How do Hilton treat you as an Elite?

[Deleted member 29185]

Property: HH CNS
Date: October 2015 (1st stay)
Status: Diamond
Booked: Hilton King room
Received: Hilton exec room (?) facing the building opposite, so no view.

Standard welcome note and two bottles of water. There was also a small jar of honey. On checkout I told them I don't eat honey, but there was one again the following stay.

Breakfast was just ok. Overcooked omelette, and a coffee tax. I declined the coffee, but was offered one without tax after I commented to the duty manager, although that did not seem to be standard practice.

That's the first time I can recall reading anyone post that H-CNS suggested the coffee tax. That's not a good sign. I must admit, if Brendon is on as duty manager, a barrister coffee is always offered (never yet with a tax), whereas some of the other staff have been lacking customer skills. One even said to my wife when she asked for a coffee "there a machine over there, you can make your own"! I'm quite sure it was not meant to be as rude as it appeared, as the machine was reasonably new and ladies English was not excellent, so I assumed it was meant more as a suggestion in case we didn't know the machine was there, but the look on my wife's face certainly brought a smile to mine! :mrgreen:

Property: DT CNS
Date: 15 October 2015
Status: Diamond
Booked: King room
Received: King room (7th floor)

From my limited experience of this hotel as a DT the upgrades were much more plentiful when it was a HI.

As HI is now back and operating in CNS, that might be an excellent bit of feedback to forward through to the DT manager. Let's face it, they're pretty much competing on a one for one basis and one of the things (IMHO) that better places the Hilton properties are the upgrades.

 

[Fifa]

Property: DT Cairns
Date: October 2015 - 3 stays
Status: Diamond
Booked: Double Double (cheaper than king when booking made) and King rooms
Received: Double Double and Kings (5th floor). On one of the evenings I booked two rooms and the king was downgraded to a double double - they would not give us a king as they said they had none despite checking in during the early afternoon. They did however reduce the room rate by $20 (but as per the DT guarantee they "did not make it right"). On our last evening we received an ocean view room with balcony.

On all three stays I had to ask for two bottles of water.
Fruit bowl delivered on stays 1 & 3 and two chocolates on stay 2.
Beware happy hour which offers 50% off the second drink. When presented with the docket for signing I queried the full price that was charged to be told coughtails are not included - there is no mention of this on the numerous flyers displayed around the hotel.

Still awaiting a reply regarding my experiences from the hotel's GM (after over 56 hours).

 

[blackcat20]

Property: DT CNS
Date: 15 October 2015
Status: Diamond
Booked: King room
Received: King room (7th floor)

Two bottles of water.

No balcony or real view. From my limited experience of this hotel as a DT the upgrades were much more plentiful when it was a HI.

They had no suites for sale, so no upgrades.

Found it strange that online check in offered me double double rooms when I booked a king; had to hunt one down.

And barrista coffee??? No one offered such a thing to us on either morning.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

May find that such an influx of HH WDs () and SGs had H-CNS and DT-CNS panicking how to supply the upgrades! Admittedly, not having the water is a fail as that should not be even an issue. I noted a few stays ago, I had no water in the room at H-CNS, which is a huge change from a couple of years ago (even a year ago) where multiple bottles of water were supplied at numerous times during the day (room make-up, minibar check and turn down).

I have noticed H-CNS to be running at higher occupancies as well. I have no idea why.

 

[boomy]

Status: Diamond
Property: Hilton CNS
Booked: King Guestroom
Received: Double Executive (changed online to King Executive corner room)

Room been upgraded couple of days before arrival so that's a positive but for some reason the upgrade was to double bed room although plenty King beds were available for selection online.

The 9th floor (lounge floor) was packed with AFFers but no one managed to score any suites (neither at DT I believe), that's a low record considering the high number of diamonds staying in both properties.

In the room found 4 bottles of water (next day reduced to 2 bottles) and small honey jar to take home. The lounge Angels were all nice and very patient with our noisy group. They kept offering us booze which we gladly accepted every time

I did have one incident at check out when found that someone charged their lunchtime drinks to my room on the day I checked in. Luckily the hotel found the receipt. Room number was the same but signature completely different. The charge was eventually waived but no apology from the staff tho which I found a bit strange as it was clearly the hotel's mistake.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Status: Diamond
Property: Hilton CNS
Booked: King Guestroom
Received: Double Executive (changed online to King Executive corner room)


The 9th floor (lounge floor) was packed with AFFers but no one managed to score any suites

I'm pretty confident that's a hotel specific policy. I have had the spa suite as an upgrade (once or maybe twice) but never the Premier suite. I have the feeling they very specifically do that and will only release a suite upgrade if they have absolutely no other option.

