can do" the desk clerk turned his back. Did not acknowledge my so-called elite status. He did not ask about how I had arrived (I arrived in a rental but had planned to take it in later this evening and take an early hotel shuttle for my 6:40 am flight), but for all this person knew, I could have arrived in a taxi or driven to there by friends!.

"Sierra Suites" is clearly a step down from Homewood, and of course with none of the elite benefits, and to top it off, their airport shuttle starts 7 am in the morning (? what is that about?) so I have to get up one hour earlier to make sure to make it through the absolutely absurd San Jose's Rental shuttle hurdle. So I am not a happy camper right now as I sit in my hotel room and stew while writing this!!

Yes, they paid for the room at Sierra - but how does that benefit me personally for my inconvenience as I am on an all expense paid account that my client takes care of. And in checking my HH account on the Web just a minute ago, the reservation had already been taken off, as if it never existed, no points or stay credit of course.

I even went to Google and found the hillarious: Yours is a very bad hotel powerpoint presentation (Another Hilton Family by the way!) which I fully identify with, except the clerk was not quite as surly as in the PP presentation, and they did have a room for me - but on the other side, I arrived a heck of a lot earlier than in the PP presentation!.

But that's not much of a comfort as I prepare for the fun of struggling with the rental car return at San Jose very early tomorrow morning and wasting time to deal with Hilton to get my stay credit, points etc.!!