platinumstar

Before anyone jumps in and bites my head off, I do know what a non changeable/refundable room is. But last night I looked at the rates for a King size bed sea View at the Hilton Malta for 271 euros a night. I booked online and when, 20 minutes later I looked at the confirmation email it appears I'd clicked on the same room type but with 2 queen size beds. I thought I might be able to amend this online but unable to and so used the online 'chat' with a Hilton employee who just basically said they could do nothing, i'd booked a non refundable. non changeable room. When I said i wasn't changing the date, the rate or the location of the room, simply one bed and not two, i was still told nothing could be done.

I was put through online to a supervisor who said the same thing but offered me a freephone number in the USA (no good from the UK). It's pretty obvious that if i book a room for one person but request two beds then I'm not going to be bed hoping from one to the other and a mistake.

i know its not BA, but mistakes do happen and with BA there's a 24 hour cooling off period allowing a full refund and cancellation. It would be very helpful if Hilton operated a similar way or at least had some compassion or understanding.

The good news is that I have emailed the Malta Hilton where I have stayed many times and was last there 3 months ago, and they have amended the booking for me. The hotel have apologised for the inflexibility of the customer services team. I realise i could have turned up at check in and requested one bed rather than two but had no idea what i thought was a simple request would turn out to be so difficult.

Maybe other hotel chains are the same, but it's put me off Hilton completely. The Hilton Malta is a beautiful property and I'll continue to go there but not so sure about others.

:D!

Nobody is going to jump in and bite your head off. It is entirely expected that a random Hilton chat agent in the US or Mexico or wherever is going to follow the rules to the letter.

If you had asked on here before wasting time contacting Hilton centrally, everyone would have advised you to call/email the hotel directly with a 99% chance of success (in general, not just the Malta one).

Now you know for the next time. This is hardly a reason to not stay at Hiltons... but €271 per night, wow!! I paid €96 per night on my last stay there.

The comparison with BA is not really apt. Firstly Hilton is a US company. Also, BA operates the vast majority of its flights itself, unlike Hilton which franchises out to hundreds of different companies all around the world to run hotels branded under its name.

platinumstar

yes, as you say, I now know. But having never had to do this before and the chat box popped up it seemed an easy request to make to them.

sbams

In my experience the chat box is the worst way to get anything done (for Hilton but also for many more companies). Glad it is sorted.

Staley Cornell

I second this, the chat box has not been successful on my end either. Glad it worked out for you.