A LoyaltyLobby reader dropped us a note about Hilton closing an Honors account claiming excess compensation.
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Here’s the email from the reader:
We received email last night that Hilton had done 24 month review and closed our account. We had a huge amount of points in it as we are rewarded through expenditure on another facility and was also rewarded some compensation from a few bad experiences we had incurred. One of which we lost nearly £2000 in having our car broke into after using their secure parking and checking in to find our car smashed up.
With England in lockdown for the past 12months how could we spend anything. Is this completely outrageous.?
Would appreciate your thoughts.
I asked where a large number of points came from:
Points come from a card account which give you gold membership if you spend a Hugh amount and also compensation from a few bad experiences we had received.
A reader received the same boilerplate email from Honors we have seen previously:
Hilton is committed to providing our guests with rewarding experiences, high quality accommodations, friendly and efficient services, along with clean and comfortable surroundings, backed by our commitment to guest satisfaction.
Regrettably, your comments/complaints indicate that your stays, and/or contact with our corporate offices, have been less than agreeable. Our offices, Guest Assistance, Corporate Headquarter and/or hotels have issued refunds and/or points in support of our commitment to you – our guest.
Based on the amount of compensation that has been extended to you against the total revenue spent at our hotels within the last 24 months, our consistent inability to live up to your expectations is very concerning to us. We do not believe that the Hilton Portfolio of Brands is designed to meet your travel needs. For this reason, we recommend that you seek accommodations at a different hotel chain for future travels to avoid this type of inconvenience.
Given these circumstances, the decision has been made to close your Hilton Honors account and there will be no further compensation offered to you in the form of refunds, points, and/or stay certificates.
Such discontinued membership may result in the loss of all accumulated Points and the cancellation of Hilton Honors Certificates, benefits and privileges, including the loss of any associated Elite Tier status.
Finally, nothing in this letter shall be deemed a waiver of any rights or remedies available to Hilton, Inc. or any of our affiliates, all of which are hereby expressly reserved.
Here’s what I believe is going based on this and previous account closure cases we have covered:
1. Mostly award stays
Hilton compensates hotels very little for award stays unless they are at very high occupancy.
2. Few complaints with points awarded
Hilton tends to value compensation points with full price
3. Searching for accounts with little revenue and compensation awarded
Hilton must have an automated process looking for accounts with very little revenue and compensation points awarded for service and quality issues.
Here are two previous cases:
Compensation Clinic Disaster: How To Get Your Account(s) Closed – Case: Hilton Honors
Conclusion
There are too many consistencies on these cases that we have covered for them to be anomalies.
If someone is always genuinely unhappy with most of their stays, it makes sense to move to some other chain or hotels that can better suit their needs and is not an issue for Hilton to nudge a bit.
These account closures really only affect members who mostly stay on points/vouchers and have compensation points issued for service failures.
I don’t believe that if you have a normal stay pattern with Hilton and a complaint or two here and there, you need to be worried.
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I have close to a million points. This after having used some for couple vacations.
I have been compensated twice in last 24 months. For a total of 60000 points.
I complained maybe 3 times in last 24 months.
I had about 95 stays in last 24 months. Thanks covid for that.
What did you complain about? If you don’t mind me asking
1) Toilet started backing up at 2 in the morning.
2) Was given a dirty room irrelevant to my selections as regards location, etc.
3) air conditioning stopped working middle of the night and was not fixed the next 2 days.
At a Hilton in NYC, 3 am in morning, I had an experience with no water in room. The front room receptionist, exchanged the room. No water in the exchanged room either. He said it was a problem with water pump. He suggested going down to basement, as the water should be running there… No water there to brush teeth. This guy gave me a few mineral water bottles… help yourself… Plumber is going to arrive at 7 am… I thought to myself… this guy is going to have a tough time in the morning when everyone wakes up at 6 am… I think that he suggested I ask for a night to be comped… . I think that asking for points or compensation when there are significant (even unexpected) service issues are legitimate reasons…
Before passing judgement I would need to see a history of the account. As posted neither side makes sense.
