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Consolidated "Getting Walked (or denied a room) - Experiences & Questions" thread

Consolidated "Getting Walked (or denied a room) - Experiences & Questions" thread

Old Nov 26, 2002, 2:31 pm
  #61  
 
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: newport news,va. usa
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Here is some old, but very relevant, material I posted on another thread related to walking:
For situations where I know I will be arriving at 10 PM or later, I usually have that put into the reservation when I make it. If I will be arriving after 11 PM, I not only note the reservation, but will usually call the hotel sometime the day of arrival to let them know I will be in that late. If I plan on arriving very late, say after midnight, I will call the hotel twice, once early in the day and once in the evening (8 PM or so if possible). If I have a late arrival and something happens that will make me even later (flight delay, etc.), I will call the hotel again to let them know my situation, when I believe I will arrive, and specifically request that my room be held.

It isn't often that I arrive after 11 PM, so I don't end up making many calls, but on a number of occasions calling has saved me. I've seen situations where the hotel has checked me in before arrival, based on my call, and then walked multiple people checking in at the same time as me. It's a pain to have to call, but it does help.


It's nice to see a good common sense solution to this problem. Although sometimes tough to remember or do in the rush-rush of business travel. Thanks.
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Old Nov 27, 2002, 2:32 pm
  #62  
 
Join Date: May 2001
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Did that

Hilton San Diego on the beach in Mission Valley. Called before plane left, called when plane landed in LAX, called on trip down, cousin who was staying in Hotel went in and talked to them

Arrived with 2 kids at 1am - WALKED

And yes it was gauranteed to my AmEx card
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Old Nov 28, 2002, 3:18 am
  #63  
 
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For many years of travel I've not been walked, however last year I got walked twice: once at the Marriott World Center Orlando (1 room) and once in a Radisson SAS (two rooms) on French riviera. Both times I had guaranteed, at the Marriott even prepaid reservations!

The employees at the Marriott had already arranged for accomodation (although at the shabby Caribe Royal Suites down the road) and apologies (phone card, better room on subsequent days of our 7-day stay). Even if I was not happy (this happening at 1am after arriving late in Orlando), I was happy to have a room that was not too far away so we could get to bed. I sent a complaint letter to the manager after the stay and he replied a really apologic letter that they would upgrade us to a suite f we should consider staying at his hotel again. Next time we stayed there, they upgraded our two rooms to really wonderful suites.

The staff at the Radisson were really rude and had not arranged for rooms yet. The clerk slowly started phoning around (at midnight) and found one room at the Noga Hilton Cannes and one at a Sofitel (about 2km away from each other) for us. They also wanted us to pay the difference (room at Radisson was about 100$, the ones at the other hotels in excess of 300$) and that's when I got nasty with them. End of story: They found us 2 rooms at the Sofitel and both rooms were free on first night and we payed the Radisson rate on the second night.

My tactics, I friendly asked to talk to a manager. The clerk told me no manager was available at the moment. I told him then that he should wake the general manager at home. He then understood he better should search for a good solution. Even if it is against my principles, I stay again at this Radisson every time I'm on French Riviera because they are the cheapest of the good hotels down there and surely better than staying at a more expensive but worse other hotel.

Muerz

Muerz

------------------
Visit the Hyatt Review Website at http://www.no-limits.lu/hyatt or at http://www.hotelreview.de.vu
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Old Nov 28, 2002, 8:00 am
  #64  
 
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It could be worse. I once turned up at a Hilton Garden Inn in Canada only to find a construction zone and a note on the door for me to go down the road - sorry! No compensation - nadda!

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Old May 7, 2003, 3:03 pm
  #65  
 
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Very interesting topic. I noticed on an online res made at the palmer house in downtown chicago in the comments:

DO NOT WALK. PLEASE DO NOT TAKE**NCRO// LINE!::REQUE ST LINE!

GIVE PRFRD PRFL**EL PRVLGS** 261439::REQUEST LINE!::REQUEST LINE!

The hotel was booked solid that night and I was going to be checking in at about 9 PM. When I checked in, I noticed there were several "situations" at the check-in line. I overheard one guest being offered a large living room suite with a rollaway bed. No bedroom in the suite! He didn't care for the rollaway bed. The next agent called to me and checked me in. The agent said that next time I could check in at the HH check in about 20 feet away that had a big HH sign. DOH! Needless to say, I got my keys and went to my room. I wish I could decipher what that jumble was in the comments section. I could only recognize the "DO NOT WALK" part.

[This message has been edited by korea71 (edited 05-07-2003).]
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Old Apr 30, 2004, 4:29 pm
  #66  
jmw
 
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Thumbs down Stay credit after getting walked

Anyone have experience on this issue?

I got walked from the Doubletree Sacramento although I was happy to take a free room somewhere else in this circumstance. I figured if I do the missing stay procedure, I will get my stay credit. Online form... nada except a request to fax in. So I faxed in 4 days ago, nada so far. I searched some earlier threads but unless I'm missing something, this seems to involve a lot of work involving the original hotel.

