hhdl

Typical Hilton standard for Diamonds (whether it's getting enforced nowadays?) was $200 cash for a walk on top of the usual free night etc.

RedSun

This episode gets even harder to explain.

1. We can blame hotels for over-booking in general. But hotel and hotel chain have no incentives to over-book at 8:30PM the same night. This was apparently a system glitch.
2. So there were multiple "walks". But up to 11:30PM, none of the guests have ever contacted Hyatt about "walking" guests?! And hotel did not contact Hyatt either? This is quite bizarre to say the least. And this got to Hyatt only after a "Globalist" complained to Hyatt?

Just hope we do not get into anything like this. If I were to make a last minute booking, I'd better contact the hotel directly and make sure my room will be ready, and I'd check in late. Particularly if I check in really late. Some hotels have no show check-in deadlines.

MarkOK

Yes, that is my understanding as well. You shouldn't pay -at all- when you are walked. They owe you that night's free accommodations at an 'equivalent' property for failure to uphold your reservation. That puts the whole gamble on equal footing, otherwise, they'd have no risk in overbooking. They, afterall, sold your room to someone else and hoped you wouldn't show (which if occurred, they'd still get to collect your payment as a no-show). Similarly, airlines don't just get to say sorry pal, get on the next flight --- they owe you vouchers and/or cash -and- they have to still get you to your destination.


It's been a few years since I was walked, but I had a points+cash stay at a KC area HP. They put me into a Holiday Inn (which was quite inferior in terms of interior condition, and didn't offer any breakfast). The cash part they never charged and they made clear at the HP that the night was free, but the point part was held up until I sent an email about how to get those points back, and pointed out the inferior condition and breakfast of the Holiday Inn. I also asked for the night's credit because I was status-challenging. Can't remember (the story is buried somewhere on FT I am sure), but Hyatt got the points removed, credited the night (which they somehow made clear isn't usually done), and I got some decent batch of points for the breakfast issue; all of which made me feel quite whole.



I agree with this. When I was walked it was 11:30 PM after a long drive. It took nearly a full hour before I was in bed after dealing with two different hotel desks and a 15 minute drive between properties. As a discoverist even, I felt quite slighted. What hotel programs walks its loyal members so freely in the dead of night!

Hotels DECIDE to overbook and they CHOOSE to take the risk selling your reserved room to someone else (usually, a walk up that night). I don't think it is too much to expect, as a loyal program member, that your reservation is kept. If Elon has a reservation, they'd probably not oversell his room to some chump off the street.

RedSun

Not in this case. When OP booked his room at 8:30PM, it was already fully booked for the night. Hyatt system did not see it. It was a glitch or mistake. It has nothing to do with over-booking. At 8:30PM, hotel already KNEW they were fully booked and would have turn off any further booking. OP's reservation would not be kept since it was a mistake. OP never had a room to start with. This is not the common sense of "walking" the guests.

The fact that OP received 20,000 points, or about $400 value is adequate enough to remedy this glitch or mistake from a booking that only costed 5,000 points or $115. It seems a lot of FTers would jump to their feet to receive such "inconvenience". Other than a phone call to Hyatt and 5 minute shuttle ride to the Hilton, OP did not lose anything.

Sure Hyatt had the "Globalist guarantee". It failed and Hyatt paid a price for the mistake.

skj

Hyatt's "walk" policy is pretty mediocre compared to Marriott and Hilton in that there's no acknowledgement of or additional benefits for status. It's also somewhat dated ...

What is Hyatt's reservation guarantee?

If you book a room on hyatt.com and prepay with a credit card, Hyatt will have a room reserved for you when you arrive, or will provide, at no cost to you:
• A free night at a comparable hotel
• Free transportation to and from that hotel
• One free telephone call to advise your family where you can be reached

GUWonder

That Hyatt walk policy is below mediocre, it’s lousy.

