Hilton Honors Worldwide
Reviews and Complaints

Worst Experience ever! Will NEVER stay at Hilton again! Encourage You to do the same! Call center for HH Honors is turned into a finger-pointing mess! Guess I will be going back to Marriott!
Subject: Follow Up- Stay Treatment and Service Issues
Ms Carolyn Murphy:
As indicated in my previous call and conversations, I am very upset and disappointed with the level of service received from staff quoting the “bible of Hilton” in policy and filing to provide details on what is being done. I am extremely upset this has occurred after several hours and days of trying to prevent this from happening. As mentioned, I also don’t appreciate the rude and condescending treatment from both Josh and Joel (customer experience manager) who states this could take 7-30 days to be corrected.
THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE! (see attached-for dismissive email) I expect a resolution of this issue promptly. This experience has been so terrible with your staff treatment, I don’t want to stay at your property again, and personally this experience has ruined my faith and trust in Hilton property brands by damaging your creditability with me the guest. In addition, this has caused my bank account to go negative due to causing my Wal-Mart Credit card payment of 65.00 plus fees to bounce. Fix it !
Jun 26 at 3:30 PM
Mr. Cobb,
Again, this is not clear. Your poor treatment and many different responses make me still uneasy. Again, what you have provided...
If you use a debit/credit card to check in, a hold may be placed on your card account for the full anticipated amount to be owed to the hotel, including estimated incidentals, through your date of check-out and such hold may not be released for 72 hours from the date of check-out or longer at the discretion of your card issuer.
Is not changing the fact we have heard 4 different stories of this today. I will not be giving you my card. If you want to run as a pre-paid discount rate and cash let me know or I am going somewhere else. Your actions today make me never want to say at Hilton again as a honors guest this has been very stressful to sit in my office and make several calls. I will not be issuing a blank check for unknown charges.

Regards,
Stanley-
Hide original message
On Friday, June 26, 2015 3:23 PM, Josh Cobb wrote:
Good Afternoon,
As requested, below is a copy of what information is attached to all room confirmation emails and letters. The paragraph right after the "Please Do Not Reply..." states our policy regarding credit cards. I apologize that you have experienced different accommodations when you have stayed at our hotel. Please let me know if there is anything else that I can assist you with. Thank you and have a wonderful day.

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PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL. MAIL SENT TO THIS EMAIL ADDRESS CANNOT BE ANSWERED.
If you use a debit/credit card to check in, a hold may be placed on your card account for the full anticipated amount to be owed to the hotel, including estimated incidentals, through your date of check-out and such hold may not be released for 72 hours from the date of check-out or longer at the discretion of your card issuer.
If you need to MODIFY or CANCEL your reservation, click here.
Any change to the arrival date, departure date or room type of this reservation is subject to the hotel's availability at the time the change is requested and may result in a possible rate change or an additional fee. For example, shortening or lengthening your reservation is subject to availability and may not be possible at a later date. For more information, please click here to see all the rules and restrictions applicable to this reservation.
If you have questions regarding your reservation, please contact Hilton Reservations and Customer Care at 1-800-HHONORS [protected]), click here, or email us at [protected]@hiltonres.com.
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Josh Cobb
Assistant General Manager
Hilton Garden Inn Minneapolis Downtown
1101 4th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55404
P | 612.339.6633
Dear Mr. Alexander,
I have communicated with your banking institution to release the held funds. I apologize that we were unable to accommodate your request about forgoing our incidental hold. This is done for every guest, every time. Every hold that we take falls off at check out when the charges are finalized. After that it is up to your bank to release them to you. It normally takes 3-5 business days and could take up to 30. Your bank would also explain how holds work the same way. I have expedited this hold to be removed for you this time, but just for the future please know that we do take holds at check in and we release them at check out.
I hope you have a wonderful day,
Joseph A. Aufenthie
Guest Experience Ambassador
1101 4th Ave South, Minneapolis, MN 55404
Direct: [protected]
Fax: [protected]
[protected]@fhginc.com