I figure I will call HHonors on Monday but I also wanted to ask how much trouble it will be to get that stay credit.
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Old Apr 30, 2004, 4:35 pm
  #67  
 
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Posts: 6,084
It is somewhat of a grey area, not covered by the rules. Perhaps you should've discussed this issue with the hotel prior to getting walked, but most likely it's not too late. Based on several prior posts on FT, I believe that working with the hotel that walked you will be necessary to get your credit. If front desk folks aren't helpful, ask to speak with the manager.
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Old Oct 11, 2004, 12:25 pm
  #68  
 
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Walked by Hampton Inn Disney Maingate West

I was in the process of doing a "matress run" to be sure I could retain Diamond Status next year, when I show up at 11 AM to see if "by chance" my room was ready and I could go ahead and check in. They said no and I said I would be back sometime LATE that evening for my room. When I got back (at about 12:30 AM) they said there was a "problem" with my room and that they had arranged for a room at another hotel (which they would pay for of course). I mentioned that I was concerned about my stay credit for making Diamond next year and they said they would arrange for the stay to be "credited". Was I being fed a line, or should I believe them?

I have no complaints about the hotel they walked me to. It was a AAA 4 Diamond Resort, and when I got there, they had just run out of regular rooms and had to accomodate me in a 2 bedroom villa with living room, kitchen, and jacuzzi tub. It's too bad I was traveling alone this trip.
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Old Nov 2, 2004, 11:38 pm
  #69  
 
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Gold VIP - My first walk!

I found this old thread after a searc conducted after I got walked From Homewood Suites San Jose. I am a Gold VIP (no, not "send in the mail for being a good AE owner, but earned year after year the "hard" way) with 20 stays for the year, working on 30 before the end. The reservation was made more than a month ago, and I arrived at the hotel at 8 PM. Was unceremoniously told by the desk clerk that they were "overbooked" and was given an envelope addressed to the "Sierra Suites" 1.3 miles down the road. With a "sorry - but there is nothing I can do" the desk clerk turned his back. Did not acknowledge my so-called elite status. He did not ask about how I had arrived (I arrived in a rental but had planned to take it in later this evening and take an early hotel shuttle for my 6:40 am flight), but for all this person knew, I could have arrived in a taxi or driven to there by friends!.

"Sierra Suites" is clearly a step down from Homewood, and of course with none of the elite benefits, and to top it off, their airport shuttle starts 7 am in the morning (? what is that about?) so I have to get up one hour earlier to make sure to make it through the absolutely absurd San Jose's Rental shuttle hurdle. So I am not a happy camper right now as I sit in my hotel room and stew while writing this!!

Yes, they paid for the room at Sierra - but how does that benefit me personally for my inconvenience as I am on an all expense paid account that my client takes care of. And in checking my HH account on the Web just a minute ago, the reservation had already been taken off, as if it never existed, no points or stay credit of course.

I even went to Google and found the hillarious: Yours is a very bad hotel powerpoint presentation (Another Hilton Family by the way!) which I fully identify with, except the clerk was not quite as surly as in the PP presentation, and they did have a room for me - but on the other side, I arrived a heck of a lot earlier than in the PP presentation!.

But that's not much of a comfort as I prepare for the fun of struggling with the rental car return at San Jose very early tomorrow morning and wasting time to deal with Hilton to get my stay credit, points etc.!!

Last edited by Flying_Duck; Nov 2, 2004 at 11:43 pm
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Old Nov 3, 2004, 10:02 pm
  #70  
 
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with all these bad experiences, i thought i'd share my good experience at being walked.

i had a glonp2 with the hilton cavalieri. we were driving in from florence and were delayed, so i decided to call ahead to let them know and also ask for directions. very soon, i was speaking to a very apologetic manager of sorts who explained that they dont have a room for me (i was diamond) as a huge delegation extended their stay for another day, and proceeded to take my down number so he can call me back when appropriate arrangements were made.

soon, i got a call from that mgr who told me he'll like to put me up at the hotel eden near via veneto (downtown rome) for the night. he also mentioned that he'll throw in breakfast (the hotel eden's 6th floor buffet breakfast wasn't cheap but it had a magnificient view) and upgrade me to a suite for the rest of my stay at the cavalieri.

and it all happened like he said.

while i was inconvenienced and lost a few hours on day2 which could have been more profitably spent doing the usual touristy things, i must admit that his resolution was quite a class act.
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Old Nov 4, 2004, 2:17 am
  #71  
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Originally Posted by Flying_Duck
I even went to Google and found the hillarious: Yours is a very bad hotel powerpoint presentation (Another Hilton Family by the way!) which I fully identify with, except the clerk was not quite as surly as in the PP presentation, and they did have a room for me - but on the other side, I arrived a heck of a lot earlier than in the PP presentation!.
I'd never seen this before. This link is a good place to start, with a link in it to the actual presentation:
http://www.snopes.com/business/consumer/badhotel.asp
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Old Nov 4, 2004, 1:40 pm
  #72  
 
