Your worst experience, and how was it handled?
 

I haven't been here long, and I don't want to be a non-homer and step on too many toes, but I am curious as to how some bad experiences have been dealt with.

I had a stay at Embassy Suites Baton Rouge a couple years back and the lobby/checkin experience was horrible. Then when I got to my room, there was mold around the (extremely loud) air conditioning unit, and I found at least 2-3 roaches crawling around my room.

I complained to the management and the response was a one-night certificate to stay at their hotel again. Which to me seems odd since I didn't have any plans on returning there ever again.

Who's next?

If you read the HH T&C you will see ES has a 100% guarantee so your room should of been free rather than a cert for another stay.

MisterNice

I had an HGI manager try push that on me - when I replied that I had no plans to return to the area anytime soon, he relented and agreed to deposit points in my account instead.

got stuck in an elevator at an embassy suites for a few hours....the manager apologised in person when i finally got out....he also comped my entire 4 day stay....

The Hilton New York.

Way too many issues to list them all, but nothing from the time I walked into the lobby to the time I checked out was a good experience. It is the only time I've complained about a Hilton and gotten no response what so ever from them, so I guess you could say it was totally ignored.

Not that I expected any different, it was so clear from stepping into the place they didn't want you bothering them with anything.

Got walked a few years ago at the Drake when I was a Gold. I arrived at 11:30pm and they sent me to a seedy motel 20 minutes away in a bad part of Chicago. The loud music from next door kept me up the whole night. I sent an email during the night to the CEO(forgot his name) of Hilton complaining about how bad the motel was. I received a call the next morning on my cellphone from somebody in the CEO's office that The Drake belonged to Hilton International and not Hilton USA but they would forward my complaint. When I arrrived back at The Drake the next morning, I had to wait another hour before they had a room for me. However, they upgraded me to a junior suite on the EF and the GM sent me a bottle of wine and called me personally to apologize. I also received a certificate for a future free night at The Drake later in the mail. I was satisfied with their response.

In 2008 I was staying at the Doubletree Club San Diego. The check-in staff were incredibly rude and unhelpful. When I got to my room I realized I hadn't been given my cookie, as I had just driven 6 hours from Phoenix, the baked good sounded great. When I came downstairs to claim it, they made fun of me. I later overheard them mocking my date.

I complained about it in the follow-up survey and recieved a letter from the hotel manager including a free night's stay. I was very impressed by this.

deleted.

We all complain about breakfasts from time to time here, but theirs is the only one I'd best describe as "truly pathetic" (content and atmosphere combined).

Hilton London Metropole.

A couple of months ago I happened to be slotted in on some kind of group party floor. Banging doors, screaming and running up and down corridors work me up at 12:30am. I complained and nobody came up to check as promised. By the 1:45am I complained again and was told I could move and that security were dealing with it.

Security removed the guests at 2:30 and a duty manager told me to stay where I was as the guests were gone. Went back to bad, but 30 minutes later, the unruly guests had somehow sweet talked their way back in and the noise started up again. Called to complain again and was asked to head to reception where I would be given another room. Had to get dressed and pack up again (after having gone through the same process earlier) and got to reception who weren't expecting me. Was given a new room after 10 minutes of waiting. I finally got to bed at about 3:30am and had a couple of hours of sleep as I was up at 6am for work.

At check out I didn't even have time to mention the issues. The agent looking at my folio for checkout on the system asked me to wait a moment whilst she went to the back-office. When she came back she apologised and told me the stay was comped. I did say that it was the action of other guests, rather than the hotel, but she was insistent that the room was comped. It was just nice to have the hotel deal with this without it even being raised. I've stayed there a number of times since and have received consistently good service. They earned my loyalty with their actions after that rather sleepless evening.

The only two times I have had to complain about a Hilton stay were at the Palmer house and I was discounted both times.

The one time I had a non smoking room and it said guaranteed reserved. Get to the hotel and was told there were no non smoking rooms. This was before the days of smart phones and I didn't have the printed reservation with me. The next day I went to a friends in Chicago and printed off the email with the confirm info and complained when I checked out and showed them the email. The desk clerk apologized and said they didn't know why I was told that because they did have non smoking rooms that weekends (luckilly the room didn't smell bad like a lot of smoking rooms) and they gave me $50 off the bill (it was a pretty cheap rate that weekend anyway).

Another time there was some dance convention taking up a lot of the hotel and it was full of noisy teeny bopper type girls. Both nights I had teenage girls out in the hallway carrying on (I think their mommy and daddys went to bed and they wanted to talk). This was back when Hilton gave EL access to Gold and I was on a non tower floor and you should have seen how the girls that had rooms at that floor were behaving. I saw one girl take all the remaining diet coke and sprite and put it in a bag and get in the elevator (probably taking it to her girlfriends on a non EL level floor). The girl with her was taking cookies and other things and I asked the first girl if I could just have one of the diet cokes (I don't know why they just don't use a fountain to avoid the problem) and she got nasty and said she was in line first. I did end up calling the front desk and complaining the second night because I had a fairly early sunday morning flight.

IML (gay event every memorial day weekend that occupies some loop big hotel) was at Palmer house a month earlier and I had managed to book my room the year before, before the hotel block went in effect and got a lot better rate than the convention rate. A couple weeks before that the hotel called me saying they wanted to move me to another hilton property due to a "convention" having the entire hotel. I explained to the caller I was attending IML and he laughed and said have fun but they were trying to move the non IML guests which made sense.

