Hotel Reservation Problem

[at the beach]

I need to alert you to some issues involving the hotel reservations. This SUNI will be a 5-day event, with most participants arriving on September 13 and departing on Saturday morning, the 18th. However the hotel’s reservation page for our discounted stay (which for us will include a hot breakfast buffet) defaults to only a 4-night stay with checkout on Friday morning. That’s probably not what you want. You may need to change your checkout day!

And there are other problems with that website that you should be aware of. While we are allowed to keep our event discount if we either arrive early or stay longer, some have had difficulty adjusting these dates. Others have not.

Also the website seems to like to “lose” our Sunbeam discount page. Some have been on the Sunbeam page and then opened another page on that same tab and discovered that backing up displayed a different hotel page with different rates. (And the displayed page was not associated with our room block.) Since the SUNI Event has committed to using a certain number of rooms we really need all attendees to book their rooms through our Sunbeam event page for us to get credit. If we fail to meet our room commitment we have to pay for any unused rooms.)

I just followed the link below and was able to easily change either the arrival date or the checkout date without a problem. However I did so before I moved to the second step in their reservation process so I avoid having to back up.

link to hotel's SUNI reservation page http://bit.ly/SUNIhotel

 

[65beam]

I need to alert you to some issues involving the hotel reservations. This SUNI will be a 5-day event, with most participants arriving on September 13 and departing on Saturday morning, the 18th. However the hotel’s reservation page for our discounted stay (which for us will include a hot breakfast buffet) defaults to only a 4-night stay with checkout on Friday morning. That’s probably not what you want. You may need to change your checkout day!

And there are other problems with that website that you should be aware of. While we are allowed to keep our event discount if we either arrive early or stay longer, some have had difficulty adjusting these dates. Others have not.

Also the website seems to like to “lose” our Sunbeam discount page. Some have been on the Sunbeam page and then opened another page on that same tab and discovered that backing up displayed a different hotel page with different rates. (And the displayed page was not associated with our room block.) Since the SUNI Event has committed to using a certain number of rooms we really need all attendees to book their rooms through our Sunbeam event page for us to get credit. If we fail to meet our room commitment we have to pay for any unused rooms.)

link to hotel's SUNI reservation page http://bit.ly/SUNIho

Buck,
Can't folks call the hotel at 816-350-3000 and make reservations? They'll e mail the confirmation number and other info pertaining to your reservation. You still get the SUNI rate by doing this.

 

[at the beach]

Attendees certainly can try to use that phone number however I was told by one person today he was on hold for over a half hour. But you're right. He finally got it corrected. And he's properly credited to our room block so he and his wife will each receive the included breakfast buffet.

I just received an email from a person who just successfully registered at the hotel but confirmed the bugs described above still exist. The problem is not at the local hotel in Independence. Some is a problem with Hilton's reservation software so it might take a bit for them to get things straightened out. We told them them about the backing up bug days ago and they have passed the complaints on. Now we all either wait or just work around it.

 

[at the beach]

I just tried the reservation site again. It's now more messed up than ever!!

 

[at the beach]

The hotel's sales manager texted Claudia tonight that "corporate" is working to fix their programming problem.
I just checked and it's the same as it was in my last post. Maybe tomorrow.
Meanwhile we've already received 28 registrations for SUNI participants!

 

[canbeam]

I reserved on Wednesday evening and it went as smooth as silk. Changed the last day to Saturday, King bed, right price of $109 each day, they gave me a reservation number and sent a follow up email confirming the reservation. Got lucky I guess. I got worried by the posts so just double checked, and it looks good to me. They say in the notice the Rate Notice is Sunbeams, but don't specifically mention breakfast, but maybe all rooms include that. They do mention a simplified breakfast at the moment.

 

[theo_s]

I just checked and it still looks broken. You get four nights at $109, but if you select the extra night it says "your rate is not available" and it's at least 129 a night.

Update: I fixed my situation, at least temporarily, by making the default booking for Mon-Fri and then a separate booking for Fri-Sat. It ends up being cheaper than doing the five nights in one booking, and there's no ambiguity about whether we're in the SUNI block booking for the weekdays. I'll just plead my case at checkin for a rate adjustment on the last night, assuming things don't get straightened out before then.

