Guava

It made no difference whether the information was communicated via phone or e-mail, the question is: Who is the person replying? The GM? or some front desk clerk? And this: <<Thank you for your enquiry to our Hilton HHonnors' guest assistance>> This is a rather unusual way for a specific property to reply to an e-mail, it almost sounds like it is from HHonors Guest Assistance, the call center, because there is a department at the HHonors call center called the "Guest Assistance" which the DD would sometimes transfer calls that they can't deal with.

Anyway, I went to re-read post #100 after seeing your reply. With respect to your "friend" correspondence, I need to know to which e-mail address he/she has been using to contact the hotel directly. Forgive me for being skeptical, but there are lot of unconfirmed information in that so called friend's e-mail such as the October 3rd date, which has not been independently validated by anyone else. This post #100 is the only source with any mention of such change. To me, this information is highly suspicious because for that claim to be valid, it would go completely against the no capacity control policy that has been in place at Hilton HHonors for the last 3 years. Therefore, such announcement would be considered a major departure for Hilton and wouldn't apply to just one or two properties. Hotel chains take their no capacity control policy very seriously, I have got SPG went after a Vancouver Sheraton during the 2010 Olympics because the said property tried to capacity control during the so out Olympic period and I won, the hotel had to give me a $600/night room on points for 2 weeks.

So without even knowing who is the source of that information from the so called reply from the property, it just struck me as highly implausible and to me, the smoking gun is that October 3rd claim. Really? That would mean capacity control now sets redeemable room at only 5 per day even though there are possibly 16-19 standard rooms available? But capacity control on standard room is specifically outlawed, this is like a fundamental constitution of the program. Even the Maldives properties, which don't permit DD forced, have no capacity control and it was a big deal because the Conrad Maldives used to have very strict capacity control prior that Blackstone era change 3 years ago.

Therefore, I have to urge you to be cautious about information gleaned from hearsay, which is what post #100 really is. You didn't get the information first hand and there could be some misunderstanding between what was communicated to you by your friend. Unfortunately, many here seem to have taken the post and ran with it already and now we have a situation where a plain white egg has become an oversized golden egg...

msc75

Guava, thanks for the info, I will call the Tahiti office on Monday and see if they can help.The Oct 3 date is not a myth. I checked the system on October 1 and rooms for available for 50K. I checked again on October 4 and they weren't, and haven't been since. People have been contacting HH and the hotel directly for 3 weeks now.

If anyone has any suggestions or contacts who can help with an immediate reservation I would really appreciate it because I'm at my wit's end here. While I'm waiting on a glimmer of hope, I'm seeing the the award tickets for the flights for my dates getting sold out one by one I don't want to book flights without knowing I can get the hotel.

I called Hilton Honors today and was told by the rep "yes several people have been inquiring and that property doesn't have standard rooms anymore, sorry", as if this is a known and established fact. I don't even know the comeback to that - do we have grounds to argue this? I asked for a supervisor who seemed to know nothing about the situation and insisted she can't do anything without contacting the hotel. I got an email from her couple hours later:

"Thank you for contacting Guest Assistance regarding your experience. Please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience you experienced. We are unable to make changes of the amount of points charged for the stay at the hotel. Your comments have been forwarded to the proper department.
We are constantly monitoring the performance of our hotels against Hilton's high service and quality standards. Comments from our guests enable us to continually improve and exceed those standards. We shared your comments with the General Manager of the hotel. The time taken along with the effort made to share your comments with us is most appreciated."

Other than the meaningless babble, sounds to me like the GM was contacted and I got a big fat NO. Now that I have a case documented in writing and already rejected, I don't even know if I can just keep calling and calling about the same thing.

mnredfox

+1. And I will remain skeptical until I see a fix in place. However, up til now no fix...

deant

If it was a glitch, I am very surprised that we have not heard anything more from HHonorsRepresentative.

