In my August Expenses post I talked about how I used “best rate guarantees” to get free nights (like the $0 and zero points kind of free) at the InterContinental Istanbul (even got a suite), and how I got a DoubleTree for $13.
I’ve gotten many other free nights as well at 5 star hotels in Vienna, Budapest, San Juan, Nairobi, etc…
There were a couple of questions about finding rates, and so I wanted to do two things. 1) Give some beginner tips, 2) give a list I complied today of lesser known sites, and what currency they can be booked in.
If you’re not familiar, or if you want to check out an awesome list of the guarantees out there, check out our Complete Guide to Best Rate Guarantees.
The Process
Book on the hotel website -> Fill out a claim showing a lower rate -> Wait to hopefully get approved
The most important part that I find a lot of people don’t get right away is that you actually have to book on the hotel’s own website. So I book on Hilton.com, for example, and then prove to Hilton that there is a lower rate elsewhere.
Once Hilton sees your “claim form” and verifies the lower rate, they will then match the lower rate and give a bonus.
The problem is that not all claims are approved. The rate changes, or perhaps you didn’t see the difference in cancelation, or whatever… Therefore…
Book cancelable rates. If you are at all counting on the BRG in order to get the lower price, you better only compare cancelable rates.
Claim forms
The process is to book on a site and have a confirmation number and then fill out a claim where you share where you found the lower rate. In the Guide to Best Rate Guarantees, in the list of guarantees I have links to the pages where you can find these claim forms.
Finding A Lower Rate
Right, this is what everyone wants to know.
Practice makes better
Let me say up front, that there is a slight learning curve. I remember getting denied for my first number of claims. And now I get approved basically every time.
And to be honest, a lot of it was my fault. I didn’t realize that the rates were different in some tiny way. And yet, I see other people get mad when they find out the competitor site can’t be a membership site, or that they can’t compare their IHG rate that gives bonus points to a rate on Expedia (that doesn’t give points). These people need to chill.
If you’re far out, or it isn’t desperate; just give quick glances
Far out for me is like a month, so it’s relative. But if it’s far out in the planning process, it doesn’t hurt to take a glance at the rates on Kayak and compare.
But don’t go searching every site listed. Especially if you’re new to this, start with low hanging fruit. You might get denied anyways. So the important thing is to get a free night, and/or learn quickly.
But if I have a one night gap in my calendar where I’m hoping for a BRG free night, I will periodically check for lower rates. And as the date gets closer, I check more and more sites.
Also, there might be something to doing it a few weeks or two out, just because the rates start changing. Not sure, but that’s when I start looking.
Again, don’t waste too much time. It’s usually either there or it’s not. I only start wasting time if I’m desperate.
You have to click through
First of all, you need to compare post-tax rates and thus, you have to click through and see how the site adds up tax. You should always verify all the details before going for your claim.
Also, note that IHG wants you to compare and find a lower pre-tax rate and post-tax rate. Super annoying because some sites actually have a lower rate, but they include taxes in the upfront price… But IHG wants the rate to be lower upfront and at booking. The only thing that should matter is the two bookable rates compared. But IHG rewards themselves for not having upfront transparent rates.
Another reason to click through on Kayak, is simply because rates change.
Sites that search sites
Kayak is the most obvious just because it searches so many sites. However, half the sites are owned by 3 companies and they are all basically the same.
Kayak, Trivago, & HotelsCombined
These are the big 3 I check that scan tons of sites. It seems different people have different favorites, but I use Kayak just because I find the search function to be good at searching entire brands. However, it does show mostly only the big sites.
A few others (probably in order):
- Alltherooms.com
- Innstant.com
- Wego.com
- Room77
My search for sites that search the more obscure sites really began today, but so far top of the results are Alltherooms and Innstant. In terms of searching the sites that I’m about to list, Alltherooms seems to search a great deal of them, and a number I’ve never heard of.
Of course, a big part of Kayak being helpful is accuracy and user friendliness, but I’m open to trying out a new site.
