Last week, I wrote a story about my recent stay at the Hilton Seattle Downtown. Â While my room was fine and things were fine, I was a little upset that I didn’t get an upgrade.
(SEE ALSO: I’m p****d I didn’t get upgraded)
I realized after writing the post that it wasn’t so much a lack of an upgrade that was bothering me, but just my unmet expectations. Â It was also frustrating that the check-in staff didn’t at least mention something about it – something along the lines of “Thank you for being a Diamond member Mr. Miller. Â We looked to upgrade you but we are completely full today so we were not able to accommodate you”. Â Even something like that would have been welcome.
Emailing Hilton customer service
Over on the Points With a Crew Slack channel, folks suggested I at least write in to Hilton and let them know about it, with the hopes of training check-in staff for future bookings, so I did.
A day later, I got a response
Thank you for contacting Hilton Guest Assistance. My name is <redacted>. It will be my pleasure to assist with your concerns from your recent stay at the Hilton Seattle WA
Please accept our sincerest apologies for any aggravation or inconvenience experienced due to your Hilton HHonors DIAMOND benefits concerns.
We are constantly monitoring the performance of all the hotels in the Hilton Portfolio of Brands and measuring them against high service and quality standards. Comments from our guests enable us to continually improve and exceed those standards. Please be confident that we will follow-up on the points you have outlined to avoid recurrence.
Or in other words….. here is this form letter that could have been sent to anyone and shows no proof that anyone actually read anything. Â This form letter actually irritated me even more, so I wrote back
All I wanted was for someone to actually understand my issue. The form letter that you sent did not do that for me….
The next day I got either a response to that, or perhaps a response to the in-room feedback form that I filled out
After careful review of the concerns you expressed in your message, first let me say how very sorry I am for the poor level of service you received. It is our goal, to provide only the highest level of customer service, for all of our guests, who choose to stay at one of our Hilton Worldwide hotels, and based on the details you provided in your message, we deeply regret that we have fallen short of that goal. Please be assured that we will be sharing your feedback with management.
Your loyalty to Hilton Worldwide is very important to us and we sincerely appreciate you taking the time to provide your feedback. These details allow us to assess the service we are providing, and in turn, will make us aware of opportunities for improvement. As a gesture of goodwill, 5,000 points has been posted to your Hilton HHonors account.
Still seems pretty form letter-y, but at this point I’m going to let it go. Â I did not ask for the points and would have been fine without them if only someone from Hilton would have actually acknowledged my issue
(SEE ALSO: My top 7 most memorable hotel customer service experiences)
Ever had a similar hotel customer service situation? Â What did you do?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
Why not call the Diamond desk? Find them to be really helpful.
Hmm I guess I never thought about that. I’m not used to being a Diamond obviously… 🙂
Grow up, there are tougher problems in life
You want our author to grow up because there are tougher problems in life…even as you decide to complain here about the author even though there are tougher problems in life. So perhaps you might take your own advice. #hypocrisyincarnate
LOL – thanks for having my back Bill! 🙂
#firstworldproblems You have to be kidding me right? I am Marriott Gold and I get upgraded sometimes, and sometimes I don’t. You won’t hear me whining to Marriott about it. If an upgrade is that important to you, contact the property before the stay and request one from either the front desk manager, rooms coordinator/manager, or the concierge. If the upgrade isn’t super important ask when you check in. Yes, all hotels should upgrade elites without them asking but lets be real there are 47 reasons why it might not happen. Front desk agent doesn’t feel like it, management doesn’t make it a priority, your check in time, the occupancy rate on the date you check in, housekeeping staff, you name it. Be glad you got 5,000 points, it was more than the upgrade would have been worth.
So perhaps I was not clear – I wasn’t upset about the lack of upgrade. As you mention, there may be many very valid reasons why that wouldn’t happen. I was more irritated (I wouldn’t even go so fall as to call it upset) that nothing was mentioned about it at check-in.
It seems reasonable to think that as a top tier elite, there is a better than average chance of getting upgraded. So when that doesn’t happen, as it may not (As you mention), it would have been nice to at least have it acknowledged at check-in.
