From late checkout to complimentary celebratory champagne to free room upgrades, hotel loyalty programs come with some major perks. And should a minor inconvenience arise, you know that as a rewards member, you’ll be more than taken care of. However, once given the taste of luxury, you may be tempted to indulge in an extra free bottle of wine or two, perhaps by fibbing about your anniversary date or making up a complaint. However, one former hotel employee warns that bad behavior such as this could possibly get you expelled from your favorite chain of hotels.
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In a new TikTok video, an ex-Hyatt and Hilton employee named KT revealed that certain hotel staff have access to "reward members' complaint history," and in cases where guests continuously display "erratic" behavior, they will ban those guests from the rewards program.
“When I worked for Hyatt and Hilton, people at the front desk were able to go into the property management system and look up rewards members’ complaint history,” she told followers.
“It’s called a ‘service recovery tab’ in their system, and you can find out what people complain about, what kind of compensation they got, and then you get to read comments about the person posting the complaint,” she explained. “Sometimes, some of these people who travel do it at every hotel they stay at.”
For example, KT said there was an older Hyatt guest who would “throw a fit” anytime there wasn’t a complimentary bottle of wine waiting in his room. He would claim it was his anniversary and shame the hotel for not remembering. However, his lie caught up with him because staff took note of his outbursts and logged them in the system. Eventually, they noticed that every time he checked into one of their hotels—no matter the date—it was “his anniversary.”
“People like that should be banned from using the rewards program,” KT reasoned. “And I really wish every hotel chain did that. Just to protect themselves from losing money [and] to also know what they’re expecting from people. Their behavior can become so erratic you may have to kick them out of the program.”
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In addition to getting disbarred from the rewards program, KT said the hotel may ban you from visiting their specific location or their chain of properties altogether.
“They’ll send out an email that says, ‘You’re no longer fit to stay here. There are other hotels in the area, please choose to stay there. We have already updated the rewards program about this.'”
While KT’s video took some of her followers by surprise, many hotel employees corroborated her statements in the video's comments.
“Hilton tracks that and when it gets [too] far they claw back the points and send them a letter asking them to stay at another hotel chain,” one wrote person.
Another shared that they had a guest “put on trespass,” who eventually got “arrested and banned from Hilton as a whole.”
“Can confirm. I worked at a Hampton Inn and Hilton used to have a 100% guarantee. My GM used a guest history to kick someone out of HHonors,” a user said.
A former hotel housekeeper added that complaint databases can also be used to ban guests from staying in their “section of rooms.”
At the end of the day, hotel reward programs are filled with fun incentives—but as KT noted, taking advantage of the perks can put a bad taste in the staff's mouths.
“If you complain once in a while, that’s fine. Things happen [and] you deserve to be compensated for horrible things. But if terrible things happen every place you stay, that’s a problem," she concluded.
