MrOCTeckels

I originally posted this in the Definitive OLCI thread, but since this has nothing to do with upgrades it just sat there.

I'm trying to figure out what Hilton's policy is for canceling a reservation when a guest uses OLCI and plans to check in late (like early morning). I'm not looking to game the system for stays without physical presence, just trying to prevent a recurrence of a recent problem. Neither the property nor customer care have been able to answer this for me.

At what point does a hotel cancel your reservation if you do OLCI but don't physically arrive until the early morning hours?

I recently had a 6-day reservation at a US property, and ended up flying the red-eye to get there. Night 1 of the reservation was the night that I was flying. Before the flight I checked in, picked a room (I know, futile), and chose the "after 10:30PM" arrival option. I also tried to contact the front desk. At 5AM I arrived at the hotel to learn that the hotel had canceled my reservation as a no-show. If the timestamp on the cancelation receipt is any indication, they canceled at 10:01PM!

I thought the point of OLCI was to ruin your upgrade chances to say "yes, I'm committing to this reservation". Is there a corporate standard for when they give up on you, or is it on a property by property basis?

[Yes I know, "notify the hotel in advance"... I tried, but it's tough to do when the property doesn't answer the phone or monitor the concierge text line]

scubaccr

1. At the time the room is needed for other checkin guests, if hotel has oversold (they like to do this 365 days/year) and not enough Advance Payments/Flex rate guests failed to turn up for booked rooms. No guarantee that OLCI gets you booked/chosen room even if you turn up 6pm, current guest could extend stay etc.

2. Other usual reason is book keeping / rooms reconciliation overnight so they can do checkins next morning for following night, when hotels close accounts for that night , often between 2-6am. If room not checked-in/occupied at that time a noshow is done whether or not an online checkin took place. Even hotels where you OLCI and use App to access chosen rooom know guest never turned up and do same process.

craigthemif

App / OLCI is worthless. Only bad things happen when you use it...

More frustrating is the fundamental issue of hotels insisting that you pay for the previous night if you want an early a.m. arrival, yet processing you as a no-show regardless. In theory, the corporate policy is that you are entitled to your room until standard check-out time of your reservation. (but admittedly that's more relevant for one night stays)

Did you actually get your room? Or did they oversell and try to use your late arrival as an excuse for not "walking" you or another guest?

MrOCTeckels

Thankfully the hotel wasn't oversold, and it only took the front desk 30 minutes to rebuild a reservation and (eventually) get us into the correct room type.

That middle-of-the-night reconciliation is useful to keep in mind... I always think of that sweep happening around check out time, when the receipt email usually shows up after dropping my keys at the front desk on the way out. I've arrived in that 2-6am window more often that is probably good for my sanity, and while I can usually get in touch with the front desk I can't always.

missamo80

The front desk position that's the overnight shift is called "night audit" for a reason They run all sorts of reports, deal with no shows, etc. That's a large part of their job. It's weird that OLCI didn't prevent you from getting marked as a no show, but knowing Hilton's IT history it doesn't surprise me.

Skatering

If they do cancel your reservation, you might find you get the night free if they reinstate it.

I called a Hampton Inn after OLCI to say I was delayed and could be significantly late. They said okay. Got in at 6am and they seemed surprised to see me, and gave me the worst room in the hotel. Hilton Honors app showed my reservation as 'Cancelled' and when I checked out, I found out they reinstated the reservation but didn't charge me for the first night.

Doesn't help if they walk you, though.

Time traveller

If I know I will be arriving in the morning from a red eye flight, I call and let the hotel know a few days in advance during regular business hours. I have only done this at full-service hotels in Europe after a red-eye TATL flight and they note in my reservation that "guest will arrive at 8am on March 7, 2018" so reservation will not be canceled by overnight front desk person.

Often1

I would call the property directly and speak with the FD, not some toll-free reservations person to let them know if you are going to be late, especially after midnight, but just as much into the evening. Less likely to bump you. Compensation may be nice, but makes work the next day a bit harder when you arrive at 2:00 AM and thee's no room.

lcohen999

I have never had a bad thing happen using OLCI

It has actually gotten better the last little while. Upgrades are happening and the room key is ready without so much as 30 seconds at the front desk

MrOCTeckels

Agreed. My preferred arrival hotels after TATL are very good about this, and also have a usable front-desk email address for this purpose. (The front desk at Hilton Frankfurt Airport is consistently excellent).

In this event, calls to the front desk would just spin in a hold queue, and the provided concierge text line was apparently not monitored.

This. I feel like this case was a combination of sloppy process and weak IT.

Aside from the passivity of "finding", this was the eventual outcome in this case.

BobOscar

I had a Hilton reservation in Detroit a couple years ago and arrived about 2-3PM to check in. The front desk told me they had no rooms available at that moment; it'd be awhile. I sat down at their business center where you could observe the front desk from the computers. I saw a half dozen people checking in and getting keys over the next half hour and I started to get pissed off. So I went up to the front desk and asked what's the deal? You told me there were no rooms available. I was given the answer of "oh, those people all did on-line check-in"..there was just no room for me..

writerguyfl

I believe the way this process is done is intentional and not the result of bad IT. Hotels need a process to verify if a guest using Online Check-In actually arrived. I'm assuming this is done just prior to the Night Audit being run. By design, if the hotel believes that the guest never physically arrived, the checked-in room will be changed to no-show status.

This step is necessary to prevent cheaters earning elite status from booking the cheapest Hilton-branded hotel in the world and merely checking in online without actually staying.

Although I worked Night Audit at one point, it was well before Online Check-in existed. Therefore, take what I say with a grain or two of salt.

My gut says that there wouldn't be a Hilton Corporate policy about exactly when a room would get canceled. Hotels using the same computer system might not always run the audit the same way. For example, a property with multiple restaurants will probably run the audit sooner because it will take longer than a limited service hotel. Additionally, different hotels will have different staffing. A larger hotel may have a separate Night Auditor and Night Front Desk representative. In that scenario, the audit can start later because the employee isn't juggling two jobs.

I totally understand your point-of-view. Pre-dawn arrivals aren't always handled well by hotels. A hotel in a city that has lots of arriving red-eye flights (especially international) will be better equiped to handle these types of reservations.

Where I worked, no-shows were taxed differently than "real" reservations. There also were other substantive reasons why it was in the best interest of the hotel to properly categorize a reservation. For example, franchise fees didn't get paid on a no-show. And commissions for the Sales Department weren't paid on no-shows. There are a lot of behind-the-scenes factors as to why hotels might do certain things that seem bizarre or unreasonable to a guest.

Yes, the standard advice is to contact the hotel. But, even then the hotel staff may have to make a judgment call. Prior to doing the Night Audit, I ran the Front Desk almost exclusively on second shift. Once or twice each month, we'd get calls from guests (or administrative assistants of guests) insiting they would arrive late only to end up being a no-show. Whether it was a flight cancelation of some other obstacle, not everyone who insists they are arriving will actually arrive. So, it becomes a judgment call for the Night Auditor.

That's my two cents.

MrOCTeckels

A bargain at twice the price - thank you for the insight.

adambrock

If the property offers digital key, just request a digital key and it will show in the PMS that you are on property.

MrOCTeckels

Thanks - I was wondering if that would help.