Originally Posted by
MSPeconomist
However, I'd like to know what Hilton policy is for other situations when the rooms available do not fulfill the confirmed characteristics, such as a (particular type of) handicapped room or a room with two beds when colleagues, for example, are sharing the room. Is this treated as a walk? I recall a thread about a handicapped room not being available, but I don't know whether this was Hilton family or not. I also have the impression that bedding type is guaranteed for elites in some chains, but I'm not sure whether Hilton has a similar policy or what happens when the hotel doesn't offer a room with the confirmed number of beds. In some cases, a walk might not solve the problem when no other hotel in the area has a room available with the confirmed features. In other cases, a free upgrade to some sort of suite might solve the problem if the hotel is willing and able to do that.
Overall, you are guaranteed a room, not a room type.
As an example, you are XYZ Diamond member who booked a standard king and you get two queens because the property didn't have anymore kings. You're not getting walked and the property is not giving you any compensation. You book a two queen bed suite room and for whatever reason none are available. If the property can give you a connecting set of rooms like a standard two queen room connecting to a king suite then you're good. No walk and no further compensation. If the rooms cannot connect then maybe some points and/or taking something off of your rate but you're not getting walked because you were still offered a bed.
Another simple thing is to put on the reservation the realistic number of people arriving for the room. It happens far less than you would think. If you book a two queen room and list one person, if the property is out of two queen rooms, you're getting moved to king versus another similar reservation that lists three people.
Most people that book accessible rooms do not need them yet they book them anyway for various reasons (mostly being available on 3rd party sites). If they are booked the appropriate way with a note on the reservation that the room type is actually needed then you're not getting moved out of that room. Note that a lot of guests play the stupid card and book these room types which are clearly marked as such on Expedia, Priceline, Hotels.com, etc. and then flip out at check in because "they had no idea" or "well I'm not handicapped. why would you give me that type of room". 99% of the guests that book the accessible room types do not need them and I will preemptively change them out at check in if it's not needed so as to have the room available in the off chance it is legitimately needed. Will every desk clerk do that? No, which is where problems can happen later on.
The issue with your suggestion of upgrading is that the bulk of Hilton properties are limited service where there are no upgrades possible. Technically a one bedroom suite at a HWS is an upgrade over a studio suite which is why they are usually priced differently but in ten years working at one I never heard a guest refer to it that way and when a manager would, the guest would laugh, look in disbelief, etc. that someone would call that an upgrade. If you're at a property where you can throw around corner suites or water/ocean views or penthouse then upgrades can solve problems. At a HGI or a Home2, that's not really an applicable tool for you to use.
Just understand that now more than ever with how tight the industry has gotten on costs, hotels will go out of their way more than ever not to walk people simply to avoid the expense. Properties also love to screw other properties over and not pay their bills. At the HIS I'm at, we've cut off another area HIS and two HWS for non-payment of walks during '21. It is possible that if you're in a walk situation the desk agent really has their hands tied because the GM/management company/owner stiffed X number of nearby places.