Dear Hilton Hotel Sydney …
I had a very nice stay with you during my recent trip to Australia.
Sure, you were pretty expensive for basic things like Diet Coke and a packet of peanuts, but it was very nice … or should I say it was very nice until I checked my credit card bill and saw you had decided to sneakily charge me for an additional nights stay to the bill I had already paid.
And what did you do when I called you to question it?
You said I’d been charged because I was a ‘no show’, despite the fact you also acknowledged [1] I had already been in your hotel for a number of days and [2] I had checked out exactly when the booking said I would – which seems to be pretty good proof I WAS ACTUALLY THERE!!!
And what did you do when you heard this?
Did you go, “Oh so sorry sir, there must have been an error with our system, let me reimburse you right away”
No. You said it would take TEN DAYS to investigate and this shouldn’t be taken as an acceptance of liability.
Oh but hang on, there’s more.
You see rather than accept that there must be some sort of mistake, you then added that the only explanation must be that I “must have booked an additional night”.
Now listen here Hilton Hotel.
As much as I like throwing money away on stupid technology, even I wouldn’t rent another room in a hotel I was already staying in just because I could.
And even if by some weird quirk of fate, I had done, I sure as hell wouldn’t have ignored the checking in process because another room means more amenity packs to steal.
I find it amazing that a hotel chain that claims they want to ensure ‘all our guests have a memorable, personalised experience’ not only is reluctant to accept liability when they acknowledge I was already in their hotel as a guest, but wants to make me wait at least 10 days before they’ll think about reimbursing my credit card.
But there’s something worse.
Had I not seen the charge on my credit card, Hilton Hotel would have got away with this.
They didn’t call or email to tell me [1] about this charge or [2] that I had ‘failed to check in’ … they simply kept their head down so they could make a wrongful charge and hopefully get away with it.
As you know, I travel quite a lot until someone there not only reimburses me, but apologizes for the inconvenience they have caused, I definitely won’t be staying in one of their establishments again.
Of course, they probably won’t care especially because they’re probably of the view that if their business can survive after one of the founders family has been videoed fucking some sad, opportunist bastard on film, they can survive anything … and maybe that’s right, but I can assure them I’ll do all I can to try and make them take some sort of responsibility for their actions [or inaction], because this isn’t the behavior of a service industry, it’s the behavior of conmen.
Hilton Hotel. The battle is officially on.