Compensation Clinic: Hilton Vienna Plaza

A reader sent us a Compensation Clinic case from a stay at the Hilton Vienna Plaza hotel where employee(s) had gone to the room and packed contents despite the agreed-upon noon check out.

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You can access Hilton Vienna Plaza here.

Email that the reader sent to the hotel:

I want to file a complaint about my recent stay. We were staying with a friend of mine who has two children at the Hilton Plaza Vienna.

At check-out we agreed with the front desk that we could keep your room until noon, because the children (1, 3 years) would need a quick changing of clothes and diapers because they would depart for their way back home to Australia (two long flights) in the afternoon and we wanted to use the time before noon to take a walk around the city.

When my friend returned to the hotel just before noon she was shocked, because all of her room’s contents were spread around the lobby. Apparently the hotel had cleaned the hotel room and even packed the rest of the belongings without my friend’s permission.

Not only was this extremely rude behavior, but also it violated the agreement, as they had agreed for a check-out at noon. The hotel should have at least called ahead that there was a problem or told us straight before that this wasn’t possible. My friend would have happily paid for a late-check out even.

Can you imagine how stressful it is to take a 24 hour journey with two small kids and then find your luggage all over the lobby? How can we know, the hotel staff packed all their belongings in the luggage?

My friend had troubles finding the clothes and diapers for the kids, because it was just all randomly thrown in the suitcases. And this is a 5 star hotel? Charging 400 + € for one night in the family room? Shame on them!

Response From The Hotel Manager:

Thank you for providing me with feedback concerning your recent stay at Hilton Vienna Plaza.

I was very sorry to hear that we did not meet your expectations concerning the level of service that you have received in the hotel.

Your views, as a loyal hotel guest and as a valuable Hilton Honors Gold member, are very important to us and we take all comments received very seriously.

Please note that I have followed up with the person in charge during that day and I was told that around 10.00 am you had the late check out confirmed at the reception. At the same time you have ordered a taxi to the airport for noon as well as requested to have the luggage brought down. Therefore, our lobby host was informed to enter the room at 11:50 to take down the luggage just on time for the taxi. When double checking the room whether something was forgotten, he noticed an adapter and a small bag which he pro-actively zip locked into the trolley. I am very certain that he did have only good intentions and it was never planned not to honor the confirmed late check-out.

On behalf of the hotel, I would like to offer my sincerest apologies for the inconvenience these problems have caused you. We always strive to provide the best service to our guests and I am truly sorry if we have failed to do so on this occasion. Given the unfortunate experience you have had, I would like to extend my apologies and offer you 15.000 Hilton Honors points to make it right. We will credit these points to your account.

May I take this opportunity to thank you for having chosen the Hilton Vienna Plaza and I do look forward to welcome you again in the near future.

The reader decides to accept the points:

Just for your information, I’m a Hilton Gold member and I will probably just take the points because I’m annoyed about arguing the case, as they simply don’t see their mistake apparently …

Conclusion

The hotel made a mistake here, and the Hotel Manager’s response is somewhat different than what the reader’s friend experienced at the property.

I definitely would NOT want someone else to pack my luggage, and it was even more critical for the reader’s friend as they were traveling with small kids.

The 15,000 points are worth $75 (if you buy them from Hilton during the frequent sales). I feel that 30,000 would have been a fairer solution considering the incident.