When I sent my first email to Christopher Nassetta (Hilton Worldwide CEO) I received an immediate response from his staff saying that it was a glitch. After the "glitch" was not fixed, I sent another email to him on the 18th asking IF they could set up some way for people to make reservations and I have not heard anything back!

The longer this goes on, the less I am believing that it is a glitch - Irrespective of what the CEO's office said.

yoyo

I do see some changes going on on the booking website. You can now book WA Maldives for 60K points per night. This was not available last time I checked (two days ago). So I hope Guava is right.

lewende

I don't think you can "book" the standard award online because when you sign in, those 50K/60K per night deal disappears.

yoyo

No I was logged in and was able to go all the way:

18 Feb 2012 - 23 Feb 2012
1 room for 2 adults Change
KING WATER VILLA
Points (5 nights x 64,000) : 320,000
Room Subtotal: 320,000 points
STANDARD ROOM REWARD
Rate details Change
Total for stay: 320,000 points
There is a credit card required for this reservation. If you wish to cancel, please do so 30 days prior to arrival to avoid cancellation penalties. 320,000 points will be deducted from your point balance. (Your account will be updated within 2 hours.)

I am still waiting for FP to be available.

Djlawman

I tried it, logged in, and could get all the way to Step 3 in the confirmation process, at WA Maldives standard rates (in fact, at 42,500/nt. for dates I checked). Did not want to go further and confirm a room.

In my review, the other hotels having this problem (like ADT in Paris) show the premium-only levels earlier, in step 1 and Step 2, using flexible dates.

yoyo

Thanks. I am waiting and with some hope. I just found WA Maldives has been fixed for booking standard awards. Still it kind of boggles my mind that they (Hilton IT) have do this one at a time.

SanAngeles

Guava,

People are saying that there are 5-6 standard rooms per day available to rewards stay at those properties. Not the total number of standards rooms.

Are you saying that there are 15+ standard rooms per day available to rewards stays? That would be great if it is true.

luv2go

Guava,

In response to your question who my friend was corresponding with--- it was directly with the property, first with reservations there, then with the reservation manager.

The complete text....
Dear Mr xxxxx

Thank you for your enquiry to our Hilton HHonnors' guest assistance, and for showing an interest in the Hilton Moorea Lagoon resort and spa.

For reward stays, you have the standard room reward, and you have the premium room rewards.

The standard room reward level is only available in our standard room category which is the garden bungalow with private pool, and it is on the basis of 5 units only per day.

And the premium room reward is available in all room categories.

We hope these informations will help you.

Should you have other questions, please do not hesitate to contact us again,

Kind regards,

Christine Putoa
Agent R�servations
************************************************** *
HILTON French Polynesia - Central Reservations Office
Direct line: (+689) 86-49-23
Main line: (+689) 86-49-00
Fax : (+689) 86-49-15
PO Box 416, 98713 Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia...
Email: [email protected]

www.hilton.com. or .www.hilton.com/resorts .

2011 TRIPADVISOR TRAVELERS' CHOICE AWARDS
* HILTON MOOREA LAGOON RESORT & SPA honored as number 4 romance hotel. and number 7 spa/relaxation hotel in the Pacific.
* HILTON BORA BORA NUI RESORT & SPA honored as number 4 spa/relaxation hotel and number 5 romance hotel


Then...... When the property was questioned further regarding availability...


Dear Mr xxxxx,
First and foremost, thank you for considering the Hilton Moorea Lagoon Resort and Spa, for your next holiday destination. I am very pleased to assist you with your question about room category for reward stay.
The standard room for Hilton redemption stay is the garden bungalow with plunge pool. Also as the Hilton Honors Loyalty program has changed since October the 3rd, only few units are available at the basic redemption level.
However not all travel dates are available as we had already reached the maximum threshold (on specific travel dates), of rooms available at basic redemption level. This is the reason why maybe you may have to book your stay at a much higher points redeemable depending on your travel dates.
Should you need any further assistance, I remain at your entire disposal,
Best regards
Emilie
Emilie GENTON
Reservations Manager
.
Hilton.French Polynesia
BP 416 Papeete, TAHITI 98713, French Polynesia
Tel: +689 864918.Fax: +689 864915
Email: [email protected]

