Originally Posted by
joakgarp
I admit I exaggerated a bit and edited my post after you quoted it
From a scale from 1-5. Hyatt is 0 and SPG is 2.
I believe: If every 3rd party and 1st offer the exact same rate all the time the competition will die and so will the 3rd party hotels in the end since it won't make any sense to book by a 3rd party anymore. The reason why a 3rd party exist is to offer rates lower than hotel chains back in the days when it all started. That's why hotel chains started a BRG program to bring back their customers. Rates should never be fixed.
No offence, but the reason why we have BRG programs are so that hotels would ensure their own portals (e.g. SPG.com, hyatt.com, etc.) offer the lowest rate out there. If there is a lower rate offered by OTAs, then the hotel loyalty program penalizes the property. If guest books at OTAs, OTAs get the commission and not Starwood as an example. So if you were Starwood, would you not want to get the $$$ instead of the OTA getting the commission?
BRG program was not created so we could have our fill of 2K points and 20% offs.
But feel free to stay at Marriott....