Long gone are the days when having a confirmed reservation for a stay at a hotel would actually guarantee that they would have a room for you. When hotel needs to relocate a guest, this is called “a walk” in the industry lingo.
Hotels like airlines oversell their capacity based on historical data believing that they have last minute cancellations or guests that simply won’t show up perhaps due to misconnects for airport hotels or changed plans for others.
You can access Hilton Honors here.
READ MORE: Hilton Honors Rate & Bonus Points And Miles Promotions
Marriott Rewards has very well defined walk policy that is listed for everyone to see on their website and even then some hotels try to deceive their guests to accept less than what they are entitled to.
Hilton Honors has published Walk policy but it is not visible for program members at all and I don’t understand why.
I thought that it would be a good time to get it out so that all LoyaltyLobby readers would know what their rights are if Hilton affiliated property is oversold and to ensure that the properties adhere to them.
Member Relocation and Recovery
1. The guest must be relocated at other Hilton branded hotel if possible. The hotel must pay the full cost of the first night’s stay including any expenses incurred such as transportation and phone calls to family members and business associates.
2. Hotel must complete an online form and send it to Hilton to ensure that the guest receives the stay/night credit and all the points associated with the stay had the guest not been walked.
3. Hotel general manager must follow in writing and and apologize for the incident and and offer an upgrade and/or VIP treatment if the guest returns to the hotel for the rest of his/her stay.
Relocated guests must be offered BEST AVAILABLE accommodations if they return to the property to complete the stay.
Hotel must inform the Guest Assistance about the relocated guests.
4. Diamond member should be the last guest to be walked (relocated). In addition to the above mentioned steps, Diamond member is eligible for $200 inconvenience payment on the spot in cash.
Instead of writing, hotel general manager or manager’s representative must call the Diamond member and apologize for the incident.
Conclusion
So, Diamond members are eligible for $200 relocation “bonus” if they are “walked” and the offending property needs to pay for the night at comparable property and pay for the transportation too. It can get really expensive really fast and this is done to ensure that Diamonds are NOT walked unless the last choice for the property.
I have never been walked from Hilton property – only Hyatt and Marriott have both done it one time (on latter case it was dual branded property).
Would love to hear from readers if they have been walked from Hilton properties and did the properties follow these “relocation” rules?