I joined BW Rewards yesterday on a status match, Hilton Gold to BW Diamond. My first experience with LRG has been less than stellar.

Initially, the claim was rejected because "The room type you reserved is no longer available on our website for February 24, 2017. It is sold out so we are unable to compare the rates. For the Low Rate Guarantee program the the rate has to be available at the time the claim is researched." BW uses its own availability when they review the claim as a basis for denying the claim? I've heard of denials from other hotel brands that use the competitior's rate at time of review (rather than the competitor's rate at time of claim filing), but I've never seen a hotel's own inventory as the basis for denial. Even with this kind of inane logic, I checked the BW site, and the room type is NOT sold out.

So I replied that the room type I reserved is still available and ask for a review.

The claim is rejected a second time because "On www.bestwestern.com the advance purchase rate for the room type you booked is 121.35 and on priceline that rate for this room is 121.35. due to rate not being less, your claim is still denied." Now they are comparing different rooms types and different cancellation policies. The room I booked is for one king with sofabed, which is the same type I found at Priceline. Neither are advance purchase rates. Now they're coming back at me with an advance purchase rate for one king without sofabed. Different room type, different cancellation policy. This is stunningly bad customer service.

This requirement of competitor site offering a lower price than any room price on BW.com (regardless of room type and cancellation policy) is unique to BW BRG and it's something one has to live with.

Total Scam
 

Filed a Low Rate guarantee three times and got rejected all three times. First they said it was not readable. Resubmitted and they said I could not book a AAA rate and it had to be the standard rate. I rebooked from the $90 AAA rate to the $100 standard rate and resubmitted. Then they said the competitors rate had to be on a publicly viewable site. I was using Hotels.com and they said it was not viewable. Anyone can access Hotels.com site. The whole time Hotels.com was showing $86 and they never would honor it. All correspondence was from the Italian office. Because of this I'm making our group stay elsewhere.

I read that, too. But BW Customer Service confirmed that the LRG is available globally.
It's still a scam - they'll find other made-up reasons to reject it anyway...
going through a claim right now, will see how it ends...

Best Western's LRG is a total scam...
 

I went through a claim for a LRG that was pretty clear-cut with room-type, terms, etc all matching exactly. The claim was denied anyway:
First reason given was that the booking I made was in PHP, but the rate at the OTA was in USD. Once I proved with a screenshot that both rates were in PHP and displayed in USD for convenience, they maintained that there were different currencies used. How you can repeat that claim when you have screenshots to prove otherwise is beyond me.
But, knowing that was probably not holding up, they added that the rate I had purchased was "discounted". The only "discount" was that the OTA showed the BW rate as well as their own rate, which is the very reason why there are LRGs...
Given that reason for rejection, BW can reject any claim as any lower rate will be "discounted".
This was handled by their Italian service center and reviewed by a supervisor, so clearly this is not a case of single, poorly trained staff, but a management directive to not approve claims (or as few as possible).
I think they should be prohibited from making these marketing claims when they have no intention of upholding them. It's a total scam...

Is it normal that you don't get an autoresponder once you fill out the form? Once I hit the submit button it took me back fo the previous page, no success notification nor error message. I admit I'm relatively new to the BRG club but from my experiences from Marriott and SPG you immediately get an email with "Your request is currently being processed, please allow some time bla bla bla".

Same happened to me, so I'd also like to know the answer.

Worst BRG in the system
 

Hi,

I don't normally stay at BW's, but recently due to limited options and found a nice rate on a competing website to submit a BRG, experienced one of the worst experience with their BRG program. Why I think they are really terible in their BRG
1) after filling in the online form, you don't get any confirmation if everything was send ok or not.
2) Waited for more than 3 days before something appeared in my mailbox that it was only being looked at
3) after another 2 days, received the response - rejected because they could not find the rate anymore
4) response back that I've also made a reservation on the competing site with the lower rate (it was refundable on the BW site and the competing site).
5) after 2 weeks - no response whatsoever, had to call the Customer Service line. Was informed that there is another different department that handles this, but was told to send in the confirmation of the competing website.
6) again after more than a week no response, called again and this time, they did go look for all my communications while I hold. Told in the end that it was still denied because they could not find the rate on the competing site and that my reservation with the lower rate does not qualify because they can't see it.

Did not bother to argue at all as I know it will be a waste of my time. So just told them my opinion and I proceeded to cancel my reservation and they can sell the room to someone who is willing to pay the hotel asking price.
Luckily I don't normally stay at BW's so am less irritated but just the whole experience of their BRG program and customer service, leaves such a bitter taste.

Cheers!

Thought I'd try my luck on a BRG.. got denied.

They included this in the response...
"The rates we have seen on www.cheaptickets.com are special discounted rates offered by them to reduce their inventory and sell the rooms"
"If you review the Terms and Conditions on the ninth line you will see that packages and discounted rates do not qualify the LRG Program"

Uhh....

Ron.

I have got my BRG claim approved few days back, but it was indeed a pain to deal with, took multiple e-mails after initial baseless rejection and I still did not receive updated reservation info (i.e. I only have a letter from LRG team with approval of my claim).

Just got my BRG claim approved a few days ago in the first attempt. Anyone who got the claim approved, how long to receive the GC and any end date for using GC?

Thanks.

I got my electronic gift card about 2 weeks after completing the stay, no expiration date.

I just received a rejection with exactly the same reasoning: "special discounted rates offered by them to reduce their inventory and sell the rooms". Seems to be bad faith to me: discounted rates are exactly why you might have a best rate guarantee program. Comparing to rack rate, everything is a discount. Leaves me with a bad feeling.

problem is the lowest rate show in BW website require you to be a Best Western Rewards member. while the Agoda site don't require membership, but BW still use Rewards Flash Sale rate to compete, I remember few years ago don't work this way, you can just BRG compare to BW regular rate, did BW change the policy?

I think Marriott allow you to use regular rate to BRG, not have to compare to Marriott "member rate"

BW do not compare cancel policies or refundable/non-refundable rate plans between BW website and 3rd party websites.

It seems you cannot reach their LRG department directly for clarification and help on what it takes for successful claims. The former SPG and Marriott you could reach them directly. Now Hilton allows claims submitted over the phone which I haven’t done yet but is probably very helpful. Low/Best rate guarantee departments that are hidden from the consumer are obviously problematic from the customer point of view.