Sites that Kayak doesn’t search
The reason I made this list… well it seemed like a good idea when I started. But one useful thing is that IHG and Choice Hotels both demand that the competitor site you’re claiming has a lower rate, it actually has to be bookable in the same currency. So I wanted a list of sites to check, and I wanted to know what currencies it’s bookable in.
| Euro | USD | Other Currency? | |
| Alpharooms.com | Yes | Yes | GBP |
| Amoma.com | Yes | Yes | Multiple |
| Cleartrip.com | Yes | Yes | Multiple |
| Despegar.com | Yes | ||
| Easyclicktravel.com | Yes | ||
| Easytobook.com | Yes | Yes | Multiple |
| Ebookers.com | GBP | ||
| Elvoline.com | Yes | Yes | Multiple |
| Galahotels.com | Yes | Yes | Multiple |
| Getaroom.com | Yes | Yes | Multiple |
| Hotel.info | Yes | ||
| Hotelclub.com | Yes | Yes | Multiple |
| Hotelopia.com | Yes | Yes | Multiple |
| Hotelplanner.com | Yes | Yes | Multiple |
| Hotelpronto.com | Yes | Yes | Multiple |
| Hoteltravel.com | Yes | Yes | Multiple |
| HRS.com | Yes | ||
| Innstant.com | Yes | ||
| Onhotels.com | Yes | Yes | GBP, AUD |
| Otel.com | Yes | Yes | Multiple |
| Prestigia.com | Yes | Yes | Multiple |
| Reservetravel.com | Yes | Yes | Multiple |
| Travelnow.com | Yes | Yes | Multiple |
| Travelrepublic.ie &.com | Yes | GBP | |
| Venere.com | Yes | Yes | Multiple |
| Wego.com | Yes | Yes | Multiple |
“Multiple” means there were too many to list.
Conclusion
If you’re a BRG pro, I think you’ll find some super useful info in the sites listed.
And if you’re a beginner, I hope this explains some things more clearly and gives you a good place to start.
Kayak, Trivago, and HotelsCombined seems like a good place to start for now. And the Complete Guide to Best Rate Guarantees. That will not only tell you what the guarantees are, but give you the links to make a claim.
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Nice!!
Teach someone to fish…
Drew, you’re a great example for other bloggers!
Thanks, I appreciate the kind support,
Drew
Great listing! Never heard of Innstant, I will have to check it out.
My two biggies are Hotelscombined.com and Alltherooms.com, I don’t bother with Kayak as it often mimics the rates you can find on the hotel’s web site and thus the others fall into line with the same rate.
Also, with IHG, you really did not tell the entire story to your readers.
If IHG has a lower rate that is a non-refundable rate, that is the rate that you have to beat, regardless if you find a lower refundable rate elsewhere — you must beat their non-refundable rate. Comparing refundable rates only occurs when essentially there is no non-refundable rate @ IHG and that is very rare.
For this reason, I don’t often look for a BRG at IHG since although it may be free, you likely will have to book a non-refundable rate and then hope for the best if you try a match to get it for free — too much riding on the line, as I really dislike booking non-refundable rates, even if the pay off is a free night.
The easiest to get a BRG is Marriott and I have had success with SPG and Hilton, as well.
Never tried Choice, but then again, their hotels really are not much to rave about, so I stick with the Big 3 so that I can earn ponts with and hope for a decent AAA rate for IHG!
That hasn’t been true with IHG for a long time. They used to say that you have to book the lowest rate available, and that just isn’t in the T&C anymore.
Trust me, if you book a best flexible and compare to a flexible rate, they will match it. If you book a club room, and compare to the club room they will match it.
Choice and Best Western have proven difficult. I’ve only gotten one Choice, and none with BW, but fewer attempts.
Marriott is super easy. One time I booked a higher rate, as they were listing a sale on the best flexible rate and the non sale price still… I booked the non-sale price and BRGd the sale price. Same terms after all.
Well, you learn something new all the time!
Thanks for the GREAT INFO!!!
I can’t wait to test this out!!
Again, many thanx!
in my experience, most of the time if you find a refundable rate on third party site, IHG will still honor Best Rate even if there is a cheaper non-refundable rate. I have gotten about 5 BRGs each of the last 3 years on IHG, and only once was it denied due to a lower rate.
meant to say available lower nonrefundable rate. Usually they will just compare the refundable rates without regard to whether or not there is a lower nonrefundable rate.
