Originally Posted by
okazon69
I received another clarification from BW:
I have a distinct feeling they're really cracking down on this and not many BRG claims are being honored these days. At least what I'm seeing is that most BW hotels I look at have some "Internet Only" pre-paid rate that is a good 10-15% lower than even an AAA rate, say, and certainly lower than other travel websites.
Also, according to
this manual, the hotel gets penalized quite heavily for having a cheaper rate available outside of bestwestern.com:
Ouch!!
I know nothing about running a hotel, but I would imagine there must be a very strong incentive to stick with the BW brand to put up with so many rules, regulations and especially, fees.
I did a match a week ago that involved an internet only rate. It worked OK.
I can't really blame BW for saying that their internet only rate is lower than a rate on another website. And honestly, some of their internet only rates can be cancelled up to a week prior, so it's not the most restrictive.
So far, I'm 4 for 4 on BW BRG's on locations where I needed a room. (I had one failure, but just switched to a nearby property.)