Yes, this is poorly written, the emails providing information on the closed account are poorly written, and there isn’t enough of a record of what the compensations and reward expenditures were to draw any conclusions.
the emails were way better written than John writing very confusing things like:
“2. Few complaints with points awarded
Hilton tends to value compensation points with full price”
what is a compensation point with full price? why does hilton value these? compared to what?
Kinda depends on what “compensation from a few bad experiences we had received” actually amounts to.
If it is 3 or 4 complaints over 2 years, this seems way too harsh. If it is e.g. 12 complaints out of 15 stays, then yeah it would suggest that the member was probably abusing the complaint process. I doubt we would ever know the exact truth behind this.
It is definitely possible that Hilton over-reacted here but it is also possible that the member is downplaying how much they actually complained.
LOL this letter from Hilton reminds me of that time Larry David annoyed the Japanese restauranteur because of his emphasis on the importance of securing takeout bags so the restauranteur politely tells him that there are other Japanese restaurants 😂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OruAO8R5B-I
LOL this letter from Hilton reminds me of that time Larry David annoyed the Japanese restauranteur because of his emphasis on the importance of securing takeout bags so the restauranteur politely tells him that there are other Japanese restaurants 😂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OruAO8R5B-I
I feel a better intermediate step for Hilton would simply be revoking any sort of guarantees or compensation to those who they feel have been abusing it. Send out a simple letter that says that while the person is welcome to stay at Hilton hotels, the Hilton experience does not appear to line up with the customer’s expectations, there will be no further compensation, and the customer is welcome to try other companies.
Put a note in the customer’s profile for hotels to see, and if the customer continues to demand compensation for minor items, then toss them out.
I work for a Hilton property and yes, Honors accounts can absolutely be closed. There is a system of accountability with Hilton that monitors chronic complainers. We can also report complainers from property level and have them monitored. It takes a LOT more than two complaints to get dropped though! Think about it this way, Hilton and it’s family of brands are in the business of profit like any other business. It stands to reason that if a guest costs more than they’re worth then why would Hilton want them? There truly is a segment of the population who has discovered if they complain they can get points. They work the system at every single hotel they stay at. Those professional scammers get dropped and sometimes even banned. Then there are just the everyday complainers, people who are just unreasonable but not scammers. They can get dropped too depending on how much compensation they are demanding. And lastly there are guests with real and fair complaints. They are the ones compensation is intended for. There will sometimes be failings and Hilton wants to make it right with those guests. It’s a good company! And honestly? I don’t blame Hilton one bit for protecting themselves from scammers. Do you think points (compensation) is free? Points are paid in real money by the property that gives them to you. So to anyone reading this, be honest & reasonable with complaints, don’t act belligerent, and know that we are watching at every property every time and will report you if necessary. This is my opinion from personal experience. I’m not authorized to speak for Hilton.
Very interesting and unfortunate that people take advantage. I am an elite member with Marriott I really don’t stay at Hilton any more because it made more sense to have higher loyalty with one program. However, rarely have I ever had to complain and when I do it is to make the hotel aware of the issue not to gain points or free nights. Also, when I book a stay with points I almost always do partial payment and points. This is a win-win, I am getting a room for a better rate because of the points and the hotel is still making revenue. Also, I have found when I do this I am much more likely to upgraded because of status. So stop the scammers. Also I suspect that people use credit cards only to try and earn status and points and redeem the points for stays. While rarely paying for stays.
Agree, but for, “I suspect that people use credit cards only to try and earn status and points and redeem the points for stays. While rarely paying for stays.” I believe that is way off, incorrect; but even if it was correct, the points that make their way to the member accounts were bought and paid for by the CC company to the lodging chain.
So people play by the rules and should get penalized for using their points? There’s a HUGE difference between scammers and constant complainers and people who just try and get rewards points and status through travel credit cards! If Hilton doesn’t like this they can always change their rules!
