Here’s a legitimately awesome, first-of-its-kind, innovation from a major hotel group.
In this post:
Booking connecting hotel rooms can be complicated
There are a lot of people staying at hotels with friends and family members, booking multiple rooms. While some people may specifically want rooms not next to one another, others greatly value having connecting rooms. That’s probably especially true for families with kids, where it’s convenient to be able to get between rooms with ease, and to create a larger living space.
The catch is that actually confirming connecting rooms can be complicated:
- Many hotel brands will only put in a request for connecting rooms, and won’t guarantee them until you check-in
- Even hotels that let you confirm connecting rooms usually make it quite complicated, typically not showing online which rooms can connect, and also not letting you book connecting rooms online
It’s 2021, so why has this been so complicated? I’d argue that it’s less of a technological limitation, but rather more about logistics. Guaranteeing connecting rooms makes it harder for hotels to maximize revenue and inventory.
Assigning rooms can already be a jigsaw puzzle based on check-in and check-out times, bed types, elite status, etc., and connecting rooms is just a further factor that complicates things. So I think we haven’t seen much innovation in this area because it wasn’t required in order to be competitive.
Hilton now makes it easy to book confirmed connecting rooms
Hilton has just rolled out a program called Confirmed Connecting Rooms by Hilton, making Hilton the first major hotel company to introduce a booking experience allowing you to instantly confirm two or more connecting rooms online.
This has started to roll-out globally, and will be available when booking through Hilton channels. How do you go about booking connecting rooms with Hilton?
- First you have to select the desired number of rooms, along with the destination and dates, and then choose your hotel
- When selecting a room, check the box to indicate that you’re interested in connecting rooms
- Lastly, select each connecting room at the desired rates, and book your stay with instant confirmation
Bottom line
Hilton has become the first major hotel group to let people search and confirm connecting rooms online during the booking process. This is a fantastic innovation that I know many families will really appreciate.
Here’s to hoping that this puts the pressure on other hotel groups to roll out a similar functionality…
Anyone appreciate this new connecting room feature from Hilton?
It's most likely to be a software issue. In common with most industries, there's likely to be significantly fewer room management products than hotel brands, and if they all lack connecting room allocation features through their relevant APIs, you end up with exactly this kind of zero innovation situation.
It would depend on the occupancy of the hotel in order to guarantee connecting rooms and the length of stay the connecting rooms are booked. What if it is a large hotel booked at 100% occupancy the night before your arrival ? One of your connecting rooms is checking out at 2pm. The other connecting room is staying over another night. I would call the hotel everyday starting 3 days prior to arrival and speak...
It would depend on the occupancy of the hotel in order to guarantee connecting rooms and the length of stay the connecting rooms are booked. What if it is a large hotel booked at 100% occupancy the night before your arrival ? One of your connecting rooms is checking out at 2pm. The other connecting room is staying over another night. I would call the hotel everyday starting 3 days prior to arrival and speak to a manager to reiterate your request for connecting rooms. Maybe hotels are not full nowadays. When I worked at a high volume 500 room 4 star Marriott property I would say you only had a 20% chance of getting connecting rooms. And the non elite members who booked via third party would get irate. They flew in all the way from Idaho and must have connecting rooms.
If I book two rooms using two separate Weekend Night Rewards which by necessity will have two different Reservation Numbers and two different names, how will Hilton be able to give me a choice of connecting rooms?
Well done Hilton - Love it!
Hope more brands will introduce this, but the big question is if the hotel will honor it when checking in.
Exactly. I always seem to get a connecting room next to someone with terminal tuberculosis or whose idea of a good time is two very loud sex partners. I always request not to have a connecting room but, despite a diamond card, have learned the hard way that you have to ask at every check in and often to be quite insistent about not accepting a room with a connecting door.
You can request con-connecting rooms. I request them all the time. Sometimes they even honor those requests.
Is it proven that connecting rooms are more dangerous?
This has long been implemented at timeshares such as HGVC, Marriott, Westin, etc. Ownership usually includes a 2-bedroom with a "lockoff" feature, where you con book the whole 2-bedroom (1-bedroom and connecting studio), or each side separately. I am surprised this blog does not cover timeshare points. If bought resale, timeshare points can be a huge "travel hack" to stay at upscale properties for cheap, especially if you need larger space like 2-bedrooms.
I wouldn't go as far to say timeshare is a "travel hack" nor, depending on brands, majority of timeshare properties are "upscale" more towards middle-upscale.
