Embassy Suites category - Bait & Switch?
 

I just booked a couple of (weeknight) awards for the ES in Alpharetta. The hotel web site lists them as an Executive category but when I booked the award I was told by reservations that the property category was Select.

Granted it's only a 10K point difference for the 2 nights, but it's the principle of the thing.

Has anyone else had this happen? One would think that published material available to the public would govern.... but one would be wrong as one could not get the Diamond desk to book the property except as select.

FWIW, the rep at the Diamond desk was professional, courteous, friendly, etc. and had no problem with my last minute request (other than the aforementioned category discrepancy). Customer service at HHonors has definitely improved!

Cheers,

'toad

Hey 'toad...I don't have a response other than glad to see you back here!

While annoying, it could be just a typo on the web site. Another possibility (purely a speculation) could be that this property has been reclassified recently, and the change is not yet reflected on their web site.

I had a similar experience myself in seeking a three day stay, a property was labeled as Executive on the website (and HHonors customer service had it listed in their "offical" book as Executive) but required a Classic certificate according to reservations. The HHonors rep. told me that reservations was wrong and issued me the Executive certificate. Upon receiving the certificate I contacted the hotel to make certain there would be no problems, and was told they would not honor the certificate. A call to the HHonors service center had someone tell me I could receive a two day certificate and pay for the remaining day (the rate was $275 a night), and would have to pay a $25 exchange fee to return the certificate issued. Of course I said I would think about it, hung up, and called right back. The next person I spoke with credited my account with 35K HHonors points, issued a new certificate, and had me mail back the certificate previously sent. A couple of weeks later the website had still not been updated (it is now).

He he. Why not do what the $0 MEX Hilton and $25 NYC W patrons do and threaten to sue, sue, sue. Sue for breach of contract. Sue for false advertising. Sue for emotional damages unless Hilton honors the Executive award level for that hotel?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/tongue.gif

I had the opposite good fortune that the Cancun property is now Classic instead of premium.. saved me the 20,000 pts and I could use the GLON award for my 6 nights http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I guess demand was down http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Opportunity/Executive/Select, etc.
How is it decided what point level a particular Hilton property requires. I understand about yield management and all, but in some cities, Hamptons are Select and the downtown Hiltons are Executive. It makes no sense. There is definitely not an extremely strong correlation between point level rating and intrinsic quality. I understand that at the highest catagories but that still doesn't explain a Hampton costing more points than a Hilton or a Doubletree.

I agree. It occurred to me that some properties may want to discourage use of awards by participating at a higher level than warranted by their quality.

Kathy