Subject
Hold Release - Insufficient Information
Discussion Thread
Response Via Email (Tina) 06/29/2015 10:29 PM
Dear Stanley,
Thank you for contacting Customer Care. We are happy to assist you with your inquiry.
You recently contacted us to request the release of a transaction hold on your account. In the interest of protecting the customer, we require merchants to provide written authorizations clearly stating that they have no intentions on debiting the said transaction(s) from your account.
The letter we received does not provide us with sufficient information to honor the request at this time. The letter did not feature:
• Unable to do a partial release. Indicate transaction amount(s) - listed separately
As such, at your earliest convenience, please contact and instruct the merchant to submit another authorization letter directly to our department at [protected]. For your convenience, we have attached a template of such a form. If you choose to use this template, please remember it will be necessary for the merchant to transfer the document onto their company letterhead for it to be complete. If you choose to have the merchant submit the information without the template provided, please see the criteria below.
The letter should:
• Bear the entity's letterhead and be signed by a manager
• Indicate your first and last name
• Indicate your full 16 digit card number or first four digits and last
eight digits of card number
• Indicate transaction amount(s) - listed separately
• Have a statement that indicates that the merchant will not capture
the funds
For administrative purposes, please ensure that your incident number [protected] is mentioned on the fax cover sheet.

If there is anything else we can do to help you, please do not hesitate to contact us by replying to this email or by calling the toll-free number listed on the back of your card between the hours of 8am and 11pm EST (Monday-Friday). We would be happy to assist you and we look forward to your timely response.
Thank you,
Higher One
Customer Care Department
Where is my 100% Satisfaction Guarantee? I think all Social Media and Media need to know about this one! Shame on you Hilton!

Disregard for members of the HHonors program who achieved Diamond (maximum) status then dropped to a lower category after 23 years of exclusive stays for business

On a trip to NY my sister made reservations for 2 rooms for us as a convenience to me as my time was limited. When we arrived at the Hilton Newark Airport hotel, I asked to have the reservation changed to my own name as I was paying for the stay for both rooms, and that as my Hilton Honors number had expired, I wanted to obtain a new HH number, and have the stay credited to the new number. The agent took down all of my information, said she would be happy to take care of it, that it was not a problem. I received the new HH number which was delivered to my door a few minutes later. When we returned from our vacation, I checked my HH account, and found that the stay had not been credited to my HH account. I contacted Customer Care, and they opened a "case" with all of the details to get the matter cleared up, and the agent assured me that it would be corrected and that an e-mail with the resolution would be sent to me w/in 5-10 days. 3 weeks later I had not received the e-mail and called Customer Care. It took about 30 min to be transferred to a supervisor, who said they could not make the change in the reservation due to the terms and conditions. I re-explained the agreement by the agent at the hotel to update the reservation and the other details. The supervisor advised they could not make the change. She did credit my account with some "good will" points for my trouble, however they did not equal the amount of points I would have earned had the matter been corrected. Word of warning - stand at the desk and insist that all corrections be made immediately while you wait to prevent this kind of problem. I am very disappointed that after multiple phone calls and time spent to resolve this on my end, the HH program did not to the right thing. I paid for the room, my company discount was used, and my HH plan was in place. This was a waste of my time, a failure on the part of the hotel, and a failure of HH program not to resolve it satisfactorily.

After calling and making a reservation, you're asked if you would like to listen to
a vacation plan to earn extra 500 points.

I never received the points. When I called in and was transferred around, I was told,
"You only get the points if you book a "package".
This is not how it is stated. To this day, when you call in, they say the same thing, "Listen to it for 500 points".
I have it recorded.

I'd like those 500 points and this practiced to be halted.

I am a hilton fan. I admire Conrad Hilton and his vision for hospitality. I have spoken highly of the hhonors rewards program for years and recommended to many of my friends and co-workers to switch to the Hilton family of hotels. I now have to reconsider my loyalty...

While trying to book at stay for one night I found 5 different hotels in 4 different cities (all possible stoping points for the night) that would not allow me to use my points for a "standard room" even though I received confirmation from one hotel that 25 rooms were available. The response was only rooms with one king bed are available for reward stays. I guess the Hilton family doesn't want families staying in there hotels, only singles and couples should be rewarded for their loyalty to Hilton (I have nothing against singles or couples, I was each for a season in life.)

When speaking with Hilton Honors reservations about their "no excemptions, no fine print, " the response was it is up to the hotel to determine available rooms for reward bookings. There is "no fine print" simply because the do not print it. It certainly is not "that simple." My hours on the phone with hhonors and individual hotels proves that. If there is no accountability for the advertising of hhonors, the term false advertising should be stricken from our vocabulary.

I hope Hilton comes through on this as I still believe in the vision Conrad had many years ago and I would hate for his legacy to be tarnished even greater. This would be a great experience for one of the Hilton's on undercover boss - to help them realize how far their company continues to drift from its original greatness.

