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Best Rate Guarantee (BRG) 2015 : *now 20% off*; Success, failure & discussion thread

Old Jan 1, 2015, 7:35 am
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Last edit by: TravelinSperry
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What is the Best Rate Guarantee (BRG ?)
If a lower rate at a Starwood Hotel is made available on a non-Starwood website or non-Starwood mobile application, upon its receipt of a claim that satisfies these Best Rate Guarantee terms and conditions, Starwood will honor that Competing Rate and provide the individual that submitted the valid claim one of the following rewards: (1) an additional 20% discount off the Competing Rate per room per night (up to a maximum of three rooms); or (2) 2,000 Starwood Preferred Guest Starpoints per room per stay (up to a maximum of three rooms).

BRG Wiki on Flyertalk

You cannot BRG against a rate on a Starwood Website/App (hot escapes, promos, Gov. Rate etc.). It has to be a 3rd party website/App.
Cancellation policy has no bearing on a BRG claim with one exception if the rate difference is within 1%.
"Starwood may deny claims where the difference between the Competing Rate and the rate on the Starwood Website is less than one percent; provided that Starwood will not use the fact that the difference between the Competing Rate and the rate on the Starwood Website is less than one percent to deny such claims if the cancellation policy for the Competing Rate is more favorable to the guest than the cancellation policy for the rate on the Starwood Website."
A valid Starwood website reservation is required to submit a BRG (only exception is when there is no availability on the Starwood website)
Only one claim may be submitted per reservation number (If your first claim is denied, you may submit a new claim for that reservation if you find another lower rate after you receive the denial email)
Make sure to book a flexible rate on SPG.com. This will allow you to then cancel this booking if you find a lower Starwood rate later (like the hot escapes etc.) or if your travel plans change.
You can BRG with a flexible rate against a prepaid rate. In other words, if expedia is offering a room for $100 prepaid, and spg.com shows a prepaid room for $150 or a flexible room for $200, you can book the FLEXIBLE spg.com rate and BRG it against the PREPAID $100 expedia rate. And you will receive the flexible cancel terms if the BRG is approved.
If your comparable rate includes extras like breakfast or parking, make sure there is a room available on spg.com that includes the exact amenities. If there is the same room type with the same amenities on SPG.com, they will compare and if lower on third party, the claim may be approved for the room type and with the amenities. If there is the same room type available but no/different amenities offered, the claim may still be approved, but the rate will be room only.
Room types must be the same for a BRG.
If you have an approved and finalized claim and you find an even cheaper rate later, then you may submit a new BRG claim that is not connected to any existing reservation. If this BRG claim is approved, you will need to make a new flexible reservation on SPG.com. Once the process is completed, you will then email the BRG desk to cancel your first reservation, if it is within the cancellation deadline.
If you find availability for the room type you want on a third party website/app but there is no availability for that room type or no availability for any room type on the Starwood Website, then this may be an approved claim if it meets all other terms and conditions. You will need to make sure that you specify the room type you actually want on the Starwood Website section and enter 0 in the rate and currency. This will ensure that the processing associates know that the room type you want is not available on the Starwood Website. You may also add additional comments near the end of the claim form indicating that there is no availability on the Starwood Website to help clarify.

Differing currencies
"The Best Rate Guarantee department will approve a claim if there is a difference of 2.5% or greater where the currencies are different or a difference of 1% or greater if the currencies are the same."

Link to T&C
https://www.starwoodhotels.com/bestrate/terms.html

Practicalities During/After Stay
Reconfirm your rate at check-in; normally the hotel will have the correct BRG rate in your reservation, but sometimes you will need to remind them.
If you choose points, they will be credited after the stay; check in one week to see if they have posted. If not contact the BRG office to arrange to have them posted.

How to add a SNA to a BRG reservation
Log into your SPG account
Click on your stays to view our your current reservation
Look for your BRG reservation and click on "send confirmation" link for the BRG reservation
reload the page and you should be able to now select "apply SNA to this stay" link
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Best Rate Guarantee (BRG) 2015 : *now 20% off*; Success, failure & discussion thread

 
Old Jan 7, 2015, 6:48 am
  #46  
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 46
thanks.
br733 is offline  
Old Jan 7, 2015, 9:54 am
  #47  
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Originally Posted by TravelinSperry
A better question is what are you doing to make it so easy?
Since my experiences match the vast majority of people (in this forum at least), your experiences appear to be the anomolies.

