HiltonGuy

HHonors has nothing to do with the Be My Guest card. Guest Assistance issues, monitors, and reimburses the hotels for their use. Call GA and ask for an extension. The rule [I]used[I] to be that they would extend a card once but after that one time, you are out of luck. Also, I noticed that somebody else said you could use a Hilton card at a Conrad. That is NOT correct. There's no such thing as a Conrad Be My Guest card (yet). The only way to get a different brand's card honored at a different brand than what it was issued for is to have prior ok from someone up the ladder in Guest Assistance (a Supervisor or Manager would probably be the one to give that approval). I wouldn't show up at a Conrad just assuming they would accept it without calling GA first. Allow them some time (at least a couple of days to come to a decision). An agreement has to be made between GA & the hotel to accept the card and for the hotel to be reimbursed for it. With that said, there IS somewhat of an exception: Using a "higher" brand's card at a "lower" brand i.e. using a Hilton card at a Hampton. Usually, there is no problem with a Hampton accepting an Embassy, Homewood, Hilton, or Doubletree card. Reason being is that those cards cost more.

BMG's are good for Standard rooms only and cover room and room taxes only. Be prepared to pay the difference in rate between a Standard and Upgraded room if you request one.

Jacquelyn Hyde

I read on another thread that it is OK to book a 'Package' rate with the Be My Guest certificates, so long as it is a 'Standard' room. The property has various different packages such as a Kids Package that includes a dinner voucher and tickets to a local attraction. I can't imagine this being allowed, but before I write it off, I wanted to see your experiences. The room would be 'standard'. What do you think?

travelexpert

I used Hilton Brand BMG certificates at the Embassy Suites in Waikiki this past Memorial Day weekend without any problem....

charliebrown

I'm new here and tried finding this via search but didnt find anything. Hilton Family of Hotels is my first choice for hotel and am usually pretty happy with them except for a lousy stay I had the Hilton Niagara Falls. I tried addressing the problems with the GM but go no response. Called Guest Assistance who tried getting a response from the hotel but got nothing. So Guest Assistance issued me a Be Our Guest certificate. How does this certificate work? Is it capacity controlled? What hotels is it good at? Thanks.

Bondiboy

If you have a "Hilton" certificate (as compared with (say) a Conrad, Hampton, HGI, etc. brand certificate) then it is good for any USA Hilton, subject to any restrictions printed on the certificate.

Just make your reservation for a standard room at the most expensive USA Hilton that takes your fancy (New York, Hawaii); stay; and when you pay your bill just present the certificate as payment for the room and taxes. You just pay for meals, drinks, etc.

One great benefit is that you will very likely get points and stay credit.

There are several threads on these certificates with more information.

Enjoy.

shloveg2

So, as long as we book a standard room, we do not have to ask about the availability at the time of reservation, correct?
Then it's great!!

Bondiboy

Please clarify what you mean by "we do not have to ask about the availability".

The standard room must be available in order for you to book it. Or am I misunderstanding you?

kmandrew

I just used one this weekend on a very expensive 4 day stay, presented the coupon and they took off one days charge no questions asked.

PortalGal

Just wondering; I had an awful experience at a Homewood Suites; arrived late night after calling ahead saying that I had a leg injury, and could I please get a room that wasn't too far from the lobby. They put me in the farthest room, and refused assistance getting upstairs with my suitcase after asking them nicely; saying, 'this hotel does not have bell staff'. This is with an empty lobby and three employees standing behind the front desk, doing nothing.

The room was not that clean; hair in the bathtub, a layer of dust over the refrigerator that was making a loud buzzing sound. Got no sleep that night; called the front desk and they wouldn't change my room. Called the Diamond Desk, who walked me (bleary-eyed) to a nearby Hilton Garden Inn.

Requested a call from the Homewood manager, but he never called me. When I finally got through to him after repeated calling, he told me briskly that my stay had already been refunded, and that there was nothing that he could do. I explained that, as a business traveller, a refund was only helping the multinational conglomerate that I work for, and that they wouldn't notice or care. He shrugged and said that a refund was all that he was allowed to do.

