In the last year we’ve rocked some best rate guarantees. Free rooms at the InterContinental San Juan, the InterContinental Budapest, InterContinental Vienna, etc…
I’ve written a lot in the past on the art of getting free nights and discounts, and have even made a list of every best rate guarantee I could find. Even chains I never heard of were included. (Read the Master List of Best Rate Guarantees). But recently, things haven’t been so golden.
The other day I got declined for a hopeful BRG from IHG that was clearly a lower rate. On expedia the bookable rate was $30 cheaper. But they declined it pointing to a rule that stated that the “base rate” and the final bookable rate must be lower. In other words, the before “fees and taxes” price was the same but the price you end up paying was different.
And lately I’ve noticed that the cancel time is often different by a couple hours from the big sites like Expedia and thus you get declined.
No matter who actually has the lower rate, it seems that IHG will decline you.
It seems that IHG has over-hauled their staff, or their policy, but things are more strict than ever.
Even Choice Hotels, who also offers a free night will deny for similarly dumb reasons. They both are sticklers about currency and cancellation policies.
The Irony
On the flip side, Carrie called Hyatt the other day for a BRG and they went above and beyond. We booked a cancelable room and found a rate for $179 on competitor websites. Now Hyatt gives a 20% discount as their best rate guarantee, thus bringing the price to nearly $143. But the agent noticed that the site also had an even better advanced purchase rate that would save us another $20.
Because we were paying with gift cards we had to decline the even lower rate, but what that’s irrelevant- what a contrast!
The irony is that 20% – 25% of a stay with Hyatt or Marriott has got to be, on average, a lot more money than giving away a singular free night. And yet, they are super generous in giving out their discounts.
My only conclusion is that IHG and Choice are paranoid of getting gamed. But they end up having an absolutely worthless best rate guarantee. As I said, the rate we found was certainly better on Expedia, but it was still declined.
Tips
You have to triple check a few things with IHG or Choice:
- Cancellation time has to be the same (or better).
- The final price post tax has to be better (and with IHG the pre-tax price too apparently).
- The final price has to be bookable in the same currency as booked on the hotel’s own website.
I’ll add one more note about Choice. Sometimes companies like Expedia buy up all of their basic room types to resell. Thus you think you’re comparing standard rooms on Choice’s website with standard rooms on Expedia, but in these cases they aren’t the same rooms at all- Expedia bought up all of the standard rooms. This can be confusing, especially when the names of the rooms are similar.
The Future
It’s not dead but I’ve noticed certain regions have certain cancellation policies. When IHG has the cancellation policy set to 6 p.m. the day before, it can be tough to beat as a lot of sites do 4 p.m. or even earlier. Thus, you may have better luck or worse luck in certain areas.
But as I said all other programs are very generous. Hilton gives $50 off and many others give 25%. While IHG is getting strict, others remain more generous.
New sites.
I still use and love Kayak for some of its features including its brand search feature. But you may have to check other sites. A few that may or may not be worth checking are: trivago.com, easyclicktravel.com, hotelscombined.com, wego.com, innstant.com, galahotels.com, and many more.
Of course, you still need to cross-check everything to make sure it’s the same room type and condition. And again, especially check the three I mentioned above for IHG – cancellation, post tax price, and currency.
New Programs
Hopefully you’ve bookmarked the Master List of Hotel Best Rate Guarantees– at the bottom of that post you may notice that I’ve included some booking sites. See, booking sites also can offer best rate guarantees.
While I have a very limited experience with these booking sites, I see a ton of potential.
Most of these websites offer a $50 coupon as their best rate guarantee. Simply find a lower rate and get a $50 coupon code after your stay.
The Process
It’s actually pretty simple to find BRGs this way when you are open to using multiple sites. Even just using Kayak you can find the hotel and then find the site with the higher rate to book on. Again, now we’re talking about best rate guarantees offered by the booking sites themselves.
Here’s an example of a Club Carlson hotel we stayed at in Bangkok. Kayak found it for $56 on Getaroom, but you can also see that it’s $59 on Expedia and other sites. Book on Expedia and then file a BRG. Expedia will match the $56 rate for that stay and then give you a $50 coupon.
I usually cross reference with Trivago because they’re just good at finding lower rates, but often they are the same.
Mastering This
My question is whether or not I can use the $50 coupon on a booking and file a best rate guarantee. So far I haven’t had luck. For instance I attempted this with cheaptickets and they compared the post coupon rate and declined me.
So there are two options. 1) Find a site that will allow you to BRG the pre coupon rate, that way you can use coupons and still get coupons. Or 2) Do the BRG and then email/call in and ask to apply your coupon after the stay.
The goal here is simple – a cycle of free stays.