Very well said
” Hilton and it’s family of brands are in the business of profit like any other business. It stands to reason that if a guest costs more than they’re worth then why would Hilton want them? There truly is a segment of the population who has discovered if they complain they can get points. They work the system at every single hotel they stay at. Those professional scammers get dropped and sometimes even banned. Then there are just the everyday complainers, people who are just unreasonable but not scammers. They can get dropped too depending on how much compensation they are demanding. And lastly there are guests with real and fair complaints. They are the ones compensation is intended for.”
Very well said.
I am afraid the Compensation Clinic favors the development of professional scammers and everyday complainers.
“A LoyaltyLobby reader”. Come on, John, be honest, we all know it was a LoyaltyLobby writer, Sebastian, who received this letter about excess compensation. 😂
LOL I was *immediately* thinking the exact thing !
that time in Afrika they knocked on his door even though he had the DND was REALLY bad bru… REALLY REALLY bad.
Lol Hilton found a way to thwart serial compensation scammers. Lets be honest That’s what it is. Folks figured out how to complain and get free stuff and abuse the loophole. Luckily Hilton was smart to review individual accounts and not inadvertently give legit travelers the short end of the stick and just go away with the program period. Good on them.
Previously IHG and now Hilton… I would definitely hesitate to keep nor buy large amount of pts in such allegedly scamming programme.
well the real moral of the story, considering the aggrieved here were churning cc, staying in hotels, and finding trouble/compensation: never trick a trickster
From the perspective of a previous Hilton and Marriott GM of 25+ years and now a road warrior, I had 2 extremely different reactions. First was OMG all those points lost without warning is so wrong. That was my road warrior reaction. Then I thought, wow pretty over the top response from Hilton. I’ve had habitual scammers that I reported to Hilton, that took advantage of the 100% satisfaction gtd. They don’t kick people out of the system lightly. This person had to have been complaining and getting points at a ridiculous excessive rate. Otherwise they would have been given the opportunity to cash out. Hilton had to believe their points were ill gain gotten, and I do too.
Hilton’s Fraud Prevention Team will close Honors accounts for “compensation abuse” if: 1) an account is referred to them (usually by Guest Assistance, Honors Customer Care, the Diamond Desk, etc); and 2) the member has received compensation valued at more than 50% of the revenue they have produced over the preceding 12 months. (They use a nominal value of $0.005 per point for point compensation.)
It’s not entirely cut and dry because there are, for instance, cases in which something went really wrong and the company provided substantial compensation, or a member’s account has been active for years and some combination of travelling less and/or having issues that deserved compensation cropped up recently. The point at which discretion matters is before the referral to the Fraud Team. Once they get it, the referral, they will do the math and take it from there.
It’s rare, but it has certainly happened that a member is sufficiently obnoxious and demanding to provoke an account closure by meeting (or exceeding) the member’s demand for compensation to ensure it breaks the 50% barrier and then reporting the account. (See below but once and account is closed, it’s closed. I am not aware of any case in which an account closed for compensation abuse has been reopened.)
There are also a host of other reasons that will lead Honors (usually through the Fraud Prevention team) to close accounts. Those include things like verbal or physical abuse of Hilton or hotel team members, suspicious or prohibited behavior (like having more than one Honors account, selling points, etc.). A complaint of significant misbehavior at a property will often do the trick as well – damage to a room, lewd behavior, theft, threatening, excessive noise, etc.
The situation can drive members up the wall – for a number of reasons. One is that once an account is closed, agents can usually only see that it’s been closed and that Fraud Prevention closed it. If they can find the reason it was closed, they are not supposed to reveal it to the guest. They are instructed to refer the member to a Fraud Prevention email address that does not send replies.
