A Travel Lesson Learned

I put on a dealer up in Dickinson, ND over three years ago, Blue Hawk Audio Video.  The owner, Mike Wilkinson, told me that if I came up to see him once a year, he'd buy product from me.  I agreed to do that and while he's not a huge dealer, they do enough business to warrant an annual trip up to see the store.  Plus the fact that Mike and his guys are great people.  Being that Dickinson is an 11 hour trip - one-way - from Davenport, and they're 60 miles from the Montana border, if they didn't do the business and weren't such great guys, I would have shit-canned them a long time ago. 

With that said, I agreed to do a product training on Focal loudspeakers for them on my next visit, along with taking the crew out to dinner afterward.  Given that Dickinson doesn't have any "high-end" restaurants, it was going to likely be sandwiches, appetizers and beer.  I knew that it would be a late night and I made reservations at the Holiday Inn Express in Dickinson. 

Now, I usually go for Hilton properties (Hampton Inn, Hilton Garden Inn, etc.) first as I have well over 600,000 Hilton Honors points and am a Hilton Diamond V.I.P. member (the top tier of Hilton frequent traveler membership).  If a Hilton property is not available in the area, I'll then opt for a Marriott property (Courtyard, Spring Hill Suites, etc.).  If neither a Hilton or Marriott property is available, the third choice are Holiday Inns.  Dickinson does not have a Hilton or Marriott property, so I went with the Holiday Inn Express. 

After a very quick trip across the state from Fargo, I pulled into Dickinson at 6:15 Mountain Daylight Time.  (My territory is so huge, I have dealers in three different time zones.)  I drove into the parking lot at the Holiday Inn Express to get my room.  I went to the front desk and I gave the desk clerk my name.  He fumbled around for a bit, then went to his computer.  He said, "Ah, yes.  Here you are.   We have you coming in tomorrow night and, unfortunately, we are sold out for tonight.  And, also unfortunately, many of the other hotels in the area are also sold out." 

He offered to call a couple of hotels that he had not heard from that evening to see if they had any rooms.  He called two and both were sold out.  He said, "I don't quite understand what the deal is.  It's a Wednesday night and this is Dickinson.  There must be something going on in the area." 

He finally called a place that was across the interstate from the Holiday Inn - a hotel that I'm not even going to name because it will be disparaged at later points in this post.  He said, "They have rooms over there.  Do you want me to transfer your reservation over there?"

I told him I'd just go over and get the room on my own.  Instead, I took my bags back out to my car and drove over to Blue Hawk Audio.  As I pulled out of the Holiday Inn parking lot, I noticed a sign in front of an empty lot across the street from the hotel.  It said, "Coming soon - Hampton Inn".  A lot of good it was going to do me then. 

I went over to Blue Hawk and told Mike that I screwed up on the date of the reservation and that I was having trouble finding a room.   I told him, "I guess I can get a room at the (hotel name deleted).  Is that a nice place?"

One of Mike's guys, Jens, immediately piped up, "The Crack House Hotel?  No, man.  You don't wanna stay out there." 

Mike called a couple of the other - and nicer - hotels explaining to them that he had a good friend who needed a room for the evening.  Neither of them could help us out.  The closest hotel is 100 miles away in Bismarck.  I was going to go to Bismarck the next day to visit one of my dealers there.  I just decided to head back there that night after dinner.  It would be a late arrival, but at least I'd have a hotel room.  

I made reservations on my computer for the Hampton Inn in Bismarck, a nice hotel that I've stayed at before.  I got a confirmation number and that was that.  I did the training, we went out for a casual dinner and a few beers at an Applebee's (which, according to the guys at Blue Hawk Audio, is the best place to eat in town), then I drove to Bismarck.  I left a little after 11 p.m. Dickinson time.  About 30 miles to the east of Dickinson, you go back into the Central Time Zone.  Suddenly, it went from 11:20 p.m. to 12:20 a.m.  

I rolled into the Hampton Inn in Bismarck around 1:40 in the morning.  It had been a long day that started at 9 a.m. in St. Cloud, MN, gone on to Fargo, then out to Dickinson and back to Bismarck - a total of 575 miles driven.  I gathered my bags out of the trunk and walked into the lobby.  A young guy was sitting on one of the sofas in the lobby and he popped up and greeted me.  I said, "I have a reservation."  

He got behind the desk and said, "Well, I'm sorry to tell you that when your reservation came in, we had neglected to tell the Hilton reservations desk that we had actually oversold for the evening."

I was like, "What?"

He said, "Yes, I'm sorry.  But we had overbooked our hotel for the evening and we forgot to contact the Hilton reservation desk to tell them.  They still thought we had rooms.  We tried to contact you, but we couldn't get hold of you."