It’s a bit ideal, but totally possible. It’s not possible if you stay at $300 hotels, but hotels that are about $50 are all over and normal people stay in them every night!
Plus in Asia, 4 and 5 star hotels can be found for about $50. And seeing as I’m going to Asia this March, I will be testing a lot of these theories
Again the process would be:
- Pay for a $50 room, BRG it, and then get a $50 coupon.
- Use that coupon to get a $50 room for free, BRG it, then get another $50 coupon.
- Use that coupon to get a $50 room for free, BRG it, then get another $50 coupon.
- Use that coupon to get a $50 room for free, BRG it, then get another $50 coupon.
- And so on…
Since we’ll spend a few months in Asia, I should have time to perfect this process (and in style). If it works out, you better believe I’ll be doing a Newsletter on the subject. But, in the mean time, I really encourage readers to try. If you do a BRG with a hotel, try to use that coupon and BRG! And more importantly, let me know how it goes. 😀
I won’t speculate too much for now, but again, it’s worth trying!
And btw, a similar thing can be done with Best Western as they give a $100 gift card.
Conclusion
Don’t spend your life trying to get an IHG or Choice BRG. And before you file a claim, seriously double check the cancellation policy, booking rate and booking currency.
Also, don’t overlook other programs like Hilton, Best Western and the hotel booking sites like Expedia.
If you are paying for a hotel, Best Rate Guarantees are often an easy discount. You may have to check back as rates fluctuate, but often they fluctuate in your favor.
Thanks for your insights. I have experienced similar with IHG and choice lately. It’s really frustrating but life goes on 😉
First world problems :-p
Also had a recent positive experience with Hyatt’s BRG team. Very nice change from IHG’s sticklers. BTW, Hyatt’s deal is 20% off the lower rate, not 25%.
Thanks, made that change.
New to the BRG game, but going to some places where my Big Win points won’t be relevant. My idea is to always book a hotel less than $50 so I come out on top. So far 2/2 ($24 down to $19; and $62 down to $30). Hopefully sharing a few of these with a friend this time too!
Whos BRG are you using?
I found a Best Western in Indonesia thats $33 a night. So hopefully I can lower it and get $100 gift cards. That could turn out really well for us. 😉
How many BRGs have you done with IHG?
Theres a thread on FT where someone had his account closed as he had 25 claims
Oh, I don’t do that many. Like 6 in 2013. And I can’t tell by the thread but my impression was that the guy had broke some rules of IHG in the process. So I’m not worried about getting shut down while following the rules.
Not a big deal. I usually love this blog, but I’m not sure it ever was meant that someone should be able to use this tactic to stay free everywhere, so it’s hardly “tragic” if they tighten up a bit. I tend to reserve words like “tragic” for cancer, deadly car crashes, and the like.
Thanks for the input Dave, as I do value your opinion.
I like the Best Western BRGs. I just got one the other day – $73 hotel room that I found for a few bucks cheaper. So I paid for the room (earning points in the process) and then got a $100 Best Western travel card via email a few weeks later.
They actually initially denied it because it wasn’t the “same room type” but when I emailed them telling them that there was only 1 type of room in the whole hotel (it was an all suite hotel), they came back and approved it
lol, goes to show that they look for reasons to deny people. But I’m hoping to try my luck soon.
do any of the online travel agencies fire you as a customer if you file too many brg ( not more than the 3 per month) or too profitable for you claims? They do not seem to like to honor these claims, and at this point I am only using past credits with them or brg claims for new stays.
I’ve only heard of one example of someone being kicked out of the program for too many BRGs, and it was 1) a ton of BRGs with IHG. and 2) they were breaking some other rules.
So I personally don’t worry about it. Although I’m not familiar with the OTA booking sites really.
How do you search IHG in the local currency with Kayak (namely south africa)? Thanks.
So at least on Kayak.com you can either change the country in the top right or the very bottom, depending on what page you’re on. However, I don’t see South Africa. Although I do see the currency, I don’t know if it converts it, or finds sites that book in it.
I agree they have tightened up and will often use the slightest excuse to deny claims. Guess that’s what keeps most average travelers from bothering, and leaves it to those willing to invest the time and effort and trial and error. It’s annoying but not all that tragic –though there is a “traggic” state of spell checking in the frequent-flying blogoshpere… 🙂
I should really fire my editing staff! Ya know, from all the money I make from this full time blog.
On a underlying related note, via business week, we learn that a Dallas US Federal Judge recently threw out consolidated lawsuit that had claimed that the entire “best rate’ guarantees are nothing more than a cover for their conspiracy to fix prices.” (a “deal” that is, between hotel chains and on-line travel outlets)
The Dallas based judge apparently sidestepped the question of the extent of such collusion by deeming such “distribution” to be quite legal. To rule otherwise, she claims, would be tantamount to saying the hotel must compete against itself.