You are correct about buying resale. But I can hardly see mid to long term benefits of any timeshare point system. People forget about inflation, and their sales pitch of no inflation means you're stuck with only your old property not newer ones.
You only get the benefit...
I wouldn't go as far to say timeshare is a "travel hack" nor, depending on brands, majority of timeshare properties are "upscale" more towards middle-upscale.
You are correct about buying resale. But I can hardly see mid to long term benefits of any timeshare point system. People forget about inflation, and their sales pitch of no inflation means you're stuck with only your old property not newer ones.
You only get the benefit of having an option of "2-bedroom apartment", which Airbnb should have killed this industry already.
You really get to utilize your timeshare points for around 10 years but will get stuck with it for the rest of your life.
Timeshare isn't for most people, who are better off using hotels or Airbnb. Timeshare works for only a very small subset of people, and I'm sure everyone here, you included aren't in it.
It’s awesome. I already used it for our family of 4. Having to beg for connecting rooms was annoying as hell.
Thank you, Hilton!
Is it really? Most king connects to two doubles. What if you select two kings? Seems like they should just sell connecting room as one room or family suite to guarantee connecting.
And the properties will just circumvent this rule 2 ways easily and 1 dumb but still correct.
1. Pull a Seinfeld car reservation. We all know "guarantee" in the hotel industry have no repercussions. Just look at Aegon Mykonos?
2. "Upgrade" one room to a better view, floor, or location. Who doesn't like upgrades.
3. Put guest into "connecting" room type which doesn't mean the 2 rooms have to be "connected"
If...
And the properties will just circumvent this rule 2 ways easily and 1 dumb but still correct.
1. Pull a Seinfeld car reservation. We all know "guarantee" in the hotel industry have no repercussions. Just look at Aegon Mykonos?
2. "Upgrade" one room to a better view, floor, or location. Who doesn't like upgrades.
3. Put guest into "connecting" room type which doesn't mean the 2 rooms have to be "connected"
If Hilton wants to put their money where their mouth is. Just make it simple, you either get your rooms "connected" or you get a free room.
Hilton allows you to select a room a day or so using advance check-in. I don't recall whether the room maps show connecting doors on the map. If not it sure would be helpful to update the maps so we can select a room without (or with) a connecting door.
Hilton does show connecting rooms on the map when you are selecting your room at the majority of hotels. I'm assuming there are a few exceptions but I know it shows it because I typically try to select a non-connecting room.
This is excellent. I have 3 kids so we typically prefer booking 2 connected rooms when possible for more space. This is often a giant pain so I'm excited about this option.
Thank GOD!!!! Always wondered why this was such an issue?!? With kids you are forced to book two bedroom rooms (if they exist). “Confirmed on checkin”. Um I have three kids under 10…
love this feature. hopefully these bookings are actually guaranteed. we like to travel with our kids in a separate bedroom, and it's always such a hassle calling hotels to find out if they can guarantee connecting rooms.
as a side note, it is hyatt's policy to confirm connecting rooms at booking if traveling with kids under 13(?).
i don't want to cook or clean on vacation, so no airbnb for me.
Apparently Hyatt doesn't follow their policy too closely. I booked three rooms at the Park Hyatt Paris-Vendome roughly 10 months in advance and they knew I had my 9, 11, 12 and 14 year olds with me and my wife and they not only didn't give us connecting rooms, we were on three different floors!
if you are large family that need multiple rooms, probably better to airbnb a house with kitchen and living room
For large families this is a huge benefit. Our family of 8 usually tries to get a suite style room (Residence Inn 2BR, etc) but when we can't / don't, we have a strong preference for connecting rooms.
I get why others don't like them, but it has always struck me ridiculous as to why this is so hard to reserve... Kudos to Hilton
I'd rather see a feature that guaranteed a non-connecting room.
Haha yup. Loved being at a Intercontinental once and the kids in the other connected room constantly pulling on the handle and trying to use the door.
Yes - would love to see requests for non-connecting rooms actually honored! This used to be in my profile at SPG and was honored pretty consistently for like a year before the merger. However, I'm not sure if Marriott even retained this as an optional preference to add to your profile. I seem to get connecting rooms more often than ever when I stay with Marriott despite the fact that my profile says (or said) I explicitly did not want this.
That, right there. That's it. So tired of the all-night noises coming under the (surprise!) door to the adjacent room.
I agree this option is needed. If airlines can request non-connecting rooms for the safety of their staff we should be able to request it also.
haha.