Right. It’s def not a rule. They even say that that you have to match payment types. Your totally allowed to book a refundable room and compare to a refundable room.
So, just to re-capitulate — I can book a refundable on IHG and compare it to a lower non-refundable — so long as it is lower than IHG’s non-refundable, that is — and it should be accepted, if terms are “similar.”
But, they still go by that less than $1.00 rule of price differentials and you also must find the same currency for booking — hence, your list above.
If correct, that will make it much easier than before!
No, no, you can’t compare book a refundable and compare to a non-refundable. You can book a refundable and match to a refundable.
Everything has to match. Like you can’t book a suite and compare to a standard room. Everything has to match.
It may not be in the terms, but it’s certainly how they are interpreting it. I had some back and forth with the email team and also spoke with a phone rep and they assured me that you must book the non-refundable rate to be considered for a match. I even pointedly asked if adding breakfast would disqualify me, and the phone rep said yes since it would not be the lowest rate on the site. As always, YMMV. In any case Choice came through for me instead, so all is not lost.
Drew, Awesome info you provided!
Did you ever hear of or use http://www.easytobook.com? Is it any good? thanks AK
Thanks AK,
Have I heard of it? Well, it’s in my chart… so yes. But I’ve never used it, so I don’t know how good it is. So I’m afraid I won’t be any help there.
Thanks. I’ll try these in the future. I have been reading your blog for about 6 months and I finally got my first BRG yesterday. It’s a Hyatt, so it’s only 20% off the lower price, but it’s something. The Hyatt BRG is for your entire stay though, so if you stay 5 nights you’ll get a free night. Unfortunately, I’m only staying 1 night.
Hey 20% off is better than the full rate, especially if you were going to stay there anyways.
I first got into BRGs with Marriott because I happened upon a large quantity of Marriott gift cards. So I BRG’d the hotels to get a big discount… this was in Bangkok. And the promotions were great so I got points and category 5 certs. So I stayed at the JW BKK for cheap and then used the certs for Marriott’s elsewhere.
The was off topic… but the deal stacking, even at 25% off BRG was super helpful.
Well, I am really interested to know how you “happened” upon a large quantity of Marriott gift cards 😀
Drew if you do not mind sharing did you book refundable rate when you successfully claimed BRG at IC Istanbul? What site did you use for that one? Thanks
Yes, I always book refundable rates. I used different sites, but it doesn’t matter much the rate changed immediately on the comparing site. But I believe the sites can be searched by alltherooms.
So no golden key site here. I’m not aware of too many hotels that are just always better on another site. At least IHG usually changes em.
And…. this is why Drew is awesome! (and Carrie!) Thanks for a great post!
Shucks. 🙂 Thanks Pamela!
I’ve had a lot of luck with Hipmunk.com. And I really, really like their interface.
I love Hipmunk for actual use. Love the map display and all. I’m just quicker on Kayak because of the brand search. Kayak I will have to type in “Holiday Inn”, then “Crowne Plaza”, etc… Instead of just select the IC brand.
But I should compare how many sites each of them search and decide that way. After all… I normally just look at InterCons. So if Hipmunk searches more sites, I should be using it.
Great work – effort really appreciated. I’ve had my own little list for a while with the same sort of info, but you’ve got more than a few there I’ve never tried/even heard of before!Thanks again!
Well, in all honesty, I haven’t used them all. But I did click all the way through on these to make sure they book right away and in what currencies. So that’s close… but haven’t gotten BRGs on em all.
But yea, I wanted the list. So I made it. Was going to send it in the newsletter and then just decided to publish here.
I’m glad its helpful. Least, I hope it will be helpful.
Are you saying that you can find a BRG on any given night or are these like airline mistake fares, which obviously isn’t a constant? I’d love to start trying my hand at this game 🙂
Hah. Well, I would say that starting out, it’s slightly better odds than a mistake fare. 1 out of 10 cities with a quick search.
Then you move to high percentage and longer searches. Higher percentage also in the denial rate… cuz that’s a learning curve.
