procyon

Hi all,

I found a situation, where the Hotel staff denied to accrue points to the BW program, because the reservation was made in the Expedia website.

Is this OK? If not, can they deny the miles to any airline program too?

Thanks

sdsearch

Yes, I believe it's in the Best Western Terms & Conditions that there are all sorts of third-party booking rates that don't earn anything.

It's may or may not be because of booking at Expedia per se, but if you book an Expedia "special rate", that is definitely a problem, because that is a rate they've negioated with the hotel or hotel program as a "no points/miles" rate.

Most hotel programs don't give points/miles for stays booked at most other third-party sites. If you haven't run into this before, you're probably just lucky.

The thing is, hotels have a limited amount that they want to "discount" rooms, and they view giving points/miles as a form of "discount". You can choose which discount you want (third-party special rate or points/miles), but you can't stack all the discounts you find on top of each other.

Hotels have to pay extra fees to third-party websites, comapred to stays booked on the hotel program's own website. So they have every incentive to disallow earning of miles/points on third-party bookings. (Some disallow all third-party bookings, some disallow all but their airline partners, and some simply disallow many third-party rates.)

stallion114

Agreed,
Most if not all airlines will give you miles for booking 3rd party, but I do not know of any hotels that give you points on bookings through anything but there own website/phone/actual hotel.
They will however give you the status benefits.
Ex. Book a hyatt through expedia you will still get breakfast and a diamond amenity if you have diamond status.

sdsearch

I don't think it's completely universal like that either way. I think there are some programs (and this may even be one of them) which allow third-party bookings as long as they're for the same rates you can get through the hotel program's own website.

On the other hand, there are some programs (I think HHonors is one) which don't even necessarily give elite benefits on some third-party-booked stays, at the very least at blind-booking sites.

Meanwhile, I seem to recall that several hotel programs make an exception for the sites run by the airlines they parnter with, because at those sites the purpose of booking the hotel there is usually the convenience of booking air/hotel/car all at one site, and you probably get the same rates the hotel program's own site would give.

It's the sites that people use to try to save money over the hotel's own site's rates, not the sites they use just for convenience, that the hotels are most likely to disqualify (on earning and/or elite perks). And thus blind-bidding sites are the most "blacklisted" of all.

Koc

I was recently denied earnings to my Eurobonus account upon check-out at the BW Apollo Museumhotel in AMS, the room was booked through Hotels.com.

Goes for the same I guess?

St Vincent

My experience from the UK is that loyalty programmes generally won't give points for the room cost if booked via a third party site. You should however get points on any expenditure charged to the room.

Often1

What are the specific t&c for the specific room you booked? Rather than asking the broader question, the answer to which is "maybe yes, maybe no" would suggest you check your specific booking.

Vick407

Best Western Hotels are not obligated to give you points on 3rd party reservations mainly: Expedia, hotwire, Priceline etc.

However some properties overlook it and give points. So its a hit and miss.

JDiver

It's always best to consult the Terms and Conditions.

Best Western Rewards® General Terms and Conditions

These terms and conditions apply to the North American Best Western Rewards® and Best Western Speed Rewards® programs (North, Central and South America, Mexico, The Caribbean, Asia, the Middle East and South Africa).

...Effective February 28, 2008, all rate programs qualify for earning points, except Leisure Club (LC), House Plan (HP), Employee/Member (E), European Employee (EE), Preferred Net (DI/D2), Priceline (PL/PN), Travelocity Promotional (D3), Orbitz Promotional (44), Expedia (FIT), Net/FIT (FI), Travel Agent Discount (TA), Tours (Group Tour Operator), Group (OF/OG), Crew and Deeply Discounted Extended Stay and Hotel Negotiated (greater than 20 percent discount), GCCI (FX), Dynamic Net Tour (X2), Dynamic Vacation Packages (WB), Amenity Packages, Unit Card (UC), Site 59 (59) and other locally negotiated hotel discount rates for crew or extended stays for longer than one week.

NJUPINTHEAIR

JDiver, thanks for the pertinent section as I got to wondering about this issue, as well.

Although I have not stayed at a Choice or Wyndham affiliated property, I believe that at least one of these permits elite members to book thru any site they wish, including 3rd party sites, in order to earn points and stay credits.

Now with respect to BW, the above section does not appear to preclude earning points or in my case, FF miles, on what I would think are most rates, except deeply discounted special rates, that are offered on the 3rd party website.

Now, the reason why I commenced this search and came to this conclusion was as a result of the new BW Double Points promotion. There there was some verbiage stating that one must book via the BW site to earn the double points -- ergo, it appeared to me that given that proviso, one would be permitted by BW to earn the normal amount of points or FF miles, if one booked via a 3rd party website, so long as deeply discounted or opaque rates were not involved.

I am thinking of booking via Hotels.com due to their Stay 10 get 1 night free promotion, as it seems that I could earn both FF miles via BW Rewards, as well as have the stay count towards the Hotels.com promotion. Moreover, as Hotels.com is found on a number of shopping portal websites, it would seem that I may be able to further discount my rate for a BW hotel by booking via a shopping portal and thence thru to Hotels.com , in effect earning the often sought "Triple Dip" on the reservation and also still earn points or FF miles.

If anyone knows anything that would foil or supports this assumption, kindly please advise!

Thanks,

NJ

sdsearch

No, neither does.

Wyndham does not have an elite program at all. So it can't be that one.

It's Choice you were probably thinking of, but it doesn't work that way. That misunderstanding comes from a misintretation of their old language "any booking channel". Booking channels means method of booking, not URL of booking. Booking channels include booking with Choice on the phone, Choice website, booking directly with the hotel, or booking with a (corporate) travel agent.

In their latest promo

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/choic...1-14-12-a.html

Choice has finally clarified the language and gotten rid of the confusing-to-some "any booking channel" phrase. They now say:
And, again, "travel management company" does not mean Expedia or Orbitz, it means a corportate travel agency.

NJUPINTHEAIR

Thanks very much SDS!

Still, it would appear that BW permits this from their language, of course, however, they could have made the same mistake that Choice initially had done.

TallestHotelInJapan

Per T&Cs there wil no points and stay credits be given for 3rd party bookings. In reality, many BW hotels still give you points and stay credit. Some refuse.

NJUPINTHEAIR

THJ --

Where does it state that in the T & C?

TallestHotelInJapan

JDiver was so kind to post in earlier, see here