BTW....great to read all the CNS reports. They're always good to read. If any of you CNS travellers hired a car whilst there, I'd really love to read of your experiences....particularly with Europcar or Hertz.!
Car Hire, Taxis and Limos

 

[$CJ]

BTW....great to read all the CNS reports.

Love the Cairns.

OTOH, 20+ stays in Sydney, not a single upgrade as diamond or gold; except the one time I complained on Tripadvisor.

...Or maybe I am receiving invisible upgrades like when Hertz "upgrades" me to an identical car with a boot instead of a hatch.

 

[Aeolus]

Status: Diamond
Property: Hilton CNS
Booked: King Guestroom
Received: King Executive

Thought I should ask for a corner room on the other side (suites) since Boomy and Serfty have taken 01 and 40. Was told they were all occupied (even ones on lower floors - find that a bit hard to believe). H-CNS and DT-CNS are definitely the least generous in terms of upgrades. Considering their usual visitors are one time tourists, I figured they don't value returned guests as highly. Managed to have a sneak peak of the biggest suite (room 930) as someone was having a private wedding dinner there on Sat night. The staff thought I was one of the guest and offered champagne, on second thought, I should have taken the champagne then inform them I was only snooping around.

On another note, has anyone received their HH points for last weekend's stay yet?

 

[kpc]

Managed to have a sneak peak of the biggest suite (room 930) as someone was having a private wedding dinner there on Sat night

Sticky Beat ...but you weren't the only one!

On another note, has anyone received their HH points for last weekend's stay yet?

Yes, got mine and I checked out a day after you!

 

[blackcat20]

On another note, has anyone received their HH points for last weekend's stay yet?

My DT points have come through. Quite a decent haul with the promos.

 

[froggerADL]

On another note, has anyone received their HH points for last weekend's stay yet?

Yes, I got 13,500 HH points + 1320 QFF points for $500 spend. Still waiting for my 2 * Amex $50 rebates . Happy with that.

 

[blackcat20]

Yes, I got 13,500 HH points + 1320 QFF points for $500 spend. Still waiting for my 2 * Amex $50 rebates . Happy with that.

8351 points and 780 miles for $260. Thought that was pretty decent.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

Managed to have a sneak peak of the biggest suite (room 930)

If you're around at the end of November, I have it booked so happy to show it (I'd even offer you a glass or two of champers)! I really like 930 even though the décor leaves a bit to be desired, I love the view, the size and the convenience. The ensuite bathroom is huuuuge. It must be easily the size of a standard H-CNS room and it's actually priced pretty reasonably, so I can understand them not wanting to upgrade anyone into that suite as it does get booked often.

 

[Fifa]

Property: Hilton Cairns
Date: October 2015 - 3 stays
Status: Diamond
Booked: King Guestroom
Received: King Executive

2 bottles of water (plus more at turndown one night) each stay.
Little jar of local honey and welcome card. On 2 of the stays I also received a 500ml bottle of sparkling Mt Franklin water.
The wifi at this hotel is abysmal and they do not have an port in the room to plug in a travel wifi router (unlike the DT).
We stayed on different sides of the hotel each time and I really liked the corner room (901).

I might add that my +1 is relieved that the 6 night mattress run is over! But what a great opportunity to maintain Diamond at a very reasonable cost .

 

[froggerADL]

8351 points and780 miles for $260. Thought that was pretty decent.

How did you manage that? I thought I had the best deal going!

 

[Aeolus]

Bugger! Looks like I'm the only one not getting the points nor the jar of honey! *feeling ripped off*

 

[kpc]

Bugger! Looks like I'm the only one not getting the points nor the jar of honey! *feeling ripped off*

If it makes you feel any better, I did not get a jar of honey either...all i got was a bottle of sparkling water and some dark chocolate coffee grounds thingy, both of which I hate.

 

[blackcat20]

How did you manage that? I thought I had the best deal going!

The triple/quadruple weekend points offer.

No Freebies here at all, no water, chocolates or honey

 

[serfty]

8351 points and 780 miles for $260. Thought that was pretty decent.

Pretty good return - my Hilton stay earned 6708 HH & 326 Velocity for an AUD247 (which devolved to USD163).

All up over my 4 stay weekend I earned over 20K HHonors.

 

[JessicaTam]

Three nights (2x HH, 1x DT) earned 15,897 points and 367 miles. Happy!