Farewell HSW, Hello Pan Pacific 27 July 2017

[Fifa]

Any changes in the.... Pacific Club?

The club still looks exactly the same but the computers have a PP welcome screen.

Apparently there will be no afternoon tea served but a 'healthy option' of fruit and gluten free muesli bars will be available and also the usually all day biscuits, almond bread, nuts etc.

Tonight there was similar food with hot options including a delicious seafood bisque, meat and veggie party pies and little savoury vegetarian balls of something delish, plus sandwiches, savoury tarts, cheeses, vege sticks, dips and bread and rolls. Thankfully they still had the pretzels and tonight we also enjoyed dessert - a nice mousse thingy.

Drinks included the usual wine, beer and cider.

Service was excellent.

 

[serfty]

Thankyou to Jessica for arranging and special thanks for guesting me in.

It was good to see the effort put in by the incoming management to get a handle on our views, usage of stats etc.

Anyway, an enjoyable evening; sorta sad the cause, but hope to catch up again with one and all soon.

 

[Fifa]

As we were leaving the hotel this morning, a couple drove past and asked us where the Hilton was!
The new Pan Pacific sign over the front door totally threw them.

 

[straitman]

Our last Hilton view photo.



Taken from Rm 1802.

 

[straitman]

 

[boomy]

So meanwhile any information about HH diamonds?
Upgrades, breakfast, lounge access, status match?

Since no one answered my questions I'll have no choice but to do it myself.

Anyone who booked rooms prior to the changeover gets EXACTLY the same benefits as they Hilton tier.

Diamond members will get suite upgrades, lounge access, breakfast, early check in, late check out, the lot. This is very generous and clever move by Pan Pacific to win over HH loyalists. They practically give HH diamonds more benefits than their own top tier GHA black members. There are no cap, rate or date restrictions, ALL prior bookings will be honoured.

Regarding status match, they do offer but it's not going to be strait forward match from diamond to black. Instead, they will look into the number of stays of each member done with HSW and a status match will be offered according to the value of each member to the hotel. For example, diamond members who spent only a few nights at HSW last year will most likely receive match to platinum, while diamond members who spent 50 nights or more will most likely receive match to black. Just to be clear, even their top tier doesn't guarantee lounge access nor breakfast unless the room was booked or been upgraded. One exception are a very small number of diamond members who spent over 100 nights at HSW last year and therefore Pan Pacific decided to gift them lounge access at their discretion. Apart from those lucky few (I wasn't even close to that) no one gets access unless they stay in high category room.

In terms of visible changes, there aren't many yet.
Public areas look the same, the restaurant kept the same name, same menu for dinner and similar spread for breakfast. One noticeable enhancement was more options to add when ordering an omelette.

In the lounge there are some enhancements for breakfast, six hot options now and for dinner (canapés) there is hot soup of the day and charcuterie.

My suite looked exactly the same, even the bathrobes still have Hilton tag on them. Pan Pacific use Embrace amenities which look and feel better than Hilton's cheap PTRs. On top of the usual staff, amenities include a comb, bath salt and mouthwash. Not surprising this is the standard for an Asian (Singapore) hotel brand.

 

[QF WP]

Well if the situation boomy puts is correct, I won't be offered much in the way of status match, so they'll lose my business and I'll look to compare DT versus nearby HI or CP. Thanks for the heads up boomy

What is interesting - see comment here from Aeolus

For nostalgic reasons I'm posting this as a final farewell to HSW.
Booked: King Guestroom
Received: 2 bedroom suite on highest floor x 2 nights
Special spread of cold rolls, oyster and soup delivered with bottles of Moët to the AFF table at the lounge last night. No change to breakfast spread this morning nor staff uniforms etc. I cheekily decided to order coffee as I wanted to test how that would work out between room charge going to Hilton and coffee this morning to Pan Pacific. Was informed of the coffee tax as usual but when I checked out, it didn't register. Had a good chat with Craig and his APAC boss this morning. As per what the others have reported, they are very keen to retain our business and would be looking at matching status for regular guests but details on exec lounge access is not clear. My suspicion is it would be similar to how HH treats Gold, ie access to lounge if you are upgraded to exec rooms which in the case of this hotel it would be the suites and above. Farewell HSW!!

