SwissBritMiss

Because I don't believe the OTA was at fault - OTA claims that the booking was valid, but reception couldn't find it and therefore turned me away. Whilst I can believe an OTA would try to shift blame, their version would also be supported by the no-show fee that I was charged by the hotel directly.

scubaccr

I can never recommend using an OTA to make an 'on the day/night of arrival' reservation very late in evening, only minutes (not hours) before you arrive, and certainly never at midnight and beyond.
You really are at mercy of OTA informing your hotel, which is far from instant, typically 1hour or longer.

By all means use an upront OTA search to locate suitable hotel then book using the hotel groups website, so you know reservation is instantly seen at the hotel AND hotel room is in available If hotel group allows you to book a room that is a reliable indicator, else hotel site would show no rooms and not let you book.
At 1am in morning my priority is knowing my booking is good and instantly visable at my hotel, and not saving a few £££'s

Their is a HH Walking Guarantee giving compensation for Elite status guests ie HH Diamonds being walked does not apply to non status guests. Not sure if similar applies to HH non-elites without the HH Diamond extra walk benefits.

The IHG walking process referred to is for any IHG status guest not just IHG elites, elites/non-elites being treated the same.

Neither would Hilton walk guarantees apply if you don't book direct using official Hilton channels.

And no, even if hotel is oversold, whichever chain, and hotel can not give you your reserved room if you arrive, will still charge a noshow for a non-appearance.
So Hilton was indeed probably sold out, else employee would have just said they can't see your booking, probably as unlike booking direct on Hilton urls an OTA booking takes some time to appear at hotel.

scubaccr

Never going to happen unless massively overbooked and hotel knows even with average expected number of no-shows, they will still need walk multiple guests.

All hotels know how many rooms to overbook by based on historical data and even if oversold at 6pm after end of flex-rates-cancel-deadline, hotel still counts on enough noshows to not need to walk anyone
This maximises revenue on bust nights, eg sell 10x rooms more than they have many nights/year, lose 5x rooms to 6pm on day flex cancels, so hotel gets 5rooms income extra many nights a year.
On the ocasional night every guest turns up, they walk guests, and even with HHD $$100 comp in cash still profit.

eg
Hotel overbooked by 10rooms at 7am locates and holds 10x other rooms, then that need maybe reduces to 5 rooms at 6pm after flex cancelations rollin, thus reconfirms+reholds 5x rooms in nearby hotel they have reciprocal overbooking arrangement with, BUT your hotel is actually expecting based on average number of ADR noshows that none of the upto 5x room walks will be needed in the end.
Hotel has no idea if HH Elite on ADR will no show, so if arriving late, hotel takes the really good chance Elite will no show and fills last few rooms on first come first served, including the extra nice upgrade room pencilled in for you as an HHD
In your instance as HHD you arrived after last room given out and had to be walked, but for all you know last rooms checkin was just 10mins before you arrived, and hotel is still ready to walk 4x rooms if those guests appear later.
Or maybe they walk just 1room , you , and charge 4nights no show on top of being sold out for the noshows for the other 4x overbooked rooms.

SwissBritMiss

scubaccr, thank you for the very clear explanation. I normally book direct as you mention (in this case the EWR wifi was terrible and about to run out, so I just did what was quickest to get any form of booking in), so it hadn't even occurred to me that an OTA search may not be "live" that a "confirm" from an OTA may not be a confirm from the hotel - yes, a timing delay would explain why I was both not on system and also a no-show.

Cheetah_SA

After the cancellation cut-off time they have a credit card guarantee. The decision to walk someone is presumably made after this time - so the property has indeed been paid and yet they persist in re-selling your room and walking you.

This is just duplicitous. They want the credit card guarantee to protect themselves from no-shows and yet they will bank that guaranteed payment and give away the room on the off-chance the guest won't arrive.

How is selling - and being paid for - a room twice, at the cost of massive inconvenience to the guest, justifiable?

jamesteroh

It would be the OTA's fault but good luck collecting from them. I found a great deal at a New Orleans hotel many years ago on the Southwest travel site and booked it. A few days before the stay my friend noticed the confirmation didn't state a smoking preference and I called to ask if they could assure me I would have a non-smoking room and they couldn't find a reservation. I had an emailed confirm from Southwest and they said since it wasn't from the hotel it wasn't guaranteeing me a room and I forget if they were sold out or offered me a room at a lot higher price. I called Southwest and was told they sent the info over and the blame was with the hotel and the hotel was saying the blame was with Southwest. Fortunately I found a good deal elsewhere but I learned from that only book directly with a hotel for personal and for business either with the hotel chain site or or our corporate travel. I don't think the hotel would be on the hook to pay to walk the guest, not sure if the OTA would be or not if the guest has a confirmation email.

