What does check in time actually mean?
 

Stayed in Bloomington - Normal Hampton Inn and got into a disagreement with the manager about check in time.
We were there at 3 which is check in time and our room wasn’t ready - not atypical now a days because of limited staff. We were told 30 minutes, no problem went to early dinner. Came back at 4:45 and room still not ready by rude front desk person. A little annoyed now after long day of traveling. Went to a local Walmart and walked around, back at 5:30. Still not ready and told 30 minutes from a nicer front desk person. Room was ready at 5:50.
was frustrated and asked if I could get any points back for my stay - spent 25,000 for the night. Told to email manager of hotel.
I emailed him and got no response, emailed again a week later and he told me that check in time means - that is when check in starts but it does not mean that your room is ready. He was also quite rude saying it was in appropriate of me to ask for some points back. I did not ask for a refund, just maybe some points for my inconvenience.
I, now triggered a bit which I admit is dumb of me…emailed him back and said that is not how check in time works. Room should be ready at check in time or why bother having a check in time at all, room might not be ready till 10 pm per his standards. Now I also asked for a full refund of my points and quoted the 100% satisfaction guarantee.
He emailed me back and said I was wrong and he was not going to give me any points.
I emailed Hilton customer service and got a reply from them that they forwarded it on to the manager of the hotel…which I specifically asked them not to do as my problem was with the manager.
Long story short, I got too annoyed at the manger probably but I don’t think I was wrong in my assumption that a check in time means the room should be ready by then and a few thousand inconvenience points back on my account would have been a nice gesture.
Looking back I am wondering though if I was wrong - does check in time mean something different? Maybe he was right and it only means that is when you can start asking if a room is ready?
Thanks for listening to my thoughts this holiday weekend :)

Like you, I would have expected to be able to check in at 3 PM. I probably wouldn't have fussed at the first delay, but after that I would be annoyed also. I think the manager's response would have been the icing on the cake for me to take my business elsewhere going forward. Clearly someone at corporate wasn't reading your email or they would have handled it differently.

Of course you are correct. I've checked in plenty of places (and almost always given a room!) before check in time before, so even before noon (shock, horror).

I too think you are quite correct in assuming 3pm your room should be ready, of course we all have to have a bit of give and take and accept that sometimes there is a delay but from what you have wrote it sounds like you was very lenient to me.

100% this.

To the OP, you were fair with them and waited on multiple occasions. Each time they let you down on their estimated time. It also appears they did nothing to address this at the time, by offering you a drink or similar.

You then quite reasonably followed up to ask for something back for the late supply of your room and the on-going broken promises. The manager has been in my opinion, unreasonable with their response. You invoking the satisfaction guarantee as a result is fair as you gave them multiple chances on the day and a chance after the stay to address it.

I hope you receive your points back in response to this, as it is merited.

I think you are right. I know places may be short staffed, but we are all managing. Plus, he didn't seem to do anything to make the situation right. I'm sure there was some room in the hotel somewhere that was ready and he could have moved things around. A lot of people don't select their room before check in so if room 216 was ready and 412 was not, just offer you 216 and no one would be the wiser. Unless they are just packed, there is usually something more that can be done.

What if you had just gotten off a flight and were dead tired? I had this happen to me once in London (Tower Bridge DoubleTree) and they got me a cookie, a drink, and literally called housekeeping and asked them to get to my room next. I sat down, almost fell asleep, but they were over telling me my room was ready in maybe 30 minutes. Luckily, that's the only time I can remember that happening. I tend to arrive pretty late on most of my stays.

3pm check-in time is not ever guaranteed, however I think it’s entirely reasonable to expect a moderate amount of compensation when it is significantly missed. In the OP’s situation I would be equally pissed off and certainly would never visit a hotel that the Manager was looking after.

Life is too short to do business with people who dislike their customers.

NTA
probably one of the most reasonable things.
2 strikes at the hotel.
3rd and probably even 4th by managers responses.
OUT.
Upping the requested refund amount, Nice..

This is the OP. I was being a little persnickety by asking for a full refund after the managers email, but he did annoy me. I will write again to Hilton. As a Diamond member they know they have me and I won’t change loyalty.
I totally understand all hotels are short staffed right now, we have to be patient. I just felt not respected by the manager. Let’s see what happens.
FYI on a road trip right now to Medora Musical in North Dakota and room in west Fargo wasn’t ready at 3. They said we will get one for you in 10 minutes - they had one ready in 5 :)
Most Hilton properties are well run and staff are doing all they can!

FYI: All complaints made via the chain (either online or by phone) automatically get routed back to the hotel for resolution. Every hotel group operates the same way. It's standard operating procedure for complaints.

No, you're not wrong. That's coming from someone that worked in hotels for over a decade.

Occasionally, it's not possible to check a guest in right at 3pm/4pm. When that happens, the hotel will ask the guest to return later. Most guests are understanding...exactly as you were, at first.

With the exception of suites, it shouldn't take longer than 1 hour to clean a room. As such, the longest a hotel should ask a guest to wait is an hour. And if a guest does have to wait, the hotel should proactively offer something to thank the guest for being patient.

This is be the end of the story. One of the chains in which I worked has a 100% guest satisfaction guarantee. When invoked, we were required to refund the stay.

I'm speculating, but once the staff at Central Reservations who received your complaint saw it was for a hotel stay, she or he simply forwarded it to the hotel without reading it.

If the hotel refuses to refund the stay, you should call Hilton. Tell whoever answers that you tried to invoke the Hampton Inn Guarantee but the hotel is refusing. That should be all that's necessary. Hilton Corporate should issue the refund and charge it back to the hotel.

So based on his position, I guess Check Out Time is when Check Out Time starts not when you need to vacate the room.

As the “New Normal” begins to emerge, I think it is vital that you document and communicate complaints as clearly and as loudly as possible. That goes for all of us

The manager is wrong. 30-60 minutes late is a reasonable patience… I’ve occasionally encountered that pre-COVID. The clerk could have assigned you to a different room, or called housekeeping and asked them to start on your room immediately. Rudeness by clerks is never acceptable.

The failure to respond to your email within a week is simply a failure by management to respond to guests. Your request for a customer service accommodation was entirely reasonable. While invoking the Satisfaction Guarantee could be considered over the top, the manager could have avoided that by honoring your reasonable request.

Only you know if it’s worth the energy to chase it down, but I’m of the opinion that it’s reasonable to keep pushing on the Satisfaction Guarantee. The hotel did not honor their commitment to you.

Agreed. It only gets tricky if OP booked a suite as the FD agent could have said "We do not guarantee room types so you can either take this standard room which is available right now or you can wait until the suite is available".

I really hate it when hotels use the check-in times to their advantage but offer zero flexibility to guests when it comes to check-out times.

Simply put, there is really only one correct response for a clerk to give a guest whose room is not ready on time.

It goes something like this:

“I’m so sorry Mr.Mrs.Ms. Smith. Your room isn’t quite ready yet. I can put you in room XYZ right now, or I can ask housekeeping to do your room next. It will be ready within the hour.”

If the guest chooses to wait, the response is: “Can I offer you a *beverage of your choice* while you wait?”

A bunch of you feel we should be forgiving of hotel faults, given everything that has happened. I would also be forgiving if hotels were charging as though everyone were still having problems. However, when hotels charge as much or more than pre-pandemic, I expect as much or more service as pre-pandemic.