 

[Aeolus]

Well if the situation boomy puts is correct, I won't be offered much in the way of status match, so they'll lose my business and I'll look to compare DT versus nearby HI or CP. Thanks for the heads up boomy

What is interesting - see comment here from Aeolus

I would say Boomy's info would be more accurate. On 28/7, the details were sketchy, only verbal statements that they would try their hardest to retain our business. The fact that they are honouring previous bookings made under Hilton with exact benefits are rather generous (sad thing is, I haven't got any forward bookings). What I was referring to was just an example as in how lounge access would be awarded in their case as even the highest tier doesn't guarantee lounge access, so my guess would be if you are upgraded to one of the suites that comes with lounge access, then you would get in, not a specific reference to HH Gold treatment under the new management.

 

[boomy]

Well if the situation boomy puts is correct, I won't be offered much in the way of status match, so they'll lose my business and I'll look to compare DT versus nearby HI or CP. Thanks for the heads up boomy

Even if you get matched to black it gives you nothing unless you book at least one category above the cheapest and get lucky to be upgraded two levels.
From what I was told the management wants to be on par with other Pan Pacific hotels which means getting much stricter on suite upgrades. Adding to the fact there are no points that can lead to free nights I don't really see much incentive in paying >$200 not knowing which benefits will end up with.

Luckily I still have few bookings in Aug and Sep made prior to the changeover so I'll update when more information will become available.

As point of reference, there were no more than 6 guests in the lounge last night between 6-8pm and just 5 tables occupied this morning at breakfast. Extremely low numbers for weekday stay in Melbourne.

 

[serfty]

...
As point of reference, there were no more than 6 guests in the lounge last night between 6-8pm and just 5 tables occupied this morning at breakfast. Extremely low numbers for weekday stay in Melbourne.

I wonder how many were Hilton elites on preexisting bookings.

 

[Fifa]

Has anyone received their Hilton Honors points yet?
Looks like I'll have to chase them up .

 

[TonyHancock]

Has anyone received their Hilton Honors points yet?
Looks like I'll have to chase them up .

Not me.

 

[Matt_01]

Not me.

Same here

 

[JessicaTam]

All my HSW stays for this year have disappeared from my booking history.

 

[Doug_Westcott]

Mine for 27/7/17 does not appear, but as it was a booking on points it doesn't matter much However I would have been nice to have a record. Not sure if I stayed there earlier in the year.

 

[Aeolus]

All my HSW stays for this year have disappeared from my booking history.

Same here! Also HSW as a history of not counting the correct nights/points posting if you have 2 separate booking for consecutive nights like the one I had for the last stay leading to 28/7. Now it will make it even harder to track.

 

[coolumbla]

good to see I'm not the only one

i haven't heard back
i might need to ring!

 

[TonyHancock]

The response back from HH was the old "wait two weeks before bothering us"*. (I sent an email yesterday, 13 days after checking out, because the form in the Hilton site would not work) I duly responded within seconds of the response given it is exactly two weeks since I checked out.

The HH rep also reminded me that the HSW ended its Hilton Honors participation on the 28th July 2017, however they "should be able to post" my stay.

Apparently I can call a toll free number or even refer to the Hilton Honors website to verify which Hilton Brand Hotels participate in the Hilton Honors guest reward program. (I'll get Griselda on to that - who'd have thought it was that simple. )

*My paraphrasing.

 

[Fifa]

I phoned yesterday as I was also unable to lodge an online points claim.
After speaking to two people I was told that they would contact the hotel and sort it out.
Not long after the following email arrived:

"It was a great pleasure speaking with you today regarding your stay at Hilton Melbourne South Wharf, Austr. It is our commitment to work with the hotel to ensure that your concerns are resolved. Please allow us 72 business hours to reach a satisfactory resolution.
Should you require further assistance, please contact our Guest Assistance office by calling 1-888-240-6152 or simply reply to this message.
Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to serve you!"

 

[straitman]

All my HSW stays for this year have disappeared from my booking history.

As have mine.

I had a 32 min call to the HH Diamond desk on Tuesday afternoon and Silvia from Texas assured me that it would be sorted but could take 24-48 hours. They also sent me a summary of my 2017 stays though it's an xps file which I cannot open. I'll chase up the summary but I guess I'll leave the 27-28th stay a little longer.

It's causing confusion at a few levels as Silvia thanked me for the call as it clarified a few things for her and the team. Her previous call was from someone who had a HSW booking for 29th and couldn't find the hotel. When she, and other team members, went looking for HSW in the system they couldn't find it but the could find it in a Google search.