We were excited for our Chicago holiday getaway. Hilton Downtown Chicago is in an ideal location: an easy walk through Grant Park to the museum district, a brisk jaunt up Michigan Ave to Millennium Park, the Art Institute, and the Golden Mile. Everything is in easy reach. Heck, even the Thanksgiving Parade was just a block away. Anything further is an easy Uber from this location.
Given our travel schedule, we had to make a last minute change and extend our visit by one more day on the front end of our trip. A glance at the Hilton app suggested that we couldn’t add another nite to the room we had booked, so I gave the hotel reservations number a call. Sometimes it helps to speak with a real person, and working in tech, I know that for all the convenience in apps…sometimes they don’t always reflect all the options available.
The guy who answered the reservation desk was absolutely awesome. He sounded like it was his life’s mission to make sure we had a great stay. He trawled through his system and said it looked like the sticking point was the double queen beds we needed. He had options for us if we could switch to a room with two double-beds….
I checked in with the decision maker, and alas, the wife was adament: we were traveling with a kid and two Queen beds were necessary.
The reservations guy heard my wife’s concern through the phone and asked me to hold on again while he checked for other options.
Wouldn’t you know it, he found something!
He thought it would be a truly special room for us…had the two Queen beds, was on a high floor with a great view of the lake, and even had two bathrooms! He checked with his leadership and was able to offer the room to us. Of course we were excited, and we told him that he could go ahead and confirm. We thanked him, wished him a Happy Thanksgiving, and hung up.
My wife was incredibly excited. We were all feeling great. It was our first vacation as a family in quite some time, and it felt like we were being catered to by Hilton.
Well, when we drove in to Chicago and checked in at the hotel, our room wasn’t ready (it was past check in time by a few minutes). The front desk clerk asked if we could wait in the lobby until the room was cleaned. “No problem,” I thought. “They are giving us something quite special, I don’t mind being flexible at all!” I told her we’d be glad to wait, and she checked us in, gave us key cards, and said she’d text us the room number when it was ready.
So we waited. And had a fine time. If you’ve never been, the Hilton Downtown Chicago is a grand hotel, and the first floor is massive. There are plenty of cozy nooks to sit and talk, fireplaces to sit beside, restaurants, food options, beverage options. Waiting for our room felt like a vacation in and of itself.
Except an hour later, we still hadn’t gotten a text and our five year old was getting antsy.
I wondered if they sent our room number to the wrong phone, and went to the desk to check.
The desk clerk checked for us…eyebrow raised, and said, “Uh no. That room is not yet ready…I’m going to put you in another room. “
“We don’t mind waiting!” I began… “We were told it was quite a special room. We’d be glad to hang out a little longer…”
But she was already pecking away at her computer. She said something polite, but made it clear that we wouldn’t be getting the room we thought we were.
“Oh well,” I thought to myself. “We’re still going to have a great time…” I took my newly minted room keys, and my family followed the instructions to find our new abode.
It was a large room. Had great views. One bathroom. …and two Double beds. At least I thought they were doubles.
“Don’t these look small?” my wife asked?
“Uhhhh…yeah, there’s no way these are Queens,” I said, laying down on one and comparing lack of space to the relative abundance of our Queen bed at home.
At that point I got a text from Hilton asking how we liked our room and enquiring if everything was ok. “Welcome to Hilton Chicago, Mr. XXXX. Thank you for being a valued Hilton Honors Member. How is everything with your room?”
“Thanks XXX. It’s a lovely room, but we asked for two Queen beds and had a room with that reserved that we were waiting for. It got switched on check-in apparently.”
There was a brief delay. I imagined staff pecking away at computers, trying to figure out what went wrong. Then my phone buzzed again. A new text.
“It looks like you are in a room with two queen beds now.”
I looked from my phone to the lack of familiar empty space to my side. “Hmmm…. It’s been a long day so I could be wrong, but these seem like doubles in 2129.” I paused my typing. I didn’t want to be THAT guy…. You know the one who is hung up on nothing, or makes a mountain out of a mole hill. So I continued with my text, “Now my wife and I are both second guessing ourselves. Apologies if I got it wrong.”
I wanted to make sure there was room for mistake on our end as well as theirs. “Maybe,” I thought, “there’s something called a ‘microqueen’ that we didn’t (or don’t) know about.
I checked the mattress labels…. They didn’t mention the size. Wife and daughter laid down on the other bed. “Nope. There’s no way…” wife said. Our daughter even said it was smaller than her double. But she’s five. Sometimes she just says things because.
We moved on. I expected a followup text from Hilton as we continued unpacking and freshening up.
But it never came. They didn’t respond to the thread.
In the end, we still had a great room, with a great view, on an executive floor no less. I felt a slight twinge wondering what room we might have had, and when I asked my wife if we could make the beds work, she took it all in and said we could.
And We did. We had a pretty terrific vacation. Kiddo loved the pool, the daily expeditions in the great big city, and how the staff made us all feel special. The decorated tree and the gingerbread cityscape were amazing, especially when viewed through the eyes of a five year old.
So where am I going with all this?
Well, I suppose I’d like to share that Hilton Downtown Chicago is a special place. The staff seem pretty terrific all in all. We got a great room, but had a little hiccup on the beds (I still can’t believe those are Queens. I want to measure them. :P. ).
One thing stands out that’s worth considering:
It seems like a (very small) misstep for anyone in the hospitality industry to leave a conversation like the one we started over SMS unresolved. I’m not sure what exactly I was expecting.
“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry…. All we had open were doubles, but I made sure to put you in the best room we had” would have been fine. Even, “You know what? I’m 99% sure you have queen beds in that room, but I’m going to have housecleaning confirm tomorrow and get back to you” would have been fine. What seemed a little off brand was the lack of a response.
Is it a huge deal? No. We’ll still return to Hilton. We’ll still recommend others do too. If anything, I’d just recommend that Hilton keep investing in training and consider how to handle questions and concerns over SMS. Hilton, you’ve built a great brand. Part of what we love is that you always make us feel special. In this context only do the small inconsistencies stand out.