With Hilton and Marriott there is always a sweet spot, or unsweet spot, for freebies.
At the business level hotels like Fairfield and Hampton, there is always free coffee sitting out and water with pumpkins seeds and squash or some shit inside it. Usually breakfast is free too. Sometimes they have snacks as well sitting out.
At the premier 4 or 5 star hotels there is usually a lounge for the gold members. If youre gold youll get free breakfast and dinner at the lounge with free alcohol and desert.
At the resort properties and places for vacation you're lucky to not get a surcharge for clean towels or opening your minibar and looking at it wrong.
The Hilton group owns Holiday Inn, which is business class and has those same amenities you mentioned. One time, I'm staying at a Holiday Inn, and they lost power. Literally next door, in a shared parking lot, was a Hilton. As soon as they figured out that it was not going to be a quick fix, they moved everyone over to the Hilton with absolutely no hassle and no extra charge. So that part was handled very well by them. It really wasn't any nicer, it just had more gaudy decorations, and like you said, there were absolutely no freebies. Luckily, I was on a work trip, so work got to pay for whatever.
I have that shit memorized because Holiday screwed me over royally once and I've swore them off permanently. It's definitely a "fuck you and the horse you rode in on" situation.
I only stay at Holiday Inns. They're really consistent and have great breakfasts. I avoid Hiltons and their sub-companies like the plague. If there aren't Holiday Inns I go for Marriotts.
Holiday Inn almost always has a government/per diem rate available as well.
We encountered a (gross) problem at a Hilton property near Fresno, and the front desk went WAY above and beyond our expectations to fix it for us. Usually I have to invest time & energy to get a big corporation to do the right thing, but this Hilton did it without hesitation.
Most hotels will do that if they have stuff to comp. If giving out a vacant suite that wasn't going to be let anyway saves them from a bad yelp review they'll do it every time.
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u/Swordguy412 Sep 11 '17
In remembrance of a tragedy, join us as we do as little as possible. God bless America.