www.hilton.com. or .www.Hilton.com/resorts
.
2011 TRIPADVISOR TRAVELERS� CHOICE AWARDS
* HILTON MOOREA LAGOON RESORT & SPA honored as number 4 romance hotel. and number 7 spa/relaxation hotel in the Pacific.
* HILTON BORA BORA NUI RESORT & SPA honored as number 4 spa/relaxation hotel and number 5 romance hotel and in the Pacific.



I truly wish this was just a glitch and will be sorted out soon.............



.
.

lewende

I tried, still didn't work for me. I guess the reason is right now I don't have points available for this redemption...

Guava

Still, an acknowledgement from the office of the CEO that this is a glitch is far more credible than any other source. You e-mailed them on the 18th so there have been only 3 or 4 business days since. I think you would agree this may be too short of time for them to react or respond accordingly.

I am glad to hear this. Like I said, I urge people to remain calm and not to panic. Keep in mind we are all in the same boat but panic won't get us anywhere or any closer to whatever destination we want to go.

Hilton website is notoriously bad, so bad that it probably could have won a Freddy award for the worst website of any frequent guest loyalty program if there is such an award. We kind of just learned to live with this.

yes, the nuances are now clarified. It was unclear earlier but I can see how the 5-6 vs. the 19/16 numbers can be reconciled now. When I was given these 19/16 number, Hilton Tahiti reservation office was pretty clear in telling me that standard awards apply to these standard rooms. There was no discussion about capacity control otherwise, I would have questioned her on this.

To the best of my knowledge, such capacity control is against the HHonors T&C. So if the capacity control in place here is true, this would represent a major departure from their existing policy.

Thank you for providing these details, this is most helpful to me. You know what, one of the person listed in here happened to be the person I spoke with on Friday, and she made no mention of the 5-6 room per day or any capacity control or the mention of an October 3rd policy change. Our conversation was about award booking, we made that clear at the beginning of the conversation. At one point she said if all the standard rooms are filled, then it will default to Premium rooms. I then asked her to give me a count of the # of standard rooms at each resort and to spell the name of these rooms to me. That's when I got the 19 and 16 numbers. You'd think if there is a capacity control, she would have told me only 5-6 rooms are allowed per day when booking using points. I was looking for that because this claim was already known to me prior to my call but that's not what I was told.

There is a few possibilities here based on my experience. When I was at the Conrad Maldives in 2008, this happened just prior to an exemption being granted to that property re: certain benefits opt-out and DD force benefit exclusion. The property tried to enforce this new exemption before it was published, approved or due to take effect. It is possible there has been some internal discussion between Tahiti resorts and Hilon HQ re: granting these resorts an exemption of this sort but by the fact that these changes have yet been approved or published and HHonors still claiming no capacity control on their marketing literature, the resorts may be jumping the gun. So until such change is announced, the resorts obviously can't claim there has been a policy change. But if Hilton approves such exemption to these two resorts, you can bet a ton of other properties will ask the same thing so the key marketing mantra of no capacity control will need to taken down or faced lawsuits re: misleading advertising. It wouldn't surprise me if this is a hot potato issue right now at HH HQ.

Anyway, like I said, give them more time to fix this. Next Friday, if things still aren't fixed by next Friday, I will call the Tahiti office again and ask them about the content of these two e-mails.

boilers

Unsure if this was already stated but are the new cash and points awards to be included in the standard room capacity controls? I.e. if all 5 rooms are booked does this mean that the 'standard' cash and points will no longer be an option?

beltway

Ponts & Money rewards are subject to capacity controls everywhere, per the HHonors T&C. See http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/16555318-post6.html