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Update

Called the Honors desk to get the credit for my "stay". The agent very definitively told me "since there was no money paid by you, there are no points, and no credfit towards elite level". I told her that this made no sense (and the reasons for it making no sense) and asked her to check with her supervisor. After a long wait, she came back and said "My supervisor confirms that your are not entitled to any award level credit or HH points". I then asked to talk to the Supervisor and again a long time passed. This time she came back and said "Sir, you are correct, you will get 1300 HH points and 110 DL miles and credit totwards the award level". This entire process took 15 minutes of my time ($300 - 500/h is my usual consulting fee!) and had to be initiated by me.

You would think the "Hilton Family" had learned something from Tom Farmer's experience back in 2001 and the scathing PP presentation of his experience that circulated all over the internet - but I think not! The resistance I met in getting any acknowledgement of this episode as being a true inconvenience to me, including the lack of concern when told to "walk" and being something that at a minimum should not impact my ability to earn points towards my elite level, is nothing short of amazing. I would think Hilton would volunteer to remedy the basic stay/point issue proactively instead of forcing me to fight for it through a semi-adversarial exchange, having to go up the rank to avoid beeing blown off (again!).

Now, as part of my consultant business, I am quite proficient in making pursuasive PP presentations. I am thinking about volunteering my time to make a follow-up to "Yours is a Very Bad Hotel" called "How Failing to Learn From the Past Makes you Lose Customers!".
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Old Nov 4, 2004, 11:32 pm
  #73  
 
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[QUOTE=Flying_Duck]Called the Honors desk to get the credit for my "stay". The agent very definitively told me "since there was no money paid by you, there are no points, and no credfit towards elite level".

I was "walked" this past summer from the San Jose Hilton to another hotel (I don't remember which one) about 5 blocks away. The manager was very apologetic and had already made the arrangements at the other hotel. I had been dropped off by my client, so the Hilton took me over to the other hotel in their shuttle and the driver carried my bags to the check in desk. I received full points for the stay though I paid no money out of my pocket to Hilton. Though I would prefer to stay at an Hilton family of hotels, being "walked" wasn't so bad for me.
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Old Nov 5, 2004, 5:58 pm
  #74  
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Originally Posted by goldmedallionflyer
For the HHonors homepage under Diamond perks:


So does this mean that as a Diamond, I will not get walked? Just curious since I qualify on my next trip out. Any Diamonds ever been walked even with a CC guarantee?

GMF
I will find out next week. The Hampton Inn Tupelo (it was either Paris or Tupelo) was sold out. Called the Diamond desk with my newly minted diamond card and they got me a reservation.
I will likely get in around 11pm, but based on this thread, I will call to let them know I am on the way.
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Old Nov 6, 2004, 9:50 am
  #75  
 
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Originally Posted by MileKing
Here is some old, but very relevant, material I posted on another thread related to walking:

For situations where I know I will be arriving at 10 PM or later, I usually have that put into the reservation when I make it. If I will be arriving after 11 PM, I not only note the reservation, but will usually call the hotel sometime the day of arrival to let them know I will be in that late. If I plan on arriving very late, say after midnight, I will call the hotel twice, once early in the day and once in the evening (8 PM or so if possible). If I have a late arrival and something happens that will make me even later (flight delay, etc.), I will call the hotel again to let them know my situation, when I believe I will arrive, and specifically request that my room be held.

It isn't often that I arrive after 11 PM, so I don't end up making many calls, but on a number of occasions calling has saved me. I've seen situations where the hotel has checked me in before arrival, based on my call, and then walked multiple people checking in at the same time as me. It's a pain to have to call, but it does help.
Maybe this would help:

A while back I was on a long contract job in Cleveland, OH. I was staying at the Hampton Inn downtown five days a week, flying home on weekends. I was flying in regularly on Sunday evenings arriving just after midnight. I never got cancelled or walked, but I started noticing that I was only getting four HHonors status nights instead of five. The hotel was still properly billing me for five nights, but as I checked in on Monday, the system didn't credit me for Sunday night.

I spoke to the hotel manager about it and he helped me fix up the past credits. What's interesting in this situation, though, is what he told me to do in the future: "call when you're on your way, and ask to be checked in." Doing this helped keep my status nights correct, and I would think it would help you keep your room as well. You're no longer relying on some night clerk to remember that you're on your way, you're "already there". You have a room assigned and you just have to present your credit card and pick up the key.

I was wondering at one point if this was a special thing they were doing for me, since I was pretty much on a first-name basis with the night staff during that job. However, I've made that same call at least once to another property and it seemed to work then too.

Last edited by jyoung8607; Nov 6, 2004 at 9:52 am
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