This hotel property owner/manager may well have had an incentive to overbook the Hyatt even at 8:30pm the same night. The OP indicated that this Hyatt hotel has an owner-affiliated property — under a non-Hyatt brand affiliation — with spare capacity, and that means this hotel’s owner/management can have their cake from overbooking the Hyatt property and eat it too by keeping the overbooking flow “all in the family” with the property owner’s non-Hyatt property in the picture too.

RedSun

Absolutely not the case. As OP indicated, there are multiple guests who hotel had to "walk" that same night. If the hotel did this before or as a common practice you described, it would have been kicked out of Hyatt long time ago. I do not think hotel wants to run that risk. That costs much more than the extra booking they want.

If OP booked his stay days prior and "walked", then it would be a different story. But in this case. Clearly a system glitch or mistake.

PG.backpacker

In this case, they had incentives to oversell the Hyatt Place: the overbooked rooms are moved/walked to the Hilton nearby of the same owner so they retained the revenue, they were essentially selling Hilton rooms on Hyatt system. And why would they contact Hyatt corporate when they can fill both hotels and don't have to pay compensation costs to overbooked guests? As to why no other guests contacted Hyatt corporate, maybe there was no elite guests, the guests didn't know about walking policy or they were too tired and just want a place to sleep, who knows?

GUWonder

Hyatt doesn’t care about kicking out properties if it can help it. The relationship with the property is almost certainly worth more than the average Globalist customers, and Hyatt may even wish to at some point pick up an agreement with the owners’ other or future properties to come into the Hyatt fold.

Some property owners/managers get away with playing games for years and years without getting the boot from the brand flag-provider. No reason why this situation would be an exception to that when dealing with cheap/greedy property owner/management with multiple properties in hand.

RedSun

This is just such a funny theory. So you think all the other Hyatt guests were fools and only us Hyatt loyalists or Globalists are smart enough to call to Hyatt and asked for compensation. Then Globalists must be very special who deserve the 25,000 points or $500 compensation. $$ is far more important than "want a place to sleep".

Yes, Hyatt dropped the ball and they paid for the ball at a $500 price.

As we all know, most Hyatt hotels are eligible to check in, probably after 3PM. So at 8:30PM, OP would be eligible to check in remotely. It is very convenient to check in and guarantee the room. But that was not done. OP never called the hotel to check in. He only showed up at 11:30PM..... A lot of things just interesting.

GrayAnderson

My best guess is that the other "walks" might have skewed to third-party reservations (cue finger-pointing between Hyatt and the OTA in question as to who goofed) and/or just didn't get to the Globalist desk.

Amusing note: The HP "paid" the Hilton $159 for my room per the receipt...but since it is all in-house..

PG.backpacker

Not fools, but not all of their guests are WoH member and/or road warriors to care about the walking policy. They booked a room, they received a room (albeit not the exact location, but just 1 minute of walking away) with the same price, there's nothing to complain. Even if the guests wanted to complain, who would they call? Point enthusiasts know to call the brand corporate, but a regular customer will deal with the local management team or the business owner. In this case, what other solution would be provided?

LondonElite

Any minute now writerguyfl will tune in to explain that, in life, **** happens.

GUWonder

If we assume that the Hilton is a financially poorer performing (or more leveraged) property than the Hyatt one is for the owner, shifting revenue from the more profitable Hyatt to the less profitable Hilton may be seen as having some benefit for the hotels’ owner.

RedSun

Sure you can mold your theory whatever the way you like. With what you stated, other guests are foolish enough not knowing whom and where to call. They are all happy to get moved to the Hilton which costs like $80 more. And they lose out the opportunity making $500 gain because they did not know whom to call to complain? Quite interesting. Or you could say those are foreign visitors and did not speak proper English.

Exactly. At 8:30PM the same night, hotel has no reason at all to "overbook" any guests to maximize its room revenue. They knew their room inventory and guest check-in very well. So the "overbooking" theory holds no water at all. This only points to one thing, which is system glitch. This is not any common sense of "Hyatt walked a Globalist".

This is the last time I'm going to explain....