Now I’ve been doing it for a few years… the percentage is flipping. :-p I try not to abuse it though. I just paid to renew my AMB account. 😀
Great post, but I’m running into issues when IHG hotels in Spain, France etc just display one rate that is inclusive of taxes on IHG website. Since BRG has to apply both before and after taxes, it seems that IHG is weaseling out of BRGs by just showing one rate inclusive of taxes. Can you let me know if I’m missing something?
Basically you just have to find a site that breaks down the price the same way (but cheaper). But with Kayak.es, .de, etc… you can hopefully find something.
Ok, mAkes sense, as long as the brg manager agrees
Do you generally find it easier to get BRGs for hotels outside the U.S.? I just spent like 2 hours looking all over CA, and came up with nothing for IHG. All the sites seem to show the exact same price.
It probably depends on the hotel and how often they would get BRG claims. The DoubleTree in Istanbul duty manager checking in said he hadn’t seen a BRG in 5 years. Hard to believe, but it would explain why it was so easy.
But I don’t really know which places are easier/harder, but I could see that being true.
Thanks for the post! I’m finding that when comparing cancelable rates, the cancelation policy on the hotel’s site never seems to match with the cancelation policy on the third party site (e.g canceling with third party seems to have a last day that’s before the last day required on the hoetl site). Do you also find this to be the case a lot as well, or have any tips on sites that match up well with the hotels?
I find that this varies greatly by hotel and area. I’ve definitely been denied for hotels that offer cancelation until 4pm and the other site only goes to 2pm. I have no trick for this in particular, although that’s a YMMV situation anyways. Sometimes the agent might not be as strict.
Drew — you forgot a new entry — http://WWW.ALLTHEROOMS.COM
It has gotten a good deal of play lately because it pulls up airBNB listings, as well — not interested in those, but you can easily filter out those and “lesser chains” by simply choosing hotels of 3 stars or above — it captures all the Marriott properties but filters out most Choice and Wyndham hotels — thankfully!
In any event, it also has an area where you could input the name of the hotel — and by inputting Marriott or Hilton you capture many of those hotels within those families.
What ATR found for me were some prices from places that I normally would not check for — it helped me find a public GROUPON rate for an Embassy Suites near DC that Hilton actually matched and then sent me the $50 gift card, as well per their BRG terms.
Who knew that Groupon sometimes acts as a legit travel agency?
Well, ATR did and that is why I use them and Hotlescombined.com for my main searching needs.
Interesting.
Although, I definitely explicitly mentioned alltherooms.com in the post. So I didn’t forget it, but an interesting site, indeed.
Oh, right you did!
But for some reason you left it out of your comprehensive list below. I think it might be helpful to add it to that list, as well.
Haven’t commented in a while, but wanted to say great resource as always.
I just can’t believe that none of the other bloggers have come to argue that a free BRG night isn’t really free because of the opportunity cost of the time that you spend searching for it. Or the opportunity cost of the points you could have earned had you actually paid for a room instead.
All I know is that if the opportunity cost of reading your blog is that I don’t have time to read theirs, then I think I’ve made an economically sound decision.
Well said Jonathan –*tic too. I remember first learning about BRG’s via Drew and his multiple posts on the subject. At first, seemed too “hard” to comprehend, and when I’d try it, I “never” would see better rates — (I too “learned” and later realized I was often was checking far in advance of a stay. Last spring, we snared our first BRG night at the Crowne Plaza, Melbourne. (fl) Guess is the hotel had released a discounted rate closer to our actual stay date (as they often do) — several of the on-line outlets had it, but IHG site did note. Easy to document, “low handing fruit.” Eyes got wide…. and then went for it. All were professional about it — even got a room upgrade upon arrival, and what a wonderful, wonderful stay to boot. (and free too – literally — Drew & Carrie — priceless)
thanks for the great info!
Hi Drew,
Another info packed post. I have a question about location: have you found many (or any) BRGs in US locations? While I certainly haven’t put enough energy into it to give up, I’ve had trouble finding these in the US (where I’m mostly traveling right now) and it seems like you tend to find them in places where the major chains maybe don’t have as much control over their branded properties as they might in the US.
Thanks,
Cameron
I tried alltherooms.com for houston and found a Doubletree for 2$, unfortunately when i click it the rate changes to 245$