teemuflyer

Error on reps part. Simple as that. the Deluxe rooms are the ones that qualify when "standard" rooms are available, although sometimes they are also available as "premium". If it says "Standard Room Reward" at the Conrad HK site, then the certificate is a valid form of payment (must be on a weekend night though).

40orFight

Thanks to you both. Tried again, and all taken care of. Just wasted some of my time poking around for answers. Probably should have just tried again straight away instead of bothering you fine folks. Funniest (or saddest) parts are that (1) I called the Diamond desk the first time and (2) that first agent was absolutely certain that she couldn't do it - no doubt whatsoever. Thanks again! Happy flying.

anabolism

Glad you got it handled. For future reference, one option is to book a room yourself online using points, and as long as it is a standard room award and not a premium room award, call and have the form of payment switched from points to the certificate.

40orFight

Thanks again. I'll give this a go for any future bookings while I'm waiting on the certificates to arrive. I've heard tales of agents refusing to convert the reservation, but there seems to be no harm in trying. Worst case, I just release my points booking and hope it shows up as available again to book with the certificate.

anabolism

There must be a lot of poorly trained agents. It was an agent who first suggested this approach to me, and I've never had an agent balk at it.

wantan

spot on advice, thank you ! especially for the group train fare ticket.

we followed this to a tee, Airport Express (15 minute intervals) and taxi (had to use 2 due to luggage) from Central to Conrad for around 400HKD per taxi.

For this trip booked 2 standard rooms and OLCI showed 1 PeakView Suite with 1 connecting room, Exec Lounge access granted to both rooms despite just me being Diamond. Stay was practically faultless .

Kacee

That would be over $50 US. Assume you mean $40 HKD (which would include a luggage surcharge, as the fare itself is only $25-30 HKD).

Kacee

Stayed here last night on an award. Booked Deluxe Harbour View for only 76k (approx. .5 cpp). Checked-in on the App at T-24, and had been upgraded to Exec Harbour View, pre-assigned to room 6002 (very good assignment). At check-in (around 9 pm), front desk informed me they had moved us to 59th floor "so you can be closer to the lounge." Translation: We gave away your pre-assigned room. Okay, whatever, though anyone who's stayed on 59 knows that harbour view rooms are a hassle on this floor b/c you have to do a big loop of the whole floor to get to the room.

The bigger issue was that the room had a horrible mildew issue. We walked in and both agreed it was not tolerable. Called Guest Services and said we'd like to move, as the room smelled very bad. She put me on hold, came back and said front desk was "working on it" and would call me back "in a while."

We waited about 15 minutes and went to the lounge, where I repeated my request to be moved, and agent invited us to take a seat and have a drink while she worked on it. Another lengthy delay. I went back to the desk. Agent says "the front desk has no record of you requesting a room change." Okay whatever. So how about moving us to a new room? "I'm working on it. We don't have any more harbour view rooms, so would peak view be okay?" I said no it wouldn't, you can give us a suite. She said, "all we have are peak view suites." I told her I had just looked on the app, and the hotel was still selling every type of room, including harbour view suites (it's nearly 10 pm by now). She says "I'll have to check with housekeeping." Five minutes later, she gives us keys to a harbour view suite. We get to the room. Totally reeks of mildew. At this point we're done with the whole process, drop our bags and head over to Kowloon.

Don't think I will stay here again until they refurb the rooms. Obviously a full carpet replacement is needed, at least in some substantial percentage of the rooms. If I had paid $3500 HKD for a room that reeked of mildew I would be super pissed.

On the positive side, the breakfast was excellent and sunrise run on Bowen Road was amazing.

evergrn

That's not good. I've stayed there quite a few times including every year for the past ~3yrs. Never had such issues. If 2/2 rooms had this problem, then it must be a systemic issue. Had a similar issue one time at Grand Stanford and, in that instance, the smell definitely could be traced to the bathroom.

Staying there in a few months. Smell or no smell, I guess I have to stay there. Would take a lot for me to forego Diamond benefits, as I don't have any other meaningful status. But I sure hope they have this sorted out by then.

Kacee

I think it's limited to specific rooms. The suite they gave us was basically two connecting rooms, and only the harbour side had the smell.

I suspect they moved us out of 6002 because someone complained about smell in a different room (possibly the one I was then given, 5903). And that lounge agent's reference to rooms not being "available" was an indirect way of referring to the mildew issue. The whole way this was handled, basically a slow play in hope I would just go away, makes me think it is very well known to staff.

Updating my profile, as I am Diamond through Aspire.

evergrn

Okay thanks, that is more reassuring.

Kacee

I looked at TA, and saw one recent complaint about a "musty" smell in the room. Most reviews are still quite positive.

anabolism

I think it'd be worth reporting the mildew problem with the two rooms to Hilton Guest Relations. I'd suggest using the "Feedback on my Stay" in the Hilton app.

Kacee

Thanks for the suggestion. I did this. They threw me 20k points. I do hope they followed up with the hotel.

markis10