| Vickie Chambers |
Jun 21, 2018 12:17 pm |
Nightmare at Hilton Garden Inn
Introduction My Significant other and I travel often. So much so, that we have over 100 nights since Jan 1, all at Hilton properties. Writing this as we just had a singularly horrific experience at a Hilton Garden Inn. We're used to the little things, such as cleanliness issues or what have you, but this was like no other...We checked in for one night, using points & cash. We received an upgrade to a suite for being diamond members, were the guests of the day (free snacks) and the front esk attendant was lovely... but that's where things started to go wrong. After entering the room, the keycard reader stopped working. Luckily, I was still in the room, so we weren't totally locked out. No worries, as neither of us were going anywhere for the rest of the night, so we stayed in the room.The next morning, our plans had changed and we decided to extend our stay. we had additional points, so we made a new reservation and let the front desk staff know. They gave us a free drink coupon for our troubles and moved us to the suite across the room. We were told that if we needed to stay the next night, we could also stay in the upgraded suite, as they had plenty available, we were diamond members and whatnot. Great. Everything was working in our new room and we had a lovely day.The next morning, we were informed that our plans had changed yet again and we needed to book another night. We looked on the HHonors app and the hotel's rates for that evening were incredibly low (airport location on a sunday), so we decided to book that location again and to pay the full rate.We went down for breakfast and afterwards let the front desk attendant know that we were staying over and had made a new reservation, as we had used points the night before. She wouldn't even look at us. She just told us that we'd have to move rooms or if we wanted to stay in the same one, she'd have to charge us extra. We hadn't seen her previously over the weekend, so we explained that when we extended the day before they told us if we were to do again, we could stay in the same suite, as they had plenty available, we were diamond members and we had experienced the issue with the room and had to be moved.She declined and said that we couldn't. I asked why and she said she wouldn't talk to me, as i wasn't on the reservation. I was. I attempted to show her the reservation on my phone where i was listed and she walked away. This upset my girlfriend who asked to speak to a manager. she said there was not a manager there and that we could do what she said or she would, "remove us from the property by whatever means necessary." This floored both of us and my significant other walked over to the restaurant and asked the server who helped us during breakfast if a manager was available. he asked what had happened and he called his manager right away. During that time, the front desk attendant was shouting that we needed to leave. The manager asked that the server hand my girlfriend the phone and he apologized profusely and said he was on his way to meet the other managers off-site for a meeting and someone would call us back ASAP. She told him that we did not feel comfortable staying there any longer and to please cancel our reservation.As we were walking back through the lobby to gather our things in our room, the front desk attendant glared at us and said, "yeah, that's right! You better get outta here!"We didn't respond and gathered our things and left the property. both shaking from what had just happened. When we got in the car, i was looking at my phone to see if the reservation had been canceled yet and was still amazed that the front desk attendant would not speak to me, even though i was clearly listed on the reservation. My girlfriend then pulled up the reservation on her phone and said i wasn't on it any longer. I showed her my phone, took a screenshot and then refreshed the app. I was no longer listed. SHE REMOVED ME FROM THE RESERVATION TO COVER HER .... We never received a call that day, as we were promised. I called the next morning and told that there was no manager available. I called again that afternoon and was still told there was no manager available, so i called the diamond desk afterwards and asked if they would call and see if they could connect me with a member of management.The diamond desk called, and what do you know? A manager was available! Supposedly they had just walked in and the rest of management was at a funeral.I explained the situation and e said that they, "Valued the highest level of customer service and would have an internal investigation" I asked that he or another member of management call my girlfriend or i afterwards to update us on what had happened and he declined to do so, saying that he could send an email to my girlfriend letting her know that he was aware of the issue, but that was it.She received an email later that day stating that we had spoken with each other and that he was refunding the night and applying 20k points to our account. It was a nice gesture, but we still felt shaken by what had happened.
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