The power of marketing automation is potent – even when it doesn’t work. 

Twice recently, Hilton messed up its automation and notification engine for me.

The first occasion was during a recent two-night stay at a Hilton hotel. 

I had searched for this particular hotel and ended up staying there.

But while I was staying there, Hilton sent me multiple notifications on my app and email asking if I was still interested in booking that same hotel for my stay!

The second occasion was last week when I canceled a stay at another Hilton hotel.

On the eve of that planned stay, I got an email inviting me to check in even though I had already canceled it. 

I dropped everything to double-check if I had canceled so that I didn’t get billed for that canceled stay.

I spent 15 minutes double-checking and calling up customer support to confirm that yes, it was already canceled and the automated email was sent in error.

Automation is awesome when it works and awful when we don’t take care.