I had a terrible experience with the room block sales department at the Pearl River HIlton yesterday, and I wanted to share it with any other brides considering using them for a room block.
In March my mom set up a room block and arranged a pre-wedding dinner for out of towners at the Hilton. Along the way we had little snafus with them, like them refusing to mail us invite inserts and insisting they were only available via pick-up, even though we live over an hour away, and unreturned phone calls. I should have known this was a sign of things to come.
Yesterday my mom mentioned that our guests were being told the hotel was full when they called to access our room block, and she was not getting any answers, so I called to check into it. When I called I found out that our room block was for 10 rooms not the 20 that my mom had tried to arrange. I don't know how that happened, but the paperwork my mom signed said 10, so I fully acknowledge that this was our mistake and a case of not reading the fine print. So I called tons of hotels in the area, looking for the 10 extra rooms I need, and everything is booked. I am panicked needless to say- my wedding is Oct 2.
The Hilton suggested trying a local Holiday Inn, so I called over there, and they had 10 rooms which I blocked. Not ideal, but at least I still had the 10 rooms at the same venue as the dinner, and I could put the older people there etc so they did not have to worry about travelling for the dinner. So I called back the Hilton to tell them that I found a 10 room block at another hotel, and they proceeded to tell me that now that they looked into it, their hotel is overbooked and they need me to move my entire block out, even though people have already booked and credit card reserved their rooms!!!!!! I was told that if any of my guests arrived on that day, they would be turned away at check-in. Even though I have the paperwork reserving my block. Even though these rooms are credit-card reserved!!!!!
So I was forced to move my entire group to the Holiday Inn!!! I am so upset. In addition, the staff at the Hiton lied during this entire process multiple times (I am not going to get into details about all of that because it is already too long, but it involved calling the Holiday Inn behind my back and then lying to me about it, etc). What kind of hotel holds a room block for a wedding day and then 2 months before the wedding tells the bride she has to find other arrangements for her guests that have booked into the hotel. thank god the holiday inn was available, but I am still not happy. I just wish the Hilton had been straight with me early in the process, so I could have chosen another hotel and not have been forced into the only option available.
I said to the Hilton, what if I had not called today - would you have ever told me that you were going to kick my room block out of the hotel? They said "oh yes, we were going to call you this week to let you know". What kind of business does this? This was not just an open, unused block- the rooms in the block were reserved by my guests!!!!!!!!! Where was I going to put these people, who already have flights arranged???
So a word of warning, if you want a hotel block that will not be pulled out from under your feet two months before your wedding, do not use the Hilton Pearl River. This is the worst experience I have had in a long time. I guess they don't care about the guest experience or their reputation. They just expressed no empathy at all.