Hilton HHonors - Cant Beat Hilton any longer

well it seems as if the Party is over. most places ive been able to beat Hilton at are either the exact same price or I get a message 'no rooms available on the date you selected' thats on expedia. Yet when I check the same hotel at Hilton all the different room types are available so I guess Hilton put its foot down. close to 20 stays last yr just from the Best Rate Promo alone. Got use to getting those Amex checks in the mail and full points for the stays.
With both Expedia and Orbitz falling into line (actually the hotels that deal with them). Got to find another site , but I dont feel that will happen. It was nice.

I'm glad to hear that someone was able to do it. I submitted a claim and it was denied for lack of proof.

I had a reservation booked on Hilton.com, found it cheaper, but Hilton said it could not verify it. I then cancelled my Hilton res and booked on the other website. Apparently this wasn't enough proof either.

Did you get free stays, or just the $50 amex checks?

Anyway the problem I always had with this program was that the best rates are always corp negotiated rates, and for the most part, unless you are on one of these you are probably paying too much.

I have the flexibility to stay wherever I want as long as it meets the corporate negotiated rate our company has with hotels in that city. In most cases, if we don't have an agreement with a Hilton, I can't find a competitive rate.

So, my rate in NYC is $155, and at this stay I was able to find a competitive rate, but I usually have to stay at a non-Hilton to stay at $155 or below. In the past, I've called around to different hotels, but they usually don't want to match, and it is a hassle.

there were a couple of Full service reg Hiltons that I was able to beat. Mostly it was DoubleTrees & Hamptons.
a friend got some really good ones beat Hampton by $5 so it went from $59 to $54 - $50 = Cost him $4 for the night. He got the pts as a $54 stay. Yes he got a stay credit. My best was it cost me $14 in the end a few times.
The key is/was once you found a cheaper rate to print it out!, since it could be gone the next day and HH had no way to verify it, if it was gone. Much as airfares change so quickly. 2nd, you had to make sure that it matched eg you found on X a rate of $51 for a King and the Hilton site has a rate of $55 for a Queen or 2 Double Beds, then its NOT a match and you dont get the $50. 3rdly, you had to beat the regular rate, so if a AAA rate on site X was $51 and a reg rate on Hilton was $59 or even if the AAA was $59 no good. once you got the hang of it it was easy, and will be missed very much. heck checking the past few days for both Southern Florida and Southern Cal not only no longer beating 'em ONLY finding rates over $100 even for Hamptons last year they were around $69+.
So you can rack up get airfares this year but the hotels will take the savings with interest from ya this year.

well it seems as if the Party is over.

I think the party was over shortly after it started. I was able to beat the Hilton rate once soon after this "best rate guaranteed" program started, but it seems Hilton quickly forced all its properties to fall in line and I have not been able to again. I guess that was the goal after all, to take away any incentive to book on any site other than Hilton.com.

I was never able to get the $50 deal, I gave up after looking off and on for about two weeks.

Looked for properties near me mostly.

I've been able to get the $50 guarantee three times now but you do have to do some searching. I've been successful twice in Washington DC area and once in Toronto. I've had about twice as many refused.