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Updates to Hiltons Current Best Price Guarantee

Updates to Hiltons Current Best Price Guarantee

Old Oct 3, 2018, 2:23 pm
  #16  
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Originally Posted by RafKa
I have attempted submitting a claim twice over the phone... in both cases the agents claimed they could not find the lowest rate on their websites, while I could see them in front of my eyes. Whether this was due to regional differences on websites (I'm in Brazil, agents supposedly in the US) or blatant lying, remains to be seen.
I often try to replicate the rate via VPN in an incognito window before taking it further.
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Old Oct 5, 2018, 10:23 am
  #17  
 
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: SFO
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Originally Posted by Troopers
Fingers crossed; submitted a claim yesterday. I was never successful at other hotel chains.
Update: 3 days later and haven't heard back yet
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Old Oct 5, 2018, 9:24 pm
  #18  
 
Join Date: Aug 2010
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Lauren,

Just want to say thank you, I just completed my first Hilton price match over the phone, I never bothered to do this in the past. My experience was very positive, little push back at the beginning, but it did go thru and smooth in the end. And the agent agreed to price match all 3 rooms I wanted.
To be honest, I was debating between St Regis & W vs Conrad, Hilton... That's why I was researching via tripadvisor, found the price difference. With the price match, Conrad won my business...and I saved much time reading all the hotels reviews !
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Old Nov 10, 2018, 10:20 am
  #19  
 
Join Date: Nov 2018
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We submitted a claim for price match via online system and after no response for more than 24hrs, we decided to call hilton to check the status. People were taking word claim for 'complaint', and then after multiple calls and not to mention multiple departments, we were forced to cancel the booking. We were alsi told that price match dept. Only communicates via email. Reading stuff on this forum seems like hiltonrepresentative is saying something different.

whatever the case be, they basically don't want to honor the claim and then just sit on the claim and let other comparable hotels on other websites raise prices. So, as a customer you are just left with no option. We lost the good price on other website, waiting for hilton to respond and eventually lost both.
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Old Dec 4, 2018, 1:27 am
  #20  
 
Join Date: Jul 2018
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My booking site was not on their "approved list." Interesting that there is no mention of this list in the T&C.
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Old Dec 4, 2018, 6:07 am
  #21  
 
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: Tampa
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Does anyone know what websites are on the approved list?
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Old Dec 7, 2018, 8:30 am
  #22  
 
Join Date: Dec 2016
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There isn't an approved list. There is a list of sites that don't qualify. But I would be very surprised if agents share it. You can call them and ask if a given site is on the ineligible list.
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Old Dec 29, 2018, 9:42 am
  #23  
 
Join Date: Dec 2018
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Hilton's Best Price Guarantee is some kind of marketing scam that is intended to never be honored. Even if you are Hilton Honors member for years.

Hilton lies about the 3rd party prices and they also use discrepancies in room descriptions to deny the guarantee.

I previously reserved a room through Hilton. A 5 night stay in Puerto Vallarta for $336 per night. A few weeks later one of the 5 other couples going with us saw that expedia/travelocity had cheaper rates for better rooms. They had a "terrace suite" for $292 which had a second balcony with a jacuzzi on it where my previous room was just a normal room with a balcony overlooking the pool. Before I called Hilton I turned on my VPN which placed my IP address on the other side of the United States and opened a incognito tab. The travelocity price was still coming up as $292 and HIlton's lowest listed price for that room was $455. Sweet! I thought. So I decided to call HIlton.

I should have known this was a complete farce when the agent seemingly asked out of the blue "what is the square footage of the suite" after I had told him the name of the room multiple times. It was the only room that has the word "terrace" in the title.

Since travelocity has every room listed as having the same square footage I told him to hold on while I double checked. I had seen that they often won't price match based on room description differences so I went to HIlton's site and saw the "terrace" room sq ft and confirmed to him that the room was 613 sq ft. I wasn't about to play semantics. In hindsight I realized Hilton knows that Expedia/Travelocity has these rooms listed as having the wrong sq ft listed and that was going to be the representatives go-to reason for declining the price match. Anyway, the representative then said he was seeing that room with that sq ft for $455 the exact same price that Hilton themselves have it listed as.

I told him no room on Travelocity is listed over $330. He said he was seeing it on their website as $455 again and said I must be a member to see those prices. I told him I logged into a vpn and used incognito and have never registered with travelocity or expedia their parent company. He basically said he was not seeing those prices and wouldn't be able to price match.

I then asked the representative why would I keep my reservation through Hilton and not book through Travelocity? I would be saving $220 total.

