Thank you for notifying Choice Hotel agent, as my case was escalated with the executive office, and my reservation was eventually relocated to a hotel of my choice in the nearby area of my original hotel location. I received a reward night stay (i.e. a regular room), instead of my original suite which costs over US$300, but I did not pursue further and accepted the offer to settle the matter.
There was nothing wrong with BRG team in my case, and they approved my claim as per T&C. The issue was the member hotel who did not adhere to the Corporate office policy and cancel my reservation without valid reason. Not only the hotel manager called me directly and interrogated my motive of staying at their hotel, the hotel owner also wrote me an email (from his personal email) to basically tell me that if I'm interested to stay at their hotel, I should book like any other loyal PAYING customer. Both of these individuals acted extremely unprofessional. I hope Choice Hotel will act on this or else they will continue mistreat other Choice Hotel customers. I'm glad this is finally over.

Thanks for the follow-up. I hope [MENTION=767738]ChoiceHotels[/MENTION] is listening, as this kind of behavior is absolutely unacceptable and should not be allowed by their franchisees.

Unless Choice can absolutely tighten up the reins on their licensees, I still think there needs to be an alternate escalation path that works, especially for elite Choice Privileges members.

that's so true, they just deny me use this ridiculous reason :D I checked Choice website have 4 King room type (not like the rep mentioned 3), King, King Accessible, King Large unit, King Suite

Thank you for your interest in participating in our Lowest Price Guarantee program. The competing website information you submitted for does not clarify the same room type as your room reservation at www.choicehotels.com or one of our brand websites.

If you booked the “1 King Bed, No Smoking Free Hot Breakfast” there is no clarification as to which King Bed room type you would get. There are 3 room types available through Choice Hotels, and 4 offered by LastMinuteTravel.com, at varying rates that could fit that description. If the room type that you currently have reserved is not specifically stated and guaranteed on the competing website, it would not be eligible for the Lowest Price Guarantee program. Room types must match, as stated in the terms and conditions

Got denied because the rate was not alive after 27 hours that they took to review it. They refuse to accept the screenshots which I have made. Made a mistake of booking an advance rate hoping for the price match. Will not do this again, obviously.

I just came to this website after investigating to find others who experienced what I had. 40 hours after I booked (just shy of the 48 hours in their fine print), they could not find a comparable rate. First they denied the claim because the room description was different on Priceline vs. Choice despite the hotel only having one of these room types. Then when I called, they changed their mind and said oh well the current rate on the competing website is much higher. I'm normally great at researching before I commit to a "deal" and this time I didn't. I wish I had booked on Priceline to begin with. I will now be going out of my way to avoid booking any Choice hotel. With my current nonrefundable rate I'm stuck for this trip.

If any of the Choice execs are reading this, why did you even bother with the price guarantee program? Clearly, it is hard to fulfill the terms. If the purpose was to make sure that more people book thru your site and not via other parties, you failed miserably. Me and babs1982, for example, will always book at the lowest rate available elsewhere, because your guarantee means nothing. I am sure this experience is hardly unique.

I'm sure the various Choice hotels will be fine with you booking at the lowest rates you can find on non-choice web sites.

I have never understood the angst of people who don't get any discount for having found a better rate than the Choice price on their web site. Just book the rate that works for you and move on.

I understand the angst. The whole point of a guarantee is that you ostensibly don't have to shop around because Choice promises to give you the lowest rate. This is apparently not true. Since people know it isn't true, they try to claim the guarantee, which offers more than just an adjustment to the lower rate. Then when they do try to claim this benefit, Choice weasels out of it with questionable tactics. Now I'm not saying that Choice is the only chain that does this. Other chains also do everything they can to prevent claims against these "guarantees." To me, it is less about the difficulty in claiming the guarantee benefit, it's about the hollow nature of the guarantee itself.

Not sure if it is the Flyertalk power, but they have approved the guarantee claim after I emailed them the screenshots (without request from their part, just to vent). So a good closure after all.

For any Canadians paying attention to this thread,... bad news! Choice just recently changed their price match guarantee, so no more free nights for Canadian residents:
"Additionally, U.S. and Canada residents will receive a $50 reward card after completing their stay‡ and international residents will receive their first night free."

Worse even, the Canadians will get only 50CAD, which is ~37USD as of today.

The fools at BRG and Clarion hotels Helsinki tell me they are independent of choice hotels and BRG does not apply. The idiotic company displays"Best Rate Guaranteed" when you make a booking for that exact hotel on its own website!. So when I tried BRG because I got the hotel significantly cheaper on a 3rd party website I thought I would definitely have BRG honoured....only to be told it does not apply as they are independent. THEN they have the hide to argue with me about it. When I sent screen shot of their own hotel website showing BRG above every room category price I funnily received to more replies form the hotel. Even if you try make a booking today for Clarion Helsinki BRG comes up above pricing but thats a SCAM as it doesn't apply to any choice hotel in Helsinki!

What a 3rd world hotel chain Choice are...and indeed we DO have a choice!....thank God Im a loyal Hyatt member what a blissful ethical company to deal with in comparison.

I haven't submitted a BGR with Choice, but have been successful with Hilton. Get screen shots of everything to help your case. It worked for me with Hilton and saved me over $150.

I've never even tried to push a BRG claim, because I assume all issuers are operating in bad faith and either outright lying (as with Choice) or will cite some absurd loophole.

Completed the stay and received the $50 Vanilla card via email. Happy ending, with a bit of luck and perseverance.