The CoronaVirus is impacting the travel plans of many a folk, and airlines are coming up with some wild policies to avoid paying customers back the full amount, instead of that trying to promote them some sales so that they can grab more cash out of them. No focus on the safety of the customers and crew at all.

However, the hospitality business, the other hand, has been a bit better with the way they are treating their customers. Here is the policy of Hilton Hotels which have been updated in the wake of the Corona Virus pandemic.

Hilton’s Safety measures

In response to the coronavirus, Hilton has taken additional measures developed in consultation with global and local public health authorities (including the WHO and CDC) to make their cleaning and hygiene protocols even more rigorous:

• Hilton has increased the frequency of cleaning public areas (including lobbies, elevators, door handles, public bathrooms, etc.) and have continued the use of a hospital-grade disinfectant.
• Hilton will continue to adjust food and beverage service in accordance with current food safety recommendations.
• Hilton has increased the deployment of antibacterial hand sanitizers.

Hilton has also issued waivers in many cases for customers

• Government Restrictions. In regions affected by government-issued travel restrictions, Hilton will continue to waive change fees or offer full refunds. These are the waivers at the time of writing this post:
  • For guests travelling to, through or from China with stays from January 23–March 31, 2020.
  • For guests travelling to, through or from Italy with stays from February 24–April 30, 2020.
  • For guests travelling to, through or from South Korea with stays from February 24–March 31, 2020.
  • For guests travelling to, through or from Saudi Arabia with stays from February 27–March 31, 2020.
  • For guests travelling to, through or from Israel with stays from March 10–March 31, 2020.
    
  • For guests travelling between the US and the following European countries from March 13 – April 12, 2020: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
• Existing Reservations. All reservations – even those described as non-cancellable (“Advanced Purchase”) – that are scheduled for arrival before April 30, 2020, can be changed or cancelled at no charge up to 24 hours before your scheduled arrival.
• New Reservations. Any reservation you make – even those described as “non-cancellable” (“Advanced Purchase”) – that are booked through April 30, 2020, for any future arrival date, can be changed or cancelled at no charge up to 24 hours before scheduled arrival.

If you need to adjust reservations made with Hilton directly, contact the Hilton Guest Assistance team. If you need to adjust reservations made through another travel site, please contact them for assistance.

Hilton Honors Points and Status

• Hilton has paused the expiration of all points scheduled to expire between now and May 31, 2020.
• Hilton will make updates to the requirements for earning tier status for 2021, however, will announce their new qualification requirements at a future date.

Bottomline

The new Hilton Hotel Cancellation Policy is very generous in the wake of the situation around us and is much more generous than many airlines who are just offering to reschedule and not cancel the flights. This obviously, comes at a huge cost to their business but also builds patronage for the years ahead. Obviously, they can do this because in this case, the hotel chains don’t have to bear the entire burden themselves but mostly the developers/owners of the hotels suffer the pain.  Other hotel chains also have made policy changes and I will get these out as soon as I can.

What do you think of the new Hilton Hotel Cancellation Policy?

Hilton.com

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