craigthemif

Unlikely to be approved. Anything where you prepay, but get a refund later for cancelling, is considered to be different.

The only thing that works on a flexible basis is the hotels.com "pay at hotel" option, assuming the cancellation policies are identical (which is also hard, since it might have 3 pm whereas Hilton is often 23:59)

hotturnip

Home2Suites Dallas North Park
12/27-31
King studio suite nonsmoking
Hilton.com: $99
Priceline: $81.07
Adjusted rate: $60.30

This one was also achieved with no argument. This is getting too easy.

I thought I'd found a cheaper alternative to my earlier Hampton Inn reservation for these same dates. But right after I submitted the claim last night, I looked a little closer and realized that this Home2Suites isn't quite where I thought it was (yes, I knew all along it was far away from the H.I. Market Center). I think I may cancel this one and keep my H.I. reservation.

shahr04360

DoubleTree Resort by Hilton Penang (3D2N)
Hilton rate: MYR 794
Agoda: MYR 781
Adjusted rate: MYR 592

escape4

There have been quite a few people frustrated at Hilton's BRG process in this thread, and I have voice issues as well. However I have to give credit where due, I have had a very good run of BRGs recently, and the smoother it goes, the more willing I become to try with pre-paid rates as well which have generally been successful too.

As far as I am concerned, Hilton's BRG now leaves Marriott's LNF in the dust. Who would have thought just one year ago...

Schwann

Did my first ever BRG last night for a 5 night stay at the Hilton Tapestry Collection in New Orleans... initially tried on the non-refundable rate via the call centre but they were being obstructive and telling me the prices were the same on Hotels.com US and UK, obviously they were not in my case. Tried explaining this and she kept saying "Is there anything else I can help you with today?", so I ended the call. The semi-refundable rate was only about $25 more so went with that, submitted the BRG.. and got a reply in about 45 minutes!

End result:

Original price on Hilton.com: $673.11 incl tax
Best price on Hotels.com UK: $593.86 incl tax
Hilton.com BRG price with 25% discount: $446.82 incl tax

So, all in all.. very happy, and get the Hilton Gold benefits too.

ITSTours

I just got denied from Prestigia for not being immediately bookable.
The Prestiga.com website says "Immediate confirmation of your reservation".
They're just making up the reason.

Exiled in Express

I was skeptical but gave this a try via phone. A pleasant 10 minute conversation while the rep screenshot the comparison and all was done.

Hilton Milwaukee City Center
$119 on Hilton vs $112 on Agoda resulted in $84+tax.

I did notice Agoda has some strange pricing behavior. When I originally found it the price was $110, rep found $112, and when I searched again to confirm I was offered $116.

mingzie

Hey guys, I got a prepaid BRG approved.

The rep said I will only get a refund at checkout by the hotel since my rate is prepaid. Is this legit and standard procedure? How does the hotel know to refund me?

escape4

I have not received consistent treatment regarding prepaid BRG.
1. When the credit card charge had not gone through yet by the time the BRG was approved, they just changed the rate and the correct amount was subsequently charged.
2. I received a check in the mail for the rate difference
3. The hotel issued a credit at check-out. They just asked to see the BRG e-mail to know how much to refund.

ThatAdamGuy

Well, that was a frustrating call. Absolutely a waste of time.
I assumed that calling as a Diamond member would get me better treatment, but...

• I was asked for my membership number even after entering it on the phone.
• I was told that, no, Agoda is not a permitted site to price match with
• When I asked why, the agent said that "only a few sites are permitted. Expedia, Hotels.com" (and I forget the third one).
• When I tried to end the call, she explained that I wouldn't get hotel points or status recognition when reserving on Agoda. Then she suggested that she could check Expedia and Hotels.com for a price match option. And then urged me to let her connect me to a different agent to discuss some sort of $200 credit 500 point dealie (uh, timeshare?). And so forth. Sadly, I am was too nice to just hang up, so I just kept politely demurring.

But really... there's just a price matching whitelist of a few sites? Either Hilton's documentation is woefully out of date, or this agent was severely misinformed

craigthemif

From what I've seen through this thread, phone BRG agents are indeed limited to a set "price check screen" instead of following customer instructions to find the competing rate. Online is a bit better but generally Hilton BRG wants to deny your claim by any means necessary.

FWIW, Agoda is fudging their rates to appear cheaper in the aggregators. By the time you get to the booking page, there are some added fees so that the all-in, tax-inclusive rate is the same as everywhere else. They are owned by Priceline / Booking.com and therefore usually offer the same rate across all 3 OTAs.

ThatAdamGuy

I did go to the last screen of the Agoda booking flow. It's unclear if their rate includes resort fees. If so, then the rate is $35'ish less per night. If not, then it's about the same as Hilton.com

Given that I didn't see any fine print re resort fees, my assumption is that contesting any subsequent charges with Agoda might be fruitful. But if Hilton's not gonna price match, then... not gonna go that route (would miss out on points, Diamond benefits, Aspire extra points, Aspire $250 rebate, etc.)

Exiled in Express

I got my second one in a week approved with a bit more work.

Doubletree Milwaukee Downtown, $117 vs $109 on Priceline both vanilla advanced purchase, PRG of $81 and change.

I won't do nonrefundables online so called in, first agent took about 8 minutes to confirm details and acknowledge eligibility. I was then placed on hold to "complete claim paperwork" and call dropped after 15 minutes on hold. Waited a few minutes to see if they would call me and then called in to start over. Second rep also confirmed eligibility but was unsure how to process an advance purchase without an existing reservation so a brief hold to get instructions. Came back and completed claim and strongly encouraged me to do these online in the future.

93zlt

Looked at previous posts and still decided to give Hilton BRG a try. I was looking at Doubletree in Key West, FL for a one night stay on 03/26/2019, Agoda's price was $20 lower than H's site. Called Hilton to ask if they can match the price and give 25% off, the first time a lady answered the phone and told me BRG only worked for same-day reservation (which I knew wasn't true), HUCA. The second time a different rep answered my phone, he told me that he did see the lower price, and he would try on their end to see if he can give me 25% off of Agoda's price. He did mention that Agoda was not on some sort of list (I didn't remember the exact wording), so it did not go through at first, but he told me he would try again. This time he overrode somehow and the price was lowered to $215 per night. After being on the phone for 25 minutes with him I was able to get the BRG done. With resort fee and tax it comes at $273 a night, still expensive, but better than paying the full price.

This matches with previous posts that Agoda is not on the list (the 2nd rep told me they changed the internal BRG form recently). Hope this helps.

Dlougach

I had a successful claim for DoubleTree Istanbul Old Town on phone using Hilton's reservations phone number in Russia. Competing website was travelup.com via trivago.ie. No mentions of any site whitelists/blacklists. The whole process took about 20 minutes (because apparently the agent was not very efficient at screenshotting everything they needed).