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Has anyone used this without too much hassle?
All of the hotel guarantees are a hassle. You will get the impression that the agents are paid by the number of rejections they make.
ANY difference – 2pm vs 3pm check-in, king bed vs double bed … you can expect them to look for any excuse not to agree. They are just a marketing gimmick. The best bit is when the cheaper room has better terms (eg noon check-out vs 11am check-out) and you are still rejected.
A particular favourite is Marriott having a large proportion of the total cost as taxes and charges, and so saying that their base cost is lower than the comparison, while saying that they can’t allow the guarantee because other sites charge more taxes!
That said I’ve managed it once, and reading Flyertalk people do seem to manage to get some applied.
I think over the past year I’ve managed to make 8 claims and 6 of them have been approved. In all cases I’ve had a response within 24 hours which means if I didn’t get the rate matched I was able to cancel my booking with Marriott direct. I’ll give some examples of my claims below:
Hotel: Courtyard New York Times Square West
Marriott rate: $716.16
Third party and rate: Booking.com $519.36
Comments: Approved – final rate was $446.50Hotel: Gewandhaus Dresden
Marriott rate: 210 EUR
Third party and rate: Expedia.de 180 EUR
Comments: Approved – final rate was 135.15 EURHotel: AC Brescia
Marriott rate: 725 EUR
Third party and rate: Booking.com 689 EUR
Comments: Declined – booking didn’t include city tax whereas Marriott didHotel: Sheraton Frankfurt Airport
Marriott rate: 122.5 EUR
Third party and rate: traveluro.com 114 EUR
Comments: Declined – slightly questionable reservations siteHotel: Moxy Bordeaux
Marriott rate: 115.3 EUR
Third party and rate: Expedia.com £93.19
Comments: Approved – final rate was 80.29 EURHotel: Renaissance Bordeaux
Marriott rate: 175.28 EUR
Third party and rate: Expedia.com £146.42
Comments: Approved – final rate was EUR 120.87Hotel: Fairfield New York Downtown
Marriott rate: $246
Third party and rate: Expedia.com $220
Comments: Approved – final rate was $165Hotel: Basel Marriott
Marriott rate: 365 CHF
Third party and rate: Priceline.com £157.40
Comments: Approved – final rate was 138.71 CHFIf you make a claim against a site like Expedia as long as the conditions are similar then it’s likely to be approved, a lot of those hotel booking sites you see on Google aren’t valid for comparison. Also it’s in the hotel owner’s interests to make sure the rates are the same since they’re going to get find on the order of $50-$500 per breach of the terms as well as needing to accept the lower rate. That means you can sometimes find good BRG claims on new quiet hotels where the owners don’t necessarily know what they’re doing yet.
Nice data points, thanks this is useful. I noticed some terms make it tricky so its not just final price alone.
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