When I checked out that morning I complained to the desk clerk and explained the call over IML and said I totally understood it but they should have offered me the same courtesy of a call over the dance convention. I told him I appreciated the crowd being there as much as a non iml person would have felt if they checked in during that event, and they should have offered me the same courtesy. The guy said he totally understood but it was out of his control and I told him I also understood that. He gave me a substantial deduction off my bill (and I was only on something like a $99 rate anyway) and gave me a comment card to fill out and assured me he would make sure management looked at it. He noticed I was just there for IML and had another stay in a month and said he would try to see I got a nice upgrade over the problem. I did get a call from PH a few days later apologizing and got some points in attention to the discount and they also gave me an upgrade to a very nice suite a few weeks later when I returned.

At the HGI in chelsea for some reason they like to skip cleaning my room. BOth were weekend stays and the first time I didn't say anything. The second stay I needed more towels and I did complain since it was the second stay that had happened with that property and they discounted that bill as well (which I didn't expect anything for that seeing they did send someone up to clean the room).

I got walked as a diamond member about 3 years ago from a Homewood suites. I was checking in in the afternoon. I have not stayed at a Hilton since. Although, I will be burning my Hilton points, finally, next month in HI.

This one is fun. I have three that I have trouble deciding from.

First Hilton New York, stayed in a room on the "Diamond Floor" for a week. The couch did not have any cushions on it. Called front desk, stopped by front desk, called housekeeping, left note in room, finally began calling management office (still nothing). Found email address to GM [email protected] and sent him photos. The following day had cushions on sofa. This only took 4 days to fix. No compensation, nothing, just a large unusable sofa in the room.

Second Hilton New York, was told at front desk upon check in that they do not have a "Diamond Floor" and that my room was my room (which is interesting since I stopped on the elevator and took a photo with my phone of the HH Diamond Floor that supposedly does't exist according to the front desk "Diamond Check In"). They could not upgrade me,as they were full. There was a high school convention going on and the kids broke the elevators. Had to use the service elevator to access my floor. Called GM again, he remembered me from my last stay, and he said that he was sorry about the check in and elevator experience and that he would be sending me a bottle of wine (he asked if I preferred white or red) to the room for the inconvenience. Needless to say, no bottle of wine ever showed up. I have since given up on the NY Hilton. It is in a great location, but the hotel service is HORRIBLE.

Third, the Waldorf Astoria Orlando. Nobody opened the door for me when walking in (even though a doorman was standing there watching me). I went to check in and was given a room. I had reserved a 2 queen room (as it was $20 cheaper than a King) and then put in my comments "Prefer a King Bed Room. Please upgrade if availble, HH Diamond #XXXXX. Thank you very much!" My HH Profile also states in room preferences king bed, high floor, near elevator. I checked in (no mention of HH status at check in & no thank you for my loyalty). I arrived at room, 2 queens, at farthest end of hallway from elevator, on a low floor... I called the front desk and was told that there were no king beds. The hotel seemed fairly empty, so I used my cell phone to call the hotel directly and asked for reservations office. I told them that I was driving into town and asked if they had a King Bed room available for the night. They said that they did and the rate would be $219. I thanked them. I then sent an email to the GM who to date has not responded to me (over two weeks ago). I realize that these complaints sound petty, but they tout this hotel as the "finest in Orlando". I went down to the bar and had a cocktail, the bartender asked about my stay and I told him what had transpired and that I had been lied to by the front desk. Unbenounced to me he contacted his manager (Assistant Restaurant Manager), who came up and told me that he had heard about my problems and had a key to a "very nice room for me". It was a large King Suite. He walked me up to the room and assisted me with my bags. He also comped my cocktails at the bar. End result was a very nice suite and two free cocktails. The unfortunate part is that the GM has never bothered to respond to my email. I left with the feeling that someone cared enough to make a difference, so I will return to the hotel and try it again. Unfortunately, I am still not convinced that the people that are "in charge" really cared.

Have to love those conventions with high school kids. One of my worst experiences at a hilton I just posted about involved the same demographic.

I found it really iritating as a gold member that I couldn't get an upgrade but some of these high school kids were staying on the tower level. As a diamond I would have been furious.

It sounds like they do have some employees that are just lazy about checking things out. I wouldn't think it would be that hard for them to have verified a king room was available for you, especially seeing you are a diamond HH member. Last year I was attending a convention at the Hilton chicago and it was sold out during memorial day weekend. I usually stay Friday to Tuesday and luckilly my friend I was attending with noticed I had only booked it for a monday check out instead of tues. I called the Hilton chicago to extend the stay and she said they were entirely booked which I found odd since a lot of people check out on memorial day and I couldn't imagine they would have many check ins that day.

She told me when I checked in I could tell them I wanted to extend my stay and if someone left on Monday they could probably do it. I was online and saw the palmer house had rooms and asked her if I booked there and a room became available that monday if they would waive the cancel policy at PH since I was staying in another Hilton property only a few blocks away and she said I would have to call PH. I called Palmer House and explained the situation and she was able to pull up Hilton Chicagos inventory as well and said she was showing pelnty of avialablity that night and it was just the three nights prior that was sold out and she extended the reservation for me and emailed me a new confirm. I don't understand why Hilton Chicago told me they were sold out when they had plenty of rooms.

Obviously you were dealing with an ex-Delta employee, who was hell bent on "maintaining the integrity of the premium product". :rolleyes: