I had booked a room at the Garden Inn through Hotels.com. I'm a Hilton Honors member and regularly stay at Hilton's in and around midtown when I'm for business. On Tuesday of this week, I had only one credit card with me, an American Express, with which I had booked the trip and is and was a working credit card. At the site, the hotel's credit card reader would not permit the card to tap but instead required insertion of the card, which it could not read. Notably, at restaurants and the hotel I ultimately stayed at, the card was read. The Hilton representative told me that I could not stay at the hotel and that there was no other way to read my credit card. There was no site manager available either in person or by phone to discuss the problem. I had to then spend two hours trying to find a room in midtown when the city was packed, as it so usually is in October.
I booked with Hilton well in advance of my trip. The representative at the site was friendly and polite but completely unable to help a Hilton member by trying to find a way to get the valid credit card on record. That was extremely disappointing. I was supposed to be working when I had to find, travel to, and check in at another hotel.