I got in late and wanted breaky in the main restaurant. During the week the breakfast offering in the lounge is pretty meagre and I would have preferred a downgrade from the exec floor ... because as a Gold I still get breaky, but not in the lounge, in the restaurant.
For breakfast in the main restaurant when staying at the HSW, go to the exec lounge and ask for a breakfast voucher for downstairs. You get the full breakfast.
never been charged for breakfast downstairs at HSW and never needed a voucher either
I'm slowly warming to the Hilton chain, but I find the inconsistencies very daunting and frequently, embarrassing. The above quoted exchanges have me baffled. For the record, I love a full buffet breakfast.....and usually pay for it. Since my foray into the Hilton upper tier realm, I find myself very confused as to what to expect from hotel to hotel. Recently, we have stayed at both the Hilton Surfers Paradise and Brisbane. Surfers more than happily allowed my whole family (3A, 2C) access to the executive lounge for both canapes as well as breakfast. We had a three b'room apartment. I was happy with this but breakfast, as a "reward" to their frequent patrons, is somewhat disappointing. When you are hankering for full buffet, continental just does not hit the spot!
With Brisbane, it was originally just myself, my other half and my youngest daughter staying so we had booked the double, double. Upon check-in, we (and another couple checking in at the same time) were advised we had the choice of taking breakfast in the executive lounge or in the restaurant, at our descretion, included as HH members. Well, no contest there, I though happily to myself.
As with teenagers, I'm always the last to know their plans and my son and older daughter appeared mid afternoon demanding to know where they were staying (so much for fast becoming empty-nesters......oh, how my wallet cherishes the thought). I'm no CPA, but a quick glance at my assembled tribe, the number of beds and the size of the room quickly hammered home the concept that we just weren't going to fit, so the "ol' man" had to go cap in hand downstairs to check availability. I quickly checked on my iPhone and found a room was available for $133/nite on the verrry soon-to-be discontinued "December" sale, so I rushed to the desk to organise it. I kept the double, double for the kids and booked the king "guest" room for Lisa and I. The reception staff were somewhat confused as the "sale" no longer appeared on their computer but price matched regardless and immediately offered me an upgrade to the executive floors. Settled. Sleeping for 5........family of 5.
I believe from the HH site, that an elite tier may "guest" one person (spouse only??) into the executive lounge, so being unsure, I went and asked. I was informed that was the case but asked what my situation was. I replied it was supposed to be 2A,1C but my other teenagers had arrived. The lady said politely that as we had two rooms, she would allow us all in. I was impressed at her professionalism as the rate for the exec. pass was $40 per additional person. Our kids don't drink (grog) and only eat small portions so I thought this was a fair and discreet response.
Now for breakfast. Unlike the exec. lounge drinks and canapes, a breakfast for 5 is entirely different. So as not to place the restaurant staff in a difficult situation, I approached the reception desk first, to explain we would all be taking breakfast but I understood some would be a "paid" option. What I didn't know was how many?? To my absolute surprise, the reception staff said there were no problems, complementary breakfast would be extended to my whole family. Wow! Now that was unexpected and very appreciated. We were booked for two nights, so these scenarios were repeated the next day.
So to my concern.........where does that leave us? On one hand, I don't like being a "scab" and I'm more than happy to pay when required......but when is that? I feel uncomfortable in asking what "my" entitlements may be, but on the other hand, I'm not overjoyed to be paying out for what others class as "given benefits". Most of my travel budget is as a single, so I don't particularly feel bad, but I would like to know (if possible) if there is a set expectation, over and above the HH web site description (for example, I can't see the two free bottled waters, newspaper or the card from the GM, listed as HH gold or diamond benefits but most here seem to expect it)? Do we have to smile particularly nicely.......or scrowl particularly nastily..........or just arrive and carry on like we would as if we were expecting to pay and humbly accept any "unwritten" benefit as a perk?
For me, my recent pleasant experiences have over shaddowed my disasters at trying to book the HSW last year (numerous times) and I've now transferred my stays over to Hilton when I can (who knows, one day I might even try HSW again
). I will almost certainly achieve gold by BIB and perhaps (outside chance) of hitting diamond by BIB, so hopefully, this DJ/HH foray will work for all parties, but I'm prepared to put my cash toward rewarding Hilton for taking part.
For the record, out of four stays recently, I've recieved the free bottle water once, morning delivered paper four times and a hand written thank-you note from the GM once.
