When is a stay not a stay?
 

Had an interesting experience near BWI a few days ago. As I was checking out of my hotel, the clerk asked me how my stay was. I answered that it was pretty noisy. I wasn't upset as I've come to understand that hotels are often noisy. She asked if I had been awakened. I said "yes." She comped the room.
Here's the question; Do I get credit for the night on my HHonors account?

I've seen it happen both ways. It will be a plus if you charged some other expenses to your room folio.

I even got credit for an HHONORS stay when the room had been paid for by United due to them stranding me overnight, but that's the exception rather than the rule.

If you got a free night, I would think you should not get credit. If they give it to you, I guess I would not spend time trying to get it removed. Some systems would have trouble taking it away.

The strange twist here that sometimes crosses my mind. The company pays for my room. I have a lousy night due to A/C, noice or whatever. The hotel comps me. The company gets a good deal. I still had a bad night. What do I get for my troubles?

Seems that hotels for good business would offer you the choice of a free night, now or later. Later would be good, because that would get you to come back.

Same sort of thing when you show up at 11pm and there are no rooms left. Some will give you the night free. Company makes out, but I am still spending another hour getting settled, and maybe moving again. The better deal is to give me cash or a free night another time.

I was told at the ORD Hilton recently that I would get HHonors credit, similar to hobson, even though I paid with an AA room voucher. While I didn't discuss the reasoning with them, it seems simple: I was in the room and they got paid for it, even though I wasn't the one who paid.

Whether or not this applies to a free room - Banton's original situation - is another question, of course

My latest stay at the ORD Hilton on a bump voucher didn't get me credit because I didn't spend any money (my guess).

As for getting comps for bad service on a business trip, I have screamed over and over at the horrific room service at a property I frequented, and the only offer I got was a free meal. No apology, just the offer to save my client $20. Whoopie.

However, a free room could be "exploited" like this (any moral judgements pushed aside for a moment, please): get a comp certificate from the property, and when you go to check out the -next- time, you get two copies of your charges, the one they slide under the door, and the one that says "PAID". The only difference will be the value of the cert that you gave them upon checkout, but you only submit one of those receipts for your expenses. I leave it to the reader to figure out which.

You have just monetized that free night. Is this any different than using those Marriott gift certificates that grandma gave you for xmas?

If you get any credit at all, it may be for the incidental, if any, you had used and presumably had been charged for. Thus, in this respect, I agree with the above posters.
However, if you had no charges to be paid whatsoever, you still may get this credited as a "stay" or " 1 night" at the hotel.

You have not mentioned the name -- which one was it?

In the best of circumstances, you may get credit for the original charges on the room, bbut I would not hold my breath. It does happen on occasion, though.

Good luck!

It just goes to show, you can't have your Kate and Edith, too! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

If you mean the property with the horrific service, it's the Baltimore Hyatt. I've griped on the Hyatt board, and hopefully my comments will make it into a WSJ story that was being researched on FT recently.

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Just to let you know that I did get credit in my HHonors account as if I paid for the stay.

UA booked me into an expensive Radisson for 2 nights as they'd missed my connex home. All 3 meals day, cab fares, etc paid by UA. Still got Radisson points! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif



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~ Glen ~

OZ --

Do you think that was due in part because of your status as a UA-1k, or would they have done that for anyone?

What was the connxn that you missed that required you to wait 2 days, and where did you wait?

D2B

I was at a Hilton Garden Inn in CA and power was lost for most of the night and when I checked out (was Gold at the time) they were about to comp me, but since my company was paying, I asked for a certificate without an expiration date and low and behold they said sure.. I haven't used it yet b ut its nice to have in the back of my hilton file. Only catch is it is for that one particular property.. I was happy, i got my stay, I got my free night in the future and even got my diners club points and my company still paid..