His response is what really upset me. He said, "Well if you book through a 3rd party site Hilton can cancel or alter your reservation at any time for any reason."

Thanks HIlton! Trying to scare me with the threat of losing my room if I buy the cheaper rate, awesome.

I contacted Hilton customer service and guess what? They tried to play semantics. They said " We have no control over third party bookings therefore we don't have the ability to cancel it." Which is total lip service. They know that is not what was implied. I book with Travelocity and Travelocity books with Hilton and they most certainly can cancel or alter that booking if they so please. The rep who originally threatened me was essentially saying 3rd party bookings can and will be canceled in situations like the hotel overbooking...

I had also taken a screenshot the night I originally saw the cheaper price, the next day, and then even the following day when the price jumped a whole $3 to $295. All Hilton's customer service said was "sorry our agents couldn't find the price you saw." You saw it 3 times in my screenshots!

What I gathered is that Hilton lies about price guarantee when the extra 25% will put them below what they will get from the 3rd party site. When Travelocity was listing $292, Hilton would then have to give me a price of $219 per night because of the extra 25%. $219 is probably significantly lower than whatever they are getting from Travelocity. I had no idea about the 25% extra until their customer service sent me a link to the terms of their guarantee. All I wanted was to have direct booking and get points. But since this is the last time I will ever use HIlton, I don't really care about the points.

Normally I would say don't even try to call and get the price guarantee but I really think everyone should. It will expose HIlton's price guarantee as a sham. If you aren't going to honor 3rd party prices by playing semantics with descriptions and lie about what the current rates are listed as, why even have a price match? You are just going to lose customers with your shady practices. And those who do get the price match are likely customers you already had. It just seems like a net loss overall.

tl;dr Hilton lies about the listed prices of 3rd party websites and they bank on discrepancies in room descriptions to deny the price guarantee so they don't have to refund an extra 25%.

Last edited by ggozz; Dec 29, 2018 at 9:49 am
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Old Feb 16, 2019, 12:23 pm
  #24  
 
Join Date: Jun 2009
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has anyone noticed that when a PMG is approved you can't see total price or even cancel if it is a flexible rate. Mines say: "Sorry changes can not be made to this reservation" "No payment currently attached to this reservation"
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Old Feb 16, 2019, 4:15 pm
  #25  
 
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Originally Posted by marko4ever29
has anyone noticed that when a PMG is approved you can't see total price or even cancel if it is a flexible rate. Mines say: "Sorry changes can not be made to this reservation" "No payment currently attached to this reservation"

Yes, my reservation for the Conrad Singapore says the same thing. I had it price matched last month. It was a flexible rate
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Old Feb 16, 2019, 9:45 pm
  #26  
 
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Same here on my approved PMG bookings. On recent stay, been upgraded to suite from base room so does the rate followed the suite rate. On my upcoming PMG approved, the booking changed to can’t be modified and non-cancellation from flex-rate. Both acknowledged by Hilton and still as per original booking rules in their system. But always keep a copy myself for back-up (save as pdf and flagged my original booking email).
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Old Mar 3, 2019, 12:56 pm
  #27  
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Originally Posted by craigthemif
Have you tried using it lately? If Expedia has a 1pm cancellation deadline and the hotel 2pm, the claim will be denied, not to mention all of the OTAs that are excluded for no obvious reason.

Some people will find this change to be useful, to avoid the lottery of booking prepaid and then having a BRG claim denied. But I'm not sure that a BRG policy that only works on a prepaid basis (taking the cancellation window out of the equation) is worth getting excited about. There might be a lot of lost money by making a prepaid booking and then having plans subsequently change...
You hit the nail on the head. I had this exact issue today. Its tedious and annoying and practically renders their price match guarantee useless.
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Old Apr 13, 2019, 5:01 am
  #28  
 
Join Date: Feb 2019
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If I'm looking to price match for a one-night stay, is the price dependent on the nightly rate or the final price (with taxes and fees)?
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Old Apr 13, 2019, 5:40 am
  #29  
 
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Originally Posted by haledjian
If I'm looking to price match for a one-night stay, is the price dependent on the nightly rate or the final price (with taxes and fees)?
The nightly rate
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Old Apr 13, 2019, 2:22 pm
  #30  
 
Join Date: Feb 2019
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Originally Posted by Cat88L3
The nightly rate
Where does it say that in the terms and conditions? They compared the final booking price, which my price was higher by 2 euros because of taxes and fees. However, the listed nightly rate is lower than Hilton's.
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