Originally Posted by TravelinSperry
I am simply finding lower rates on 3rd party websites and they are denying them every time.
What do they state as the basis for denial?
mahasamatman is offline  
Old Jan 7, 2015, 10:09 am
  #48  
 
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: Miami, FL
Programs: UA 1MM, AA Plat Pro, Marriott LT Titanium, Hyatt Glob, IHG ♢ Amb, Hilton ♢, Hertz Pres
Posts: 6,010
Originally Posted by mahasamatman
Since my experiences match the vast majority of people (in this forum at least), your experiences appear to be the anomolies.

What do they state as the basis for denial?
Seems to be

Here is their initial denial response:

"I have reviewed the rates for the Sheraton XXXX, for the dates of your claim on our website and found a rate of XXX.00 USD plus tax, per night; which is the same as the rate I found on Getaroom.com. Since the rate is the same on our website, I am unable to approve your claim.

Mr. XXXX, I would like to take this opportunity to mention the Best Rate Guarantee Department only validates the rates offered on both the competing website and our own website at the time of processing. We do not have the ability to verify a rate that was available prior to this time."

So basically they are saying that they checked at the time of processing and didn't find a lower rate but understand that I may have seen a lower rate at time of submission.

Of course I re-checked after I was denied, since I realize that due to the 24-36 hr processing times Getaroom.com could've raised rates. But I found they did not - and the exact same rate was available at submission. So I resubmitted my claim and it was approved although I'm still awaiting them to modify my ressie so it's not finalized yet.

Not sure why I'm an anomaly, just sounds like bad luck on my part. At 20% I intend to use BRG more aggressively so we'll see if my luck continues or if perhaps it gets easier from here out.
TravelinSperry is offline  
Old Jan 7, 2015, 10:13 am
  #49  
 
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: LHR
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Posts: 5,114
Could it not be that there is a rate which you are not seeing on SPG which is the same as Getaroom?
ExpatSomchai is offline  
Old Jan 7, 2015, 10:23 am
  #50  
 
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: GVA
Programs: BA Silver (OW Sapphire), A3 Gold (*G), Bonvoy LTTE, HHonors Diamond, LeClubAccor Silver, UA Silver
Posts: 1,765
Same-city BRG claims

From BRG's T&Cs:
Starwood will compare the total room cost of a stay, and multiple claims for a stay consisting of two or more nights in the same week at the same Starwood Hotel or Starwood Hotels in the same geographic location (e.g. city) may be treated as one claim for one stay, even if booked through more than one reservation.

Does anyone know if this is a case of YMMV? I have 2 stays in the same city, broken up by 1 stay in another city (eg Mumbai-Delhi-Mumbai). All stays have a BRG claim potential: can I only apply for 1 stay in Mumbai? Do I have better chances if I pick 2 different hotels in Mumbai?
RafKa is offline  
Old Jan 7, 2015, 1:53 pm
  #51  
 
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Quebec and Ontario, Canada
Programs: AC*E50, SPG/Marriott Plat
Posts: 1,916
Originally Posted by RafKa
From BRG's T&Cs:
Starwood will compare the total room cost of a stay, and multiple claims for a stay consisting of two or more nights in the same week at the same Starwood Hotel or Starwood Hotels in the same geographic location (e.g. city) may be treated as one claim for one stay, even if booked through more than one reservation.

Does anyone know if this is a case of YMMV? I have 2 stays in the same city, broken up by 1 stay in another city (eg Mumbai-Delhi-Mumbai). All stays have a BRG claim potential: can I only apply for 1 stay in Mumbai? Do I have better chances if I pick 2 different hotels in Mumbai?
It's definitely a YMMV case. But anyway you can do as many claims as you want, it is just the bonus that you may just have once.
Yul_voyager is offline  
Old Jan 7, 2015, 2:14 pm
  #52  
 
Join Date: May 2012
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Do also remember to check the hotels' offers page, sometimes there maybe rates lower than what's offered at BAR.
lcpteck is offline  
Old Jan 7, 2015, 4:35 pm
  #53  
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 46
My brg claim was denied because 'The competing rate that you have submitted is an "on request" rate which means that you are not able to get an instant confirmation of your reservation'

I found the competing rate on ctrip...
br733 is offline  
Old Jan 7, 2015, 5:02 pm
  #54  
 
Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: SFO
Posts: 1,746
Originally Posted by br733
My brg claim was denied because 'The competing rate that you have submitted is an "on request" rate which means that you are not able to get an instant confirmation of your reservation'

I found the competing rate on ctrip...
When you look at the competing rate does it say anything about it being sold out/on request? If so, you are SOL. If not, call the BRG number and ask politely. I was denied for the same reason (among other reasons for other claims). Every time I call I get a human who says "huh, I don't know why that was rejected..."

I think out of 6 BRG claims this week, 5 were initially rejected and 1 was initially approved. Eventually all 6 were approved.
djibouti is offline  
Old Jan 7, 2015, 5:35 pm
  #55  
 
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: BKK
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Posts: 2,224
2 claims were approved after new BRG reward (20%) was effected.