*blinking
As a result, BRG’s are headed for the dust-bin…. a sham indeed…. explaining to me anyway why that every time I’ve gone to Kayak to check hotel prices over the past 3 months, I always see 12+ web sites all listing the exact same prices. Sorry state indeed.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-02-18/hotel-room-online-price-fixing-lawsuit-dismissed-by-u-dot-s-dot-judge
Interesting. Yea, it’s not even the price fixing that bothers me really. It’s the fact that a hotel advertises a guarantee and tries to side step it. But it looks like IHG makes all kinds of terms and conditions to be able to legally side step it.
Choice Hotels are a decent option. I just booked a BRG for Dallas in March. I would prefer to stay at an Intercontinental but that’s getting very hard to find.
Free is free. Yea, the funny thing is that I’ve only gotten 1 Choice BRG. Grant it, I look less often. But I’ve denied a number of times.
Used a BRG for a very nice stay at the Honolulu Waikiki Beach Holiday Inn last month. Now looking for one in LA in a few weeks.
Congrats on getting a valid claim though! 😉
I agree getting a free night out of IHG has become almost impossible in Asia and Oceania. I finally gave up and tried Rydges Resorts in Sydney. Rate dropped from $A209.00 to $A87.00. Thanks for the lead.
Awesome. Glad to hear people are picking up some of the other BRG ideas. 209 to 87 is a heck of a deal.
I’ve had mixed success with BRGs over the past few months. Marriott, Starwood, and Expedia have been easy. My one Hyatt experience was great but took 40 minutes on the phone — a bit much.
IHG, Choice, and Best Western have been hit or miss. I’ve taken to filing any time I can on refundable fare. Some that I think are slam dunks are denied, some that I think should be denied are approved – there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason.
Orbitz is generally useless. I maintain that they are misreading their own rules re: the BRG. I actually escalated to management that the way the rules are written discounted rates not available to the general public are excluded while their agents are denying ANY discounted rate. I got an apology saying that proper procedures weren’t followed and got Orbucks added to my account in the amount of the BRG. Not sure if they just wanted to make me go away or if it is a sign that they at least have the intention to have a valid BRG program.
I haven’t yet been successful at “rolling” BRGs. Failed @ Best Western – they said that I couldn’t use a travelcard on BRG rate even though it was NOT an advanced purchase rate. The front desk girl seemed a bit incompetent, so I’ll be trying this one again in the future. Will be very interested if anyone comes up with a good way to roll Expedia or other OTA BRGs.
That’s a great anaylsis.
And I agree. Sometimes it seems like the only IHGs I get approved are the ones that shouldn’t. Recently I submitted one, and it went through even though I’m 100% sure it shouldn’t have. But I realized right after I submitted. Anyways, it came back with a free night. Since then, I really haven’t gotten any, despite them being valid.
Good to hear Orbitz is a waste of time. Like I said, I’ll be giving the OTAs a try. Would love to try rolling. A big time commitment to see which ones work and dont.
But I feel as though Best Western really should. The hotel can take gift cards. So I don’t see the issue. But I guess YMMV. And who knows, maybe they do have goofy rules. But will for sure be trying.
SPG has been working well for me. On a few occasions I have found that SPG puts $1 as a holding price for your reservation. If the hotel does not fix the rate you can get a room for $1 and your 2000 points (and it can count towards paid stays for promotions). One hotel has even been consistent with this mistake (not sharing and trying not to abuse, but it is tough).
Wow, that’s super interesting. SPG is so glitchy. Not consistently enough to take advantage of, but enough to be surprised with free goodies. :-p Well, it sounds like you found something consistent. But ya know. Like I completed 5 night stay and completed a promo for 5,000 AC miles. And they deposited 3 times. I got 15,000 AC miles.
To prepare trip to London, I’ve searched more than 50 sites to compete rate at Hilton, and found out all free cancellation rate from OTA are having more attractive offers except cancellable time which is little restrictor than Hilton.
I don’t know wheather its Hilton’s recent behavior or not, now it is somewhat similar to IHG. As per Hilton correspondent, OTA cancellation policy needs to be exactly same or better than their’s.
Hilton BRG is now working only with AP rate, and for London, I don’t find any website offering lower AP rate than Hilton.
So, I have a trip where the cancellation time on IHG.com is at 4:00 pm local time, and the cancellation time on the 3rd party sites is 6:00 pm. Everything else seems the same, except the 3rd party sites are about $100/night cheaper. Is this what you mean by better cancellation time?