NA-Flyer

Unlike other chains, Hilton is the only one who does not provide transparent pricing and keep on cheating their customers .

Hilton.com is a website that is formulaized to gain as much money from customers as possible and not provide them the actual price for the night they stay in.

When you ask for rates they never privde you the different level of rates based on which night is your stay like marriott and Hyatt and ICH they just post for you the highest rate and they keep it for your whole stay: for example if you check in for thursday night until sunday the website will just quote you the hig rate of thursday and keep it until sunadya ignoring different rates evels, while with Hyatt or Marriott they show you every night rate seprately and charge you accordingly.

Com'n hilton stop cheating us and you should know that we have many choices

Supersonic Flyer

On the other side if you book a 5 days stay starting on saturday or sunday you will pay the saturday or sunday rate for the whole stay.
It happened several times to me and I saved many $$$$$$. This is the Hilton system: the price for the stay is based on the first night: if that price is higher than the rest of the stay you will loose, if the price is lower you save money. But if this is a big concern, you can book your stay in a single night step, in this case you will pay the exact fare for each day and at check-in you can ask to merge all the reservations without moving from you room.

jimmc66

Even worse are the "special deal" emails that Hilton sends out to HHonors club members. Click on the links to these "special deals" and the links are routinely broken or take you to reservation pages that won't honor the quoted "special deals".

I quit staying at Hiltons after two bad experiences - the LAX Hilton (a dump) and the Guam Hilton (an embarrassing, shocking, dump).

This despite how much I love the Tokyo Hilton. Guess this is what happens when you turn a good business over to the kids!

P D N

Try also looking at the Hilton UK website. www.hilton.co.uk. This soemtimes shows pricing differently and is usually based on the first night rate or cheapest rate. It may be that it does this to comply with UK consumer protection laws.
Also I have booked 5 single nights at a hotel with say pricing 100, 100, 500, 100, 100 monetary units. Once checked into the hotel I ask internal reservations why it so expensive on day 3. Sometimes they then reduce the rate from 500 to 100. (However I admit that I am a regular guest at the two hotels that this has happened)

3Cforme

This single sentence shows such a poor grasp of market capitalism and the discipline of marketing that it's hard to know where to begin.

harryhv

Ha ha, I wish.

Quite concur with the OP, is very frustrating to have to make two separate bookings to stay thru a weekend. In fact I have three separate bookings next weekend as there was a still better price from an online agency for 1 of the days (needitnow.com.au, miles better than wotif/lastminute etc). As for the BRG, I didn't have the time nor stamina to deal with those weasels.

Strange how the properties can be so welcoming, while the booking and BRG mechanisms are so crook.

InkUnderNails

Help me out folks.

I make a lot of three-five day stays. From the info in this thread, I may be getting a great deal or overpaying for days after the first day. I distinctly remember reservations that stated that the price changed during the stay, but they may have been at Choice Hotels and not Hilton.

Do you folks go to each day and check prices so that you know how to split the reservation?

I know a lot of us hop around which does this automatically, but I do not do this. I do not like packing and moving every day.

InkUnderNails

Time for a time wasting activity, a mini study.

I selected the Dallas Anatole Hilton as I thought this property would have varying rates.

I found that the pre-pay rates were all over the place depending on day, but when selecting multiple days they varied during the stay.

Instead I used the Best available for a King with Sofa, not prepaid, as this matches my preferences.

Daily rate, one night:
7/17: $130
7/18: $160
7/19: $160
7/20: $160

Sure enough, if I selected to start on 7/17 and stay for three days I got the $130 rate for all three days.

So, I went to 7/15, a Thursday, and the rate for one day was $150. A three day reservation beginning on 7/15, $130 per night. It backed the $130 WE rate back up to my start date and applied it to all three nights.

I wish that I had not done this. Blissfully unaware is nice sometimes.

ericgartner

Different rates per night CAN be shown on the Hilton site. The rate has an * next to the price and if you click on the rate it will show the price for different days. If you want to see a great example of this, check out the rates for Doubletree Times Square for Dec 29th thru Jan 2.

I wish I could sell my free room on the 31st.

cordelli

I've seen it work both ways.

Take for example the Hilton Millenium in New York, July 22 to 26. If you book from the 22 to the 26, you get a rate of $199 per night.

If you book them individually

July 22 - $299
July 23 - $199
July 24 - $229
July 25 - $279

So it's saving you a bit of money by not breaking it up.

There are times adding the extra day may actually save you money by making an entire weeks stay less per night.

daloosh

It is an annoying thing, seeing those asterisks pop up, which leads me to start repricing individual days, or groups of days. Then I get to the hotel, and sometimes they've picked up on it, and sometimes I have to explain it and get them to keep me in the same room. It also leads to screwed up folios sometimes, or multiple folios, particularly when the rates have different rules about meals or parking.

daloosh

RogerD408

It does get to be a chore and is not limited to Hilton. Anytime I have a multiple-night stay I go in and not only check for the entire stay, but for each day of the stay and all the combination of days. And let's not forget to check the several discount codes available. Hilton.com is especially bad if you enter a corporate code and AAA/AARP code it spits out an error message saying the codes are bad and only processes one. Plus it appears Hilton has different search engines for each of the brands so heaven only knows if you'll always get the same results twice!

Some properties offer a better rate if you book a two-night weekend, so discount their rate for five-day stays or longer.

If it was the company's responsibility to offer the lowest possible price they would also allow searching for all the possible discounts/promos. But it is our responsibility to figure out how to use their site to our advantage. Fortunately for them, there are people blinded by brand loyalty that price doesn't make a difference and they will take whatever they are told as gospel and book the room. Thoses of us more frugal will search for the best deal and take our business where we get the most bang for our bucks. All the chains need to step up the effectiveness of their website if they want to keep our business.

IAHtraveler

Actually, unless it's a rare occasion, I just stay 1 day at each property, which eliminates the need for this. It gets more HHonors points and works well with bonus point/promo offers, like the "stay 4, get 1 free" from this quarter.

divemistressofthedark

Lately I booked five nights at the Chincoteague, VA HI.

Hilton definitely does show you when rates are going to change during a stay, using the dreaded asterisk of death. My rate went from $229 to $269 per night for 3 nights of the stay.

So I tried different combinations of dates, but this property has about ten room types and I couldn't be sure I wouldn't have to change rooms - which I'd usually be glad to do, but this is the big summer vacay with the spouse, so would rather not. Couldn't seem to book the same room type for both halves of the stay, or for individual nights. I suspect the 'individual nights' trick works better at properties with only two or three types of rooms.

I've also found instances in which the room rate dropped dramatically about three weeks before a big event (Bonnaroo). Was trying to book hotels in Murfreesboro, TN, since the hotels near the fest are always blacked out by staff. The rate went from $159 to $129 only three or so weeks out - which has caused me to go in a couple times a week and try re-pricing for a particular stay, if I have enough lead time. Seems like the dynamic pricing engine, in this case at least, went into overtime.

KLACKER

Thanks to all for this interesting item. I now know to start my stays on Sunday.