When accounts are closed, they forfeit all of the points in it. Former members can open new accounts with a different email address. Rarely have I seen those accounts closed because of compensation abuse on the original one. The only case I recall is one where the member stayed at one property a lot, was repeatedly awful and the team at the hotel contacted the Diamond Desk, who contacted Fraud and repeatedly closed accounts the guy opened.
We had one member that frequented our hotel. He was clearly making new accounts and getting compensation and booking stays off of that compensation without ever paying any money into Hilton. He had previously frequented another hotel I had worked at and then switched to my new one so I was already a little bit familiar with him. I know we caught at least three accounts that he started. To start with, Hilton couldn’t do anything because it couldn’t definitively prove that he was the same person. Since he was dumb enough to keep coming to the same hotel though, we could verify that it was the same person using those profiles. Hilton finally shut all those down and he finally wised up and stopped using our property though I’m sure he’s still defrauding someone somewhere
Bravo, I just don’t understand the customer that keeps complaining about a specific brand or product but keeps frequenting the establishment. I give a business maybe two chances at a bad experience. I don’t want to be compensated for your bad service. Any person that allows a business or brand to continuously let them down, shame on you. I have experienced first hand customers repeatedly complaining about a product and service and then they continue to frequent the establishment. I have dealt with customers paying with points wanting to walk away with additional points due to a new bad experience or lack of service during this experience.
Bravo Hilton for standing your ground.
I completely understand why Hilton would cut ties with people who end up being a net loss for them. I’m curious how points earned through credit card spending are valued. If I spend $100,000 a year on a hilton credit card–I assume they receive some sort of kickback (probably the spread between the standard interest rate and the hhonors credit card rate)–but if I don’t carry a balance, then really the only value would seem to be my loyalty. In that case, if I use points that were exclusively earned via a credit card that I never carry a balance on (thus no interest charged), am I not essentially staying at hilton for free? Would they possibly catch this on an audit and close my account?
Full disclosure, I do not exclusively stay at Hilton on points earned through my card. I set a limit for what I’ll spend on the hotel and either pay the room in full or put the difference on points.
I don’t think so. That would be a loss on Amex’s part (assuming US resident), not Hilton’s. Amex buys those points you earn from Hilton, basically assuming that enough people will carry a balance to cover the costs, even if you don’t.
In my view, closing their account is/was the correct action by Hilton. In 50+ years of travel, I do not believe but once or twice was a stay worthy of complaining and asking for compensation. As to a broken-into vehicle, that’s what your insurance is for.
Depends on where you’re traveling. In the US, the properties are pretty homogenous. Overseas, not so. I have stayed at a couple of the 4-5 Hilton properties in Sharm El-Sheikh Egypt for example, always got upgraded to a suite before arrival… however at one property it was disgraceful… among many other issues for a proper Hilton property, this suite had sliding glass doors at the ground level, and if you pulled them apart and together 3-4 times they came unlocked… should I not bring a major security issue up in a complaint? Even the first time I told the hotel manager, he assured it was fixed the next day, only to go back to my room and take a video of me opening it again exactly the same way from outside while locked.
only complained once for points — at a Marriott brand. For bed bugs! Had the photos to prove it – and of course they moved me. AC Hotel in Portugal. Yes, I rxd fair compensation based on my research.
only complained once for points — at a Marriott brand. For bed bugs! Had the photos to prove it – and of course they moved me. AC Hotel in Portugal. Yes, I rxd fair compensation based on my research.
” Based on the amount of compensation that has been extended to you against the total revenue spent at our hotels within the last 24 months, our consistent inability to live up to your expectations is very concerning to us. We do not believe that the Hilton Portfolio of Brands is designed to meet your travel needs. For this reason, we recommend that you seek accommodations at a different hotel chain for future travels to avoid this type of inconvenience.
Given these circumstances, the decision has been made to close your Hilton Honors account and there will be no further compensation offered to you in the form of refunds, points, and/or stay certificates.”
Isn’t it the most rational decision to be taken: you cannot claim being never be happy with a brand AND ask for points to stay more at this brand.