 

[65beam]

Attendees certainly can try to use that phone number however I was told by one person today he was on hold for over a half hour. But you're right. He finally got it corrected. And he's properly credited to our room block so he and his wife will each receive the included breakfast buffet.

I just received an email from a person who just successfully registered at the hotel but confirmed the bugs described above still exist. The problem is not at the local hotel in Independence. Some is a problem with Hilton's reservation software so it might take a bit for them to get things straightened out. We told them them about the backing up bug days ago and they have passed the complaints on. Now we all either wait or just work around it.

The number I posted takes you to the hotel front desk. They'll make your reservation. There is another number shown that probably takes you to central reservations for Hilton or to one of the booking sites acting as a middle man. Odds are you'll be on hold for awhile.

 

[at the beach]

I think Bob makes good sense by suggesting calling the hotel's front desk ((816) 350-3000) to make your reservations , bypassing the Hilton website that is still messed up as of this morning.
I suppose a middle ground alternative could be to book the 4 days on the Hilton site and then phone the hotel's front desk to add the fifth and nights.

 

[at the beach]

I find it incredibly hard to believe but I checked Hilton's reservation website for our Sunbeam event two minutes ago and it is still messed up:
A. you can book 4 nights, arriving 13th and checking out on Friday the 17th with no problem.
B. can add the Sunday to arrive a day early and have 5 nights but still with check out on Friday, also with no problem
To do anything else does not seem to work.

FYI, I used the link the hotel sales department gave us https://www.hilton.com/en/book/rese...TONLINK,en,DirectLink&fromId=HILTONLINKDIRECT

Since the Hilton corporate website is what is screwed up, it seems a waste to call their corporate number with any hopes of a satisfactory outcome.
If someone wants to actually accomplish something, it's probably better to call directly to the Independence hotel's front desk at (816) 350-3000.

Until this gets straightened out, I have been advising all to just book the 4 or 5 days as I described above. Then, once things are OK, we can tack on a day or two later.

My nightmare is that some people may accidentally book in a way that the SUNI event doesn't get credited for their room nights.

Good Luck! (I have a feeling we all will need it)

Update Tuesday AM: The website page for our event still defaults to a Friday checkout and won't let you change it. However it will allow you to add one or two days prior to the default Monday arrival.

 

[TAH_Tiger]

This worked for me.... Sign up for Hilton Honors. Then go into your new account and add one day. It gets added at the $109 rate.

 

[at the beach]

The website is certainly behaving better now. Better but not perfect.
I just checked and while it still defaulted to the 4-days with the Friday checkout I could now update it to add Friday night. So progress! (They are still working on adding days before and after the event at our discounted rate.)
And as a gesture of apology for the inconvenience, they have dropped the nightly rate from $109 to $105 for our entire group, even those that had already obtained a reservation. Not bad?
I expect the hotel will continue improving our site throughout the afternoon.

 

[at the beach]

The Hilton reservation website seems to be working better now but it still defaults to a 4 day stay. However you can now "edit your stay" to add Friday night plus you can edit for an earlier arrival or an even longer stay.
The Independence hotel's front desk is (816) 350-3000 however you may experience a very long wait "on hold".
Over 1/3 of our rooms have already been reserved.
So far over 50 participants have already registered for the SUNI. see https://sunbeamsunited.com/registration/

 

[whiskytangofoxtrot]

Has anyone else checked out the reviews of our hotel? I have never seen a Hilton property ring in that badly. People on Trip advisor and booking dot com are ripping it apart

 

[65beam]

Has anyone else checked out the reviews of our hotel? I have never seen a Hilton property ring in that badly. People on Trip advisor and booking dot com are ripping it apart

Hotels are suffering from the same problem that all businesses have. They can't find employees. That means normal service lags behind and has for the last year. I have a life long friend that owns several hotels under a few chain names. Ask one of his hotel G.M.'s what their occupancy rate has been for the last year. Many hotels have rooms that haven't been rented for months so they're not checked on a regular basis. There's no one to do it. A few weeks back we were at the Import Festival and swap meet in Carlisle, Pa. and hotels were high occupancy so I'm sure problems cropped up. When we checked in on Thursday we were told that they were short employees which means service could lag behind and asked us to bear with them and be patient. Folks are moving again and things will get better. Fingers crossed!

 

[whiskytangofoxtrot]

Thanks Bob, fingers crossed