What people are willing to do to get points and credits...
Nov 27, 2015, 9:10 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: YUL-YQB-BTV
Programs: SPG-Marriott Titanium Elite
Posts: 4,345
What people are willing to do to get points and credits...
Disclaimer : My wife works for Hilton and the story below is 100% true, only names have been changed!
As my wife is in sales, she's dealing with many customers on a daily business. One of their large corporate account is a very large and well known technology company, let's call them JCN (fake, of course!!)
She got a call from a VP at JCN. The wife of the VP is also GM of an association that has an event at my wife's hotel. Mister VP ask my wife if he can get points and credits for HIS wife stay. My wife tells him that he needs to be the one booking and paying the room, as well as staying in the room. So, long story short, in order to satisfy his request, she puts his name on the reservation and he promised her that he will be coming for the stay.
That event took place few weeks ago. My wife got a call from Mister VP this week wondering why he has not received his points/credit for the stay. So she starts an investigation, only to find out that the VP's wife was staying in a suite paid by the association on a master bill, hence Mister VP was out of luck! However, as he just probably believe that he is "entitled" to a lot of things in life, he just doesn't want to hear "NO" So he calls back a few time and finally decided that my wife was not answering his numerous calls quickly enough and call her boss directly to repeat his speech about points missing in his accounts, etc....
My wife was quite happy not to have to deal with that issue anymore and let it go. However she explained the whole situation to her boss, so I'll know later the outcomes.
In your opinion, should he have the points? I'm a point lover, but this kind of behavior for points/credits is bordeline completely unethical, if not a complete violations of HiltonHonors T&C's. What do you think?
As my wife is in sales, she's dealing with many customers on a daily business. One of their large corporate account is a very large and well known technology company, let's call them JCN (fake, of course!!)
She got a call from a VP at JCN. The wife of the VP is also GM of an association that has an event at my wife's hotel. Mister VP ask my wife if he can get points and credits for HIS wife stay. My wife tells him that he needs to be the one booking and paying the room, as well as staying in the room. So, long story short, in order to satisfy his request, she puts his name on the reservation and he promised her that he will be coming for the stay.
That event took place few weeks ago. My wife got a call from Mister VP this week wondering why he has not received his points/credit for the stay. So she starts an investigation, only to find out that the VP's wife was staying in a suite paid by the association on a master bill, hence Mister VP was out of luck! However, as he just probably believe that he is "entitled" to a lot of things in life, he just doesn't want to hear "NO" So he calls back a few time and finally decided that my wife was not answering his numerous calls quickly enough and call her boss directly to repeat his speech about points missing in his accounts, etc....
My wife was quite happy not to have to deal with that issue anymore and let it go. However she explained the whole situation to her boss, so I'll know later the outcomes.
In your opinion, should he have the points? I'm a point lover, but this kind of behavior for points/credits is bordeline completely unethical, if not a complete violations of HiltonHonors T&C's. What do you think?
Nov 27, 2015, 10:32 am
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: RSW
Programs: Delta - Silver; UA - Silver; HHonors - Diamond; IHG - Spire Ambassador; Marriott Bonvoy - Titanium
Posts: 14,185
In a situation with a Master Bill - no! Actually, that would make it easier for the wife's boss to explain that even if they wished to do so, it was impossible for them to override the rate code used. Had it been more of a regular stay, I wouldn't have liked it, but I would probably have added his name and given him credit, trying as clearly as I can to explain that it was a one time deal.
Nov 27, 2015, 12:50 pm
#4
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Fort Lauderdale, FL
Posts: 3,360
Oh, the stories I could tell from when I was a Revenue Manager and Night Manager. Although, not many are directly related to getting points/stay credits. Now, this was 15+ years ago, when no one used the term "entitled" as a pejorative. (We simply used a different, not-safe-for-work term.) I never name names of the bad people. But, the hotels in which I worked were near the top of the food chain, so we'd get a lot of CEOs, politicians, and celebrities. The most outrageous example was the TV personality that upon checking in, returned to the Front Desk and proceeded to literally scream at the representative that the flower arrangement in her room was too small.
On the flip side, we also had some wonderful guests over the years. The day after she won one of her five World Championship titles, figure skater Michelle Kwan dropped off a hand-written thank you note addressed to the housekeeping staff who serviced her room. Then Disney CEO Michael Eisner was one of the most polite guests I've ever met. And, actor Jim Belushi liked to stop by the Front Desk and chat with staff.
However, the most-favored guest was the president of Haagen-Dazs. He used to hand out coupons for free pints of ice cream like they were Monopoly money. Needless to say, he was treated like royalty by all the hotel employees. One of the only drawbacks of getting promoted from an hourly employee to a manager was the fact that I could no longer accept his coupons for free Haagen-Dazs.
On the flip side, we also had some wonderful guests over the years. The day after she won one of her five World Championship titles, figure skater Michelle Kwan dropped off a hand-written thank you note addressed to the housekeeping staff who serviced her room. Then Disney CEO Michael Eisner was one of the most polite guests I've ever met. And, actor Jim Belushi liked to stop by the Front Desk and chat with staff.
However, the most-favored guest was the president of Haagen-Dazs. He used to hand out coupons for free pints of ice cream like they were Monopoly money. Needless to say, he was treated like royalty by all the hotel employees. One of the only drawbacks of getting promoted from an hourly employee to a manager was the fact that I could no longer accept his coupons for free Haagen-Dazs.