I stay in a lot of hotels. I’ve never once been called. They will send an email to my “hide my email” protected email address or once I am 24 hours from check in or during my stay, I communicate with them via chat on the app.
On the other hand, I really don’t have a problem giving my real number to hotels, airlines or any other business that I deal with regularly.
99% will not get called, but having worked in hotels, guests have to be contacted all the time. Maintenance issue, plumbing leak, dog is barking too loud, overbooking, room type change, and the list goes on.
At franchised hotels in the US, which is almost all chain hotels, the employees at the front desk do not have the ability to email you, or even know your email address. The phone number is often the only way to reach you.
Hilton does have the chat app, but I do not think it works for hotels trying to reach customers with time sensitive information.
I also like digital keys and whisking myself to a room. But I would also rather know about my relocation (or any other issue) before I get to the hotel rather than after I get to the hotel.
When I worked, we used to have to often change room types from rooms with 1 queen bed to a room with 2 full XL beds (full XL is 6 inches narrower than a queen).
Of course, technically, this would modify a guest’s reservation and give them an inferior bed than the one they reserved, so we would go down the list of people who had reserved a room with 1 queen bed and ask if they were willing to change to a room with 2 full XL size beds, and as a thank you, offered a few thousand points.
Obviously, all the single business travelers had no problem accepting a couple extra thousand points for a bed that was 6 less inches wide, but if they did not have a good phone number on the reservation, they were not offered.
Not really, it was a hotel with kitchens in the room that was 90%+ occupied at all times, with 50%+ rooms occupied by long term stays. When operating at such margins, overbooking certain room types is inevitable as people extend their stays or cut them short.
Much like the person that has their 2FA app on their phone, and their backup keys burn down in their house and then is suddenly on HN begging for Google support to help them because they are in a catch-22 situation no one cares about the edge cases until they are being crushed under one.
Also a 1% failure rate is off the charts when you're talking about serving millions.
>> And so if a hotel is overbooked, or otherwise has an issue that would be better addressed prior to arrival, they have no way of contacting you?
> I stay in a lot of hotels. I’ve never once been called.
I've been called because of a travel issue, once. About a little more than a decade ago, I was scheduled to fly out of an airport that didn't actually end up opening for another several years. I believe the only heads-up notice I got about the change in my itinerary was a phone call about a month before my departure.
I stay in a lot of hotels. I’ve never once been called.
I get called by hotels all the time. But maybe because I stay in s a lot of "high touch" properties that pride themselves on providing exemplary service.
You're not going to get called by a Holiday Inn Express. But you certainly will get called when you're spending $800+ a night.
When I say “I stay in a lot of hotels”, I’m not exaggerating. My wife and I digital nomad 6.5 months out of the year staying in mostly mid range Homewood Suites and Embassy Suites and I also travel for work 6-10x a year where I also usually stay in Embassy Suites.
The other half of the year, we are staying in our own “Condotel”. They are individually owned condos that are rented out and managed like a hotel when we aren’t there.
When we first came to our condo in January, everyday they would knock on my door at the worse time.
The last thing I want in either context - whether I’m on a business trip, “nomadding “, at “home”, or vacationing is “high touch”.
I want to check in digitally, use my digital key and check out digitally. I put “Do not disturb” on my door the entire time.
>When we first came to our condo in January, everyday they would knock on my door at the worse time.
That is not really what high-touch means in the context of luxury hotels, $1000+/night places will generally do their best to not disturb you. Instead it's things like coordinating housekeeping based on reservations the concierge has made for you, or perhaps just quietly stocking your room with a beverage you seemed to particularly enjoy by the pool.
>I want to check in digitally, use my digital key and check out digitally. I put “Do not disturb” on my door the entire time.
I tend to prefer in-room check-in, a very common practice in luxury hotels. A front desk staffer walks you to the room, giving you an easy opportunity to raise any issues or ask any questions you might have regarding the room.
And in any case, digital check-in is unfortunately legally difficult in many jurisdictions which require hotels to scan your passport.
Apparently brand new accounts can't edit their comments, who knew. Edit: but seemingly this only applies to the very first comment you make
Regarding the phone calls, most people at this level use travel agents so the hotels won't have the client's direct contact information anyway. It's the travel agents job to communicate any preferences you might have regarding the stay.
If you're booking directly, it's common and useful for the hotel to reach out to you regarding your preferences and to see if you might need them to arrange something like airport VIP services or transfers. Nobody will be upset if you've provided a fake number and the hotel can't reach you, your reservation won't be cancelled.
On the other hand, I really don’t have a problem giving my real number to hotels, airlines or any other business that I deal with regularly.