I said, "Wait a minute.  I had a reservation confirmation!"

He said, "Yes, sir.  I know that, but it was definitely our fault in not contacting Hilton and letting them know we were sold out for the evening."  

He explained to me that I had a room at a Country Inns and Suites, just around the corner.  He apologized to me and I trudged out the door to deposit my bags back into the trunk, get in the car and drive a half mile to the other hotel.  It was about 1:50 in the morning by the time I got there.  The lady behind the desk said, "You're my last one.  Can I put you down for a wake up call?"

Nope, I'm sleeping in.  

When I got up the next morning, I checked my voice messages back in my office.  Sure enough, there was a message from a lady from the Bismarck Hampton Inn.  She explained the same thing that the night desk clerk told me just hours before when I went to check in.  She told me that they did have a room for me at the Country Inns and Suites and to just go over there.  Well, while I check my office voice mail a minimum of three times a day while I'm on the road, I never check it after 6 p.m., but will check it first thing in the morning.  Yes, she made an attempt to contact me.  But I then figured out that I needed to have my cell phone listed in my Hilton profile - not my office phone. 

Although the Country Inns and Suites wasn't all that bad, I had just missed out on garnering more Hilton Honors points that are eventually going toward a vacation that Cindy and I are going to take next year to Hawaii.  I have enough points for us to stay nearly two weeks for free in Hilton properties in Hawaii.  And I have enough American Airlines points for us to fly round-trip for free, as well.   

I got on the Hilton Honors site and went to their customer service page.  I wrote a short letter via e-mail to them explaining that I had a reservation confirmation, but was told that the hotel was overbooked on my arrival.  I thought under the circumstances that I should still get the points for the stay.  I thought it was a reasonable request and didn't think more of it. 

A week went by and I finally got a reply from Hilton.  They said they were looking into the matter and that they would be in touch shortly. 

It wasn't any more than a couple hours later and I got this e-mail from the General Manager of the Bismarck Hampton Inn:

My name is Cheryl Dressler and I am the General Manager of the Hampton Inn in Bismarck, ND.  Your experience at the Hampton Inn of Bismarck is not ordinary and certainly not acceptable by my standards.  The Front Desk agent that handled this has been reprimanded and one more occurrence and she will not be employed her (sp) any longer.

I am awarding you more points than you would have received should you have stayed with us.  Again, please accept my apologies and we hope this never happens again.

Regards,

Cheryl Dressler, GM

Bismarck Hampton Inn

I immediately thought, "Wow!  That's nice."  Then I re-read the letter.  I thought, "Wow, that's kind of harsh for that girl who called me on my office line."  Really, it was sort of my fault, as well.  I should have had my cell phone be my primary telephone contact with Hilton.  (It is now, along with Marriott and Holiday Inn.) 

I felt compelled to write back to the Bismarck G.M:

Hello, Cheryl!

 

First of all, I'm not looking to get anyone fired over this.  I have my office number listed as my "go-to" number in my profile and it's probably just as much my fault as anything that she contacted my office number to explain the situation.  As I said in the communication to Hilton Honors, I usually don't check my office phone voice mail after 6 p.m. when I'm on the road.  I'll be changing my contact number to my cell phone on my profile.

 

With that said, all I was asking was an opportunity to get my points for a stay that I thought I was going to have at your hotel.  I thought it was a fair and reasonable request given that I did have a confirmation number and up until the time that I went to check in, I thought I had a room there.  I've stayed at your hotel in the past and there's a good chance I'll stay there again during my annual trip to North Dakota. 

 

I appreciate your kind gesture and thank you for your consideration. 

 

My best regards,

 

It came to pass a few days later that I happened to look up my points on Hilton Honors and I saw that I did, indeed, get my points from the Bismarck Hampton Inn.  However, I didn't get anything extra as she promised.  I do get my base points, then as a Hilton Diamond member I receive a 50% bonus on the points (1.5 points).  And for some reason, I also receive ANOTHER 50% in Hilton points (I haven't quite been able to figure that out, but I'm not complaining).  So for each stay at a Hilton property I receive, basically, double points.  That's exactly what I received for NOT staying at the Hampton Inn, even though she said she was going to add more. 

 

That's OK, though.  All of this wouldn't have started without me screwing up in the first place and making the reservation for the wrong day in Dickinson.  While I wasn't looking for any heads to roll in this matter, I was thoroughly happy with the way Hilton resolved the foul-up in Bismarck.  This is just another reason why I like to stay in Hilton properties first and foremost.  And once I use up our points next year for our trip to Hawaii, I'll probably continue to stay in Hilton properties as I travel.