stimpy

In 15 years of travel at over 1000 hotels, this was a first for me. A sharp knock on the door and 3 serious looking CID police asking to speak to us. I invited them in and they asked us a bunch of questions. It became clear that they were told that we were running a prostitution ring or something like that. They quickly could see that we weren't running a brothel or doing anything illegal. They took down our passport details and apologized. When I asked how could they possibly have chosen our room to raid, they said the hotel strongly believed I was running prostitutes and trafficking women. I asked why the hotel didn't say anything to me about this, and police said maybe they were afraid. I was of course stunned by this and after the police left I went down to the front desk and asked for a manager. This was after 5pm on Friday and of course the weasel management had disappeared. The night manager said she knew nothing and could not (I didn't believe this lie at all) call the GM, nor the operations manager til Monday. Thus I feel correct in labeling the management as weasels.

So I got zero apology from the hotel. No reduction on the bill for all the trouble they caused, nor any consideration whatsoever. I'm Hilton Diamond for what that is worth, but still the hotel didn't give a hoot about their terrible error.

My question to the forum is should I contact Hilton corporate about this? Would they do anything? Or is Hilton the type of business that doesn't care?

I don't want to name the hotel just yet. We'll see what happens.

RAPC

Blimey, that is awful. No matter what, the somebody from hotel management must have known this and would have known that police would be in attendance. I can't imagine that they really would not be there or contactable to see the outcome of the police arrival.

Definitely escalate to Hilton Corporate now. (Even the Twitter team will pick this up and respond very quickly for you.)

For me, this isn't a compensation issue, more the principle of Hilton picking this up with the hotel management and getting a proper response and an apology about it. I'm sure more will follow that, but to go in to hiding certainly merits your description of the management.

Sometimes there are more to these things than an OP cares to mention, but I'm relatively confident that you are not running a mobile knocking shop on your Hilton travels.

It will definitely be good to know the hotel eventually at a point you feel appropriate. I'd like to give it a wide berth on my UK travels as a result.

golfmad

Should have left a decent tip in the restaurant
Maybe a disgruntled employee and may have been anonymous.

I'd just forget about it.

Hilton Wembley Park by any chance?

golfmad

I'm not completely sure about this. Would the police talk to the hotel management prior to going straight to the room if they'd received a call from someone other than the hotel management? Would be interested to know from someone who knows standard operating procedures in situations like this.

If the management were not informed then I don't think there's anything further to be done and the absence of management at the front desk was probably just unlucky.

If the management did know then they absolutely should have been prepared to man-up and discuss it with the guest and I'd recommend a follow up with Hilton corporate. All the management would have to say was that "this is our policy in these situations, sorry it was a false alarm but we need to act responsibly in all situations to protect all our guests".

The key is whether the hotel management knew or not. Are you pretty confident they knew stimpy?

AJLondon

stimpy, I can honestly say had this happened to me, I would be so so riled up. Not just the inconvenience, but also the false aspersions being cast on guest integrity by the hotel management. To accuse a guest of "women trafficing and prostitution" is very very serious and IMHO libelous.

I would escalate this to corporate and demand a written unconditional apology from the GM. Or consider legal action for libel if not forthcoming.

stimpy

Yes, they were behind it. The night duty manager said that the Operations manager was the one who contacted the police. But she, the night manager, said both the Ops manager and the GM were unreachable til Monday. That was proven a lie when on Sunday another manager said he had been advised of the situation that very day by the GM and said I was welcome to write the hotel a letter explaining my concerns.

Plus the police, who were very professional and not all lying to me, I believe, said it was the hotel management who alerted them.

Jamjaw

Forget about it? Really? I would be complaining massively. It is not acceptable that they have not accepted responsibility for being *****...

Of course the police must have notified them they were there and I imagine something as serous as this would have had someone senior informed. The fact they just slinked away is bad.

The only other thing I can think of... Are you sure they were police? Seems a tad much to steal someone's identity, but at the same time, seems a tad much to accuse someone of trafficking just for being at a hotel!

Wally Bird

[QUOTE=golfmad;18281522]Who were the 'us' and how long was the stay?

golfmad

OK thanks for clarifying. The management behaved very poorly. Will be interesting to hear the outcome of your discussions with corporate.

golfmad

Please don't let it be seven gorgeous girls for a month

Need

Heh if this happened in the US, there will be lawsuits.

cordelli

Were you doing anything that could have confused them? Or was it just you in the room coming and going like most people in a hotel?

Thunderroad

I have to confess, this was my first thought as well. It certainly would not have excused what management did, but might explain it.

Mind sharing what hotel it was?

hugolover

Jeez this is an incredible awful experience. Imagine this on TripAdvisor! Beats the Hilton Craigendarroch bed almost killed my children review!

gemac

Nevermind what hotel it was. What hotel is your next UK Hilton stay, and what dates?