I'm sure if I were to show up at a booked Hilton with no room as a diamond and booked with another source outside Hilton they wouldn't offer me the $200 walking money or to walk me to another hotel.

jeffandnicole

It's been mentioned numerous times on here why it's justifiable: Because of historical statistics that say what happens. No different in the airline industry either. Yes, walks do happen, and that's why compensation is in order, especially to those with status that stay with the hotel a lot, vs someone who booked it on a 3rd party site because it was the cheapest.

Cheetah_SA

I disagree on both counts.

Historical stats have nothing to do with it - the stays are all paid regardless of whether or not the rooms are occupied. So the hotels are just trying it on to sell the room twice.

And it is different to the airline industry. There they sell tickets that are refundable until the flight leaves and even after. Airlines stand to lose revenue if full fare pax don't pitch up. Hotels will not lose revenue if guests don't pitch up.

writerguyfl

That last sentence is not true. First, a no-show guest won't be eating in restaurants, watching in-room movies, paying for parking, or spending money in other ways. All of those revenue sources are important for many hotels.

Second and more importantly, no-show charges aren't the slam dunk that you believe. One of my hotels jobs involved dealing with disputed no-shows. If the card-holder can prove she or he was in another hotel/city and lies about cancelling, the hotel will lose the chargeback.

Cheetah_SA

Thanks for the clarification. I made the mistaken assumption that others do what I do and suck it up.

So the hotel faced with the possibility of giving away a room at 9pm thinks: This guest may still spend money on room service, a movie, etc. The poor sucker stumbling in at 01:30 will just collapse on his bed and spend nothing. So screw him - he can walk.

coutura

Got walked for the first time this past Saturday. I'm a HHonors Diamond member (with 120+ nights this year, FWIW) and I had booked a Hampton Inn on points at 9:30pm for a same-day reward through the HHonors app. Got the reservation confirmation e-mail and everything.

Showed up to the hotel 30 minutes later and was told there was a mistake in the reservation system and that there were no rooms available. All of the Hilton brand hotels in the area were sold out, so I waited around while they called a bunch of different hotels. They ended up finding an HGI 50 minutes away (in the wrong direction) with some availability. They weren't able to transfer/walk my reservation (they blamed it on being a points reservation) so they ended up requiring me to book it myself using points (for an additional 30k points than my original reservation). The manager on duty, although very apologetic, apparently didn't have much power, since he said he'd have to wait until Monday when the GM was back to give any compensation or points credit. All I got from them was a warm Diet Coke and a bottle of water.

I wish I could've found this thread while waiting in the lobby. It appears I was owed some $$$ compensation for this ordeal, and I should've been one of the last people they walked that day even though I'm assuming 10-12 people hadn't checked in/showed up yet judging by the stack of pre-made keys at the desk. Also, it appears that they should've paid for the reservation, not make me book it using my points.

I'm assuming the GM is going to contact me today, so I'll let you know what happens.

I also love this e-mail I got from Hilton Guest Assistance as I was leaving the hotel:


They might want to work on their turnaround time for night-of-reservation issues...

PayItForward

Pretty confident you will be made whole. I am guessing refund of your points and a BMG cert. If you are not driving, they should also be paying for the transportation to the alternative location.

arlflyer

Agreed; sounds like they are on top of it and will resolve in due time.

And for me the most shocking part of this story was that Hilton actually delivered a confirmation email in under 30 minutes! Kidding - the system has gotten a LOT better in past months but for many years it would take hours for reservations and confirmations to show up.

coutura

Update: Talked to the GM on Monday. He was not very helpful, and only wanted to blame Hilton for allowing me to make a reservation when he was sold out. He offered no compensation other than the 30k points extra I had to pay to stay at the other location.

So, I followed up with guest services later that day and they responded the next morning offering 50k points and a $200 check.

That seems fair for the inconvenience, and seems to be more in line with their policy for walking diamond members.

I only managed to find the Canadian version of the Hampton Inn brand standards (2015), but since they use USD as their currency, I figure the section for walking didn't change much from the US version.

Here it is:

flyou10

Since United has brought up the subject of getting bumped off a flight. It has me thinking about getting walked from a hotel.

Has this actually happened to anyone at a HHonor property in recent history? Did they actually take care of you?

I don't think there are any regulations on getting walked, like their are about getting bumped off a flight.

I would expect that if you were walked, not only should you get an equivalent or better room, a refund, and transportation. You should also be getting something in compensation for being bumped.

Idk, just an interesting conversation considering the recent talks about the airlines.