No, you were clear. Some readers just have trouble with comprehension. They’re too busy looking for a reason to get out their aggression on someone other than friends and loved ones (i.e. total strangers). This concludes dime store psychology 101!
You are a perfect reason why Marriott continues to be a below average loyalty program not providing much responsiveness to its elite customers…and now you want others to suffer your own self-reinforced fate. Shame on you.
The only way for improvement is to complain–which our author did respectfully. Our author felt he wasn’t treated in the way he deserved or that his loyalty status deserved…and he informed Hilton about it. Nothing more, nothing less. Yet you feel the need to play complaint police because it doesn’t bother YOU.
When people don’t complain or take their business elsewhere, companies can behave in the same way as they already have been. If that works for you, then so be it. But don’t let everyone else suffer the same lame fate. That’s why Starwood and Hyatt have better and more affluent customers who know (and expect) better. That’s why more luxurious chains have better and more affluent customers who know (and expect) better. That’s why people like you get exactly what you deserve.
Oh, pullleeeeeze!
The author obtained his status thru a match from a credit card bootstrap.
He is an entitled whiney good for nothing much — except for writing about his supposed “problems.”
When things do go awry, people complain — not after the fact.
Here, the author is complaining that he feels he wasn’t treated correctly as befits his exalted status as a HHonors Diamond simply because the check-in agent did not warn him that he was not going to be upgraded. Ridiculous!
He claims he did not ask for points as compensation to this supposed affront to his dignity — I don’t believe him. Period.
I think that you were right to complain the first time. The response from Hilton however was completely appropriate. They noted that you had problems with your benefit experience and apologize for those problems. Your second complaint in my opinion was overkill and though you deny it a grab for points. Some will say that these complaints will assist in improving hotel operations. I think they just dilute loyalty programs in the end.
Maybe you’re right. I just would have preferred in the first response that they actually mention anything about what I had said to make it seem like they had actually READ what I wrote, instead of just “fake-read” it 🙂
These posts are such a waste of everyone’s time and energy. Those are real Hilton representatives that have to fill their days responding to angry emails. Real desk reps that might now get scolded for not recognizing you for the status you feel entitled to. And these are real readers of your blog that might be tuning in to get helpful and interesting travel insights.
This award travel hobby is so full of opportunity, abundance, and things to be thankful for. It’s a great relief to realize that this comment is the last time I’ll be wasting my own time with this clickbait rag.
umm maybe the hotel should get scolded for not giving his diamond benefits. what good is having diamond status but not receiving the benefits.
Should it come as any surprise that the author doesn’t even tip the hotel maids for his room?
SMH.
Yet he complains that the front desk does not acknowledge his exalted Diamond status!
Its disturbing that you are a whiner and a taker and don’t give back anything . Lost any appeal to your website. You are just a weasel.
What is this? Flyer talk?
PWAC, regardless of all these self-righteous comments made by these self-dignified people on their high horses, I still value what you offer on your website (actual facts, and feelings most of us experience in these incidents…). Keep them coming!
Thanks Gigi! Thankfully I have a pretty thick skin for comments :-). I think discussions like this are worth exploring because as you mention, there are lots of people that encounter situations like these and it’s always useful to get other people’s perspectives
I had a similar experience. I know for certain there were several rooms and suites empty (because I checked all the way up until we checked in). I was not offered any upgrade, nor was it mentioned at all. I didn’t want to ask for one and did not, however since it is listed as a benefit, I thought I should have been upgraded, knowing there were empty rooms that were nicer and as I said suites. I didn’t write them though, just decided I won’t stay in that certain hotel again. On the other hand, we’ve been upgraded with IHG and SPG when we don’t even have status. Yea, the room may not be as nice as the upgrade would have been with Hilton but we didn’t ask or expect to be upgraded, so makes me feel more kindly and more likely to keep booking with them.
After reading 75% of your posts, I wish I had that 30 seconds of my life back. This post was pure drivel.