Hotel Name: The Westin Palace, Madrid
Arrival Date : 04/xx/2015
Departure Date : 04/xx/2015 (4 nights)
Number of Adults :2
Number of Rooms : 1
New Starwood Room Type : Deluxe room (Breakfast included)
New Starwood Rate : EUR 1152.80
Competing Website : galahotels.com
Competing rate : EUR 786
Competing Room Type : Deluxe room (Breakfast included)
Competing Site Language : en_US
Comments : Breakfast inclueded in both rates. all taxes and fees included.
BRG Reward : 20% off
Actual confirmed rate: 143.38 EUR plus VAT, per night (179.22 EUR less 20%)

Hotel Name: Le Mridien Etoile
Arrival Date : 04/xx/2015
Departure Date : 04/xx/2015 (3 nights)
Number of Adults :2
Number of Rooms : 1
New Starwood Room Type : Classic room
New Starwood Rate : EUR 0 (No availability on spg.com)
Competing Website : galahotels.com
Competing rate : EUR 607
Competing Room Type : Classic room (Breakfast included)
Competing Site Language : en_US
Comments : there is no availability of all room types on spg.com. all taxes and fees included.
BRG Reward : 20% off
Actual confirmed rate: 162.34 EUR per night including tax (202.93 EUR less 20%)

Last edited by 3rdworldresident; Jan 8, 2015 at 2:41 am
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Old Jan 7, 2015, 7:53 pm
  #56  
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Originally Posted by br733
I found the competing rate on ctrip...
As I recall, BRGs on ctrip are rarely if ever approved.
mahasamatman is offline  
Old Jan 7, 2015, 8:54 pm
  #57  
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
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Posts: 6,631
Originally Posted by mahasamatman
Since my experiences match the vast majority of people (in this forum at least), your experiences appear to be the anomolies.
I'll second this. More than half of my stays are BRG stays. I've never once gotten "run around" -- yes there are times where I submit a claim and it gets denied because a lower rate miraculously appears on SPG's website during the time between my submission and SPG's response, but hey that's part of the deal... and all of those instances are fully consistent with what may likely be happening in real life, which is that hotels may load rates to some websites before they change their rates on SPG.com.

One of the most valuable uses of the BRG for me has been when the hotel shows as sold out on starwood websites but as available on another website. This, to me, is far more valuable than the Platinum Guaranteed Reservation or whatever (where you pay rack rate and have to give 3 days notice)... I've gotten rooms at 10% less than a fairly reasonable rate on 2 days notice where the property has shown sold out on SPG.com but available elsewhere.
platbrownguy is offline  
Old Jan 7, 2015, 9:31 pm
  #58  
 
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: HK
Programs: SPG Platinum, BW Diamond, TK Elite
Posts: 380
Do they accept discount code? e.g. I found the same rate at certain booking website but there exist a publicly available discount code to lower down the price, will the claim eligible?
fakeman is offline  
Old Jan 7, 2015, 9:41 pm
  #59  
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Programs: SPG,HH,IHG
Posts: 786
Originally Posted by supatight80
I do not think theyre going to make it harder to approve brg claims as we (spg.com'ers and dedicated brg'ers) are not their target group or the reason why they are making it now 20%. If we were, then they would have increased the points as well.

Expedia, agoda, etc. charges as high as 25% commission per booking. So instead of giving online travel agencies that amount, theyre just giving the customer the discount by booking through spg.com. And by giving 20% off by booking through spg, then theyre enticing more customers to become members and get their loyalty.

I mean if theyre going to make it harder to approve brg claims, then people will just continue to book via expedia, etc and theyll be getting the 15-25% commission. So to the hotel, i dont think itll make a difference to them if the customer or the online agency gets the discount.

On a side note, anyone lately had successful brg claims in HKG? IME properties there are so hard to brg...
Couldnt agree more! Now, every OTA has own loyalty program which is easy to understand and calculate est. value back is 8-10%.
If I know this, Starwood must know this too and start to fix it before all customers go to OTA.
So Starwood will start free internet when booking via direct web and Hyatt will start free internet in all direct booking channel.
I hope Starwood will not make their BRG down or scam like IHG,Hyatt,Hilton and Accor.
Only Best BRG program today is SPG BRG and Marriott LNF.
nongsom is offline  
Old Jan 7, 2015, 9:43 pm
  #60  
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Programs: SPG,HH,IHG
Posts: 786
Originally Posted by fakeman
Do they accept discount code? e.g. I found the same rate at certain booking website but there exist a publicly available discount code to lower down the price, will the claim eligible?
IIRC not eligible
nongsom is offline  

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