I pressed the matter and said that some points would make me feel better because then I could take the family somewhere... but he refused. I opened a Guest Assistance case but nobody from Corporate has called me back after two days. Nobody in this chain of bureaucracy has let me know that anything like a 'Be My Guest' certificate even exists, which leads me to believe that Hilton are downsizing. They are certainly downsizing on VIP benefits; this year no upgrades, no nothing really. In my two experiences with Homewood Suites, not even a lousy bottle of water or a cookie. Loyalty is no longer a value to Hiltons, it seems, based on my experience this week.

Please, anybody with knowledge of the BMG certificates, let me know if they are gone along with the economy, or how can one get one, who one can call.

cblaisd

I used one this week.

As I expected, I had to explain the cert to the front desk clerk.

And, as I also expected, my bill slipped under my door showed full rate and no cert applied.

Fortunately, a) the night clerk had stapled the cert to my folio, and b) I had a xerox copy to show the morning clerk. He fixed the bill, but he told me the problem was that I did online check in and when you do that the card that you have there trumps anything you do at check-in re other financial arrangements, BO/MG certs, or gift certificates.

I charged a soda and phone call to the room so I could generated a folio and stay-credit. It will be interesting to see, though, whether I am entitled with these to the points that would have been awarded on the full cost. I'll take that up with the Diamond Desk. I know that with gift certificates, you do, and that they are simply treated like cash against the bill's total.

Ritz

Much appreciated to the recent OP for resurrecting this thread! I have 2 of these BMG certs from a sub-par stay at the HHV last year, and didn't even think to do a tried-and-true FT search on the topic. to me, lol.

In any event, yes they do definitely still award them, as I received my 2 certs last October. I'm trying to plan the best use for them since they're only good on US properties - and I live within an hour of NYC, so those properties are out.

cblaisd

Unfortunately, my higher-up contact at HHonors confirmed that stays using these certs are treated as rewards stays (thus no points/miles) rather than as stays paid for with gift certificates.

777 global mile hound

Greetings,

Wow 19,000 plus posts on FT I am impressed ^
I would agree with the folks at HHonors that the official rule is no points or miles on Be My Guest Certificates.
While I have no recent experience to validate my shared theory I have heard from many dozens of their customers over the years through my private global network as well as other reliable sources who claim they have in fact earned points and miles for their stays on Be My Guest Certificates.

If by accident this should happen to you I hope you will do the right thing and ask them to remove them from your account

Cheers

Procter

All right, now I can report my experience with the "be my guest" cert experience. Got one after a really crappy stay at salt lake city Hilton city center (said to be a 4*, but hell no).

Having seen the discussion in this thread that the cert could be used for packages as long as the room included is a standard room, I went ahead reserve a "whale watch package" at Monterey Embassy Suites, with a total price of $430ish. Room included is a standard 2-room suite, and I also expect to pay the difference if it did not work as the price difference for the whale watch tix were about half of the price I had to pay if buying them seperately.

Arrived at 8:30pm two days later, and the front desk guy was inexperienced about this cert and had to talk with his manager before checking us in. I had to ask for the whale watch tix before he gave us the keycards. This process took another 10min or so, and brought the manager over. Manager explained that the cert would take care of the room + tax, but since it's a corporate certificate, while this whale watch package was a specific local package only available at his hotel, he could not let me get the free tix. I acted cool about it and paid the differnce of $40 ish, (do not know how he did the maths, I was expecting to pay $60ish for the price differnce between this package and a standard room). Anyways, out of pocket money is $40ish, and we got a partial ocean view suites, complimentary breakfast was good as well. Two bottles of water waiting in the room as a reception gift. Did I say the whale watch trip was totally worth it? It was awesome!!! We had 3 humple back whales surrounding the boat for 45 mins! You can almost touch the whale, and yes it was that close. Also checked the hhonors, got the stay credit and 4000ish points from the rack price of $400 ish, also some embassy suites bonus pts and the bonus from my amex cards. Got total points about 9k for this single stay.

The conclusion would be using the cert of package deal is YMMV, but generally speaking if you just want to get a room with it, should be very straigtforward.

shinbal

After an incident at an Embassy Suites, I was given a "Be Our Guest" coupon good for one free night at any Embassy Suites property. There are no restrictions on it and no terms of use printed on the back. There is an expiration date.

My name is printed on the front. Nowhere does it say that it's redeemable only by the person named.

If anyone has experience with these certificates, I'd like to know if I can give it to someone else to use.

Thanks in advance for your input.

Steve