Hilton Honors Ambassador

Hi there,

Reservations made prior to 1/1/2015 (for stays after Jan. 1, 2015) will be subject to the cancellation policy in place at time of booking.

Cheers,
Erin

underpressure

I did write to Diamond desk and received a boiler plate response...."we are constantly evaluating our brands.... bla bla bla"

StayingHomeIsBetter

What a bunch of hooey.

"We’re making this change so that we can provide you with a more consistent booking process and make more rooms available for when you need last minute travel accommodations."

This sounds like DL's restrictions on award ticket changes within 72 hrs of departure time, that were supposed to make more award seats available but didn't.

Someone has an airline SNAFU and can't get to the destination city. There's a good chance that a frequent Hilton customer is going to be spending that night in some other Hilton... and the original hotel will be doing the best they can to double their income by reselling the already paid for room.

Or, the offended would-be guest thinks, "If I am paying for it anyway, I'm not about to cancel the reservation. Let it go empty." And, the policy does not make any more rooms available.

This policy only makes sense if you believe that a lot of people are cancelling travel plans days sooner, but not contacting the hotel to cancel until the day of. Hard to believe that this is an endemic problem.

This is just a blatant attempt to take advantage of disadvantaged travelers.

The airlines are getting away with a lot of foolishness because they can control capacity by trimming flight frequency or substituting smaller aircraft.

Hilton: how are you going to substitute smaller hotels?

underpressure

They have genuinely jumped the shark with this move... Honestly I don't even know that my mind would change now that I know who is running the ship; idiots who are completely out of touch with the way they earn money; business travelers who book their own hotels.

It is mind boggling to me to think after all of the surveys, Hilton actually thinks they can get away with this.

If we had marketing people in our company that were this inept, we would be broke!

eponymous_coward

Starwood joins the party.

Nowhere to run to, baby, nowhere to hide...

Esltroy

So now I am a total free agent.

Any ideas on where to switch loyalty with same day cancellation?

And

Not have to pay for regular internet?

Football Fan

This smells like a case for antitrust authorities. Seems like the big hotel companies might have made some anti-competitive agreements with each other here.

cjd

Strange. I just booked a "Park and Fly" rate at Heathrow Hilton and cancellation is allowed up till 4pm on the day of arrival, whereas the "Easy Cancellation" rate requires cancellation 1 day prior to arrival.

Points Scrounger

I never faced this issue until just now, right after the new rules took effect: I went to book a room for the next day, realizing after hitting ENTER that I'd made it for the same day (this was before 4pm). Hotel was nice about fixing it, but still kind of a pain to have to call to explain.

wizla

Yep same here mate, booked hampton Liverpool park and fly can cancel up to 6 pm on the day????.....strange....good, but strange

GentleGiant

Any feedback from your call?

mstan

I booked the Homewood suites in Manhattan couple weeks ago, for this Saturday, and the cancellation policy was stated as "cancel 24 hours in advance", which is rather ambiguous than to say 1201am on day of arrival. So this evening, I am trying to cancel and I get:

The cancellation deadline for this reservation has expired. The reservation was not cancelled prior to the cancellation deadline and may be subject to a no-show charge. For assistance, call +1-212-244-0644 or visit Customer care.

Not to mention all the sign in problems with the capcha. Hilton seems to be doing everything they can to drive off business.

wizla

Yes this was my concern......check my thread " UK HILTONS CANCELATION DEADLINE "

ChinaShrek

One person stated such cancellation ambiguity did not exist. But clearly it does and did. This is why a system-wide 6pm on the day before the reservation is so much better. Such ambiguity is customer unfriendly. 1-day before what? Before check-in? Before sunrise? Before sunset?

BearX220

It is intentionally ambiguous. On reservation confirmation pages now, you have to hunt for the cancellation terms, and they are intentionally fuzzier. IIRC they say "one day before" or "one day in advance" with no regard for time zones, etc.

Hilton seems to be playing chess against its customers and I think this is absolutely a ploy to capture "lost" reservation money from distressed travelers. I expect this sort of nonsense from the cartel airlines, but it's surprising to see it from a hotel group that has plenty of competition from Priceline, Hotwire, Booking.com, etc., etc.

In situations where I am flying into a city late in the day, and my plans could be disrupted (especially now that it's winter), I do not book Hilton any longer. The Hotel Tonight app, or Priceline, are new best friends.