My clients recently stayed in Hawaii at the Hilton Hawaiian Village and the Hilton Waikoloa Hotel in Kona. They were told because it was booked with a travel agent and a tour company that they could not get their Hilton Honors points. They are very good customers of Hilton Honors and I think this is terrible that they cannot get the points except if it is booked directly through the hilton reservation service. Please let me know why this is? My name is Leslie Steele, and I am a Travel agent for Pearsons Travel. The phone is [protected] and the email is [protected]@pearsonstravel.com.

I booked two rooms using my reward points to attend a wedding on November 6, 2010. One room would be for my husband and myself and the other for my sister and 85 year old father. On November 5th my father became ill and I cancelled one room. My sister still went (my father lives with my husband and I). I took my father to the hospital and he was diagnosed with the flu. I have a record of my reservations and cancellations. The 30000 points have never been redeposited. I've spoken to several people at the rewards desk and have access to my account online. They keep referring me to different people. The latest on that I spoke to this morning said that my points were redeposited back when I cancelled. It is nowhere on my "points activity" page. They said that it would be the way she handled it. She said that I had used points since which is true. They withdrew points for those stays. Still there is no record of them being redeposited. I asked to speak to someone higher. She transferred me to a voicemail and I left my information. I do not expect a call back the way I've been given the runaround. All I want is my lousy 30000 points back. I've never had a problem with Hilton Honors before. Everything else has gone wonderfully. But they are being totally non helpful here. Can you help me? Sally Carroll

Hilton Honors was very rude, nasty, and unhepful when trying to "resolve" a disaster my husband and I had on our wedding anniversary trip to San Antonio. First, Homewood Suites on the San Antonio riverwalk tried to commit fraud in charging our credit card after we checked out an hour after we arrived due to a number of infractions. 1) They did not honor our reservation 2) the room was filthy 3) the plumbing was backed up with no remedy in sight 4) the front desk staff went beyond indifference to rudeness and gross unprofessionalism. That attitude extended to the manager — who Hilton Honors sided with — even though he was trying to commit a felony. I had to contact my credit card company who were ready to pounce as soon as they tried to make a charge. I had to contact the BBB, and I contacted HHonors. They seemed helpful at first, but quickly turned ugly when they discovered that I had reported that manager to my credit card company, the BBB, and the San Antonio board of tourism. Hilton Honors knew that the manager gave me my money back because he had to. They were, initially, apologetic. Then, without me asking for a thing, they offered a free stay at another Homewood through a voucher. They soon after revoked it saying "you already got your 100% guarantee." This was clearly after they knew that the manager gave me my money back. They made no apologies, in fact they were rude. The BBB, Hilton Honors, and the tourism board sided with the manager for whatever reason — even though he committed a crime and harrassed us for weeks afterwards. It seems as though the world is turning upside down.

Over ten years ago, my wife and I were given Lifetime Diamond VIP cards. This card allowed us maximum privileges in the Hilton Honors program. In October 2007 Hilton Corporation sent us an unsolicited Gold VIP card, which offers considerably less privileges than the lifetime diamond card. At the same time, we were told the seniors program was being discontinued and it would not be possible for us to maintain the Lifetime Diamond VIP cards.

Additionally, if the diamond card was linked to the senior program, I was never made aware of the fact and, in my mind, it is a discriminatory decision. In desperation, we wrote Joe Ducey, an investigative reporter of ABC in Phoenix, AZ and he kindly aired our perplexing situation. You will find his coverage at: http://www.abc15.com/content/news/investigators/consumeralerts/story/Lifetime-deals-not-always-what-theyre-cracked-up/d5bPj1hrh0Ojl4MJ7emRyQ.cspx
He, too, has never received a reply from Hilton.

I do not understand, nor does it make sense, that a lifetime membership can be revoked. To me, lifetime should by very definition be lifetime, unless they have a policy to discontinue giving cards to all seniors. We have phoned and written repeatedly to all corporate entities and we do not even receive a response.

It would be much appreciated if you could intercede on our behalf and request they reinstate our Lifetime Diamond VIP cards.

Hilton Honors website (www.hiltonhonors.com) proclaims: "No Blackout Dates - No exceptions" The fine print reads "If there's a standard room available at any Hilton Family hotel or resort worldwide you can redeem points for it. No exceptions, no fine print. It's that simple."

It's actually not that simple. The use of the adjective "standard" to describe the "standard rooms" in the policy is a huge qualifier. Apparently a certain number of rooms at each property are designated "standard" rooms. When those rooms are booked by Honors reward redemption, the property is categorized as "full" even though many rooms remain.

In practice, the blackout policy remains the same as it's always been, subject to the number of rooms designated as "standard"