Arijit Basu

First time booking and staying in Hilton. Hope the experience goes well. I have got 3 websites on which the rates are lower , including expedia and travelocity. Have submitted a claim with as much details as possible. Fingers crossed.

d00t

My experience tells me you should never book a non-refundable rate where there is a lot of leisure traffic. Those flash sales and strategic pricing will get you every time

wantan

Agreed, got bitten for my Thailand trip (used Corporate Rate which is non-refundable) and then the 50% sale happened.

pmarrsouth

Hello All,

I search the forum, but could not see any issues (or mentions) of Amoma.com. Applied for a BRG and got declined with the following in the response:

" I have reviewed your reservation and the information about the lower rate. The lower rate was found on Amoma a non-compliant site. "

(bolded mine)

What exactly does this mean? It is a public facing website that offers the majority of hotels, like any other OTA. It is not hidden behind a log-in and all the prices are available to all

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Hilton Honors Ambassador

Hi pmarrsouth,

Opaque sites typically require you to make an advanced non-refundable purchase before being shown the property, therefore these rates aren't honored by our Best Rate Guarantee.

For your claim to be valid, you must book the lowest rate on a Hilton Worldwide website!

Thanks,
Erin

pmarrsouth

Hello Erin,

Thanks for the quick reply. Amoma is not offering an opaque rate for this issue (I am not even sure if they do opaque rates). Here is what is seen:

Hilton Honors Ambassador

Hi there,

Apologies for any confusion from my response! For the Best Rate Guarantee to be honored, you would have had to make a reservation through a Hilton or HHonors website.

Thanks,
Erin

pmarrsouth

Hello Erin,

I am aware of that. I will ask my original query again:

Applied for a BRG and got declined with the following in the response:

" I have reviewed your reservation and the information about the lower rate. The lower rate was found on Amoma a non-compliant site. "

(bolded mine)

What exactly does this mean? It is a public facing website that offers the majority of hotels, like any other OTA. It is not hidden behind a log-in and all the prices are available to all

Why is Amoma considered a non-compliant website?

Hilton Honors Ambassador

Let me investigate!

Thanks,
Erin

Alex_I

Erin: I would be very much interested in the results of such an investigation.

Right now I looking into a booking 1 night at an airport hotel for leisure trip. There is a Hilton and a Sheraton for about the same price and AMOMA is quoting the rate that is about 40% lower for either of the hotels. The rate is non-refundable and, therefore, in order to qualify for HHonors best rate guarantee I should book much higher HHonors non-refundable rate and hope that my claim against AMOMA will be honored. I do not care about qualifying nights - I am re-qualified Diamond who did not get an invitation for rollover nights.
Alternatively, I can file Starwood BRG claim even without making a reservation or making a fully refundable reservation - both are O.K. under the Starwood terms and conditions.
The point I would like to make that if HHonors is truly interested in directing customers to hhonors website, you should allow for claims against competitor rates without asking your customers to make non-refundable reservations. Alternatively, why not allow for cancelling non-refundable reservations within 24 hrs as it done by Marriott?

RenHoek

Hey, we finally got a Hilton Lurker here helping with individual cases. Good.

Accept the help and stop making so much noise. You want Erin to change the program terms now? Jeeze.

wantan

I concur ! Its great at least someone from Hilton is looking into this. I've had hit and misses with Hilton BRG, but still happy its there for us who have the time to submit a claim

I do have a question, from T&C " Our Guarantee does not apply [sic] Hotel packages or travel packages which may include hotel, airfare, car rental, food and beverage offers or other similar packages or amenities."

With AirAsia having teamed up with Expedia, booking a flight with them (via AirAsia.com) leaves a cookie in your browser which provides at least 25% discount on Expedia hotel bookings (via Expedia.com). Hotel & Flight bookings are done independently from each other via their respective sites.

The hotel stay date doesn't have to correspond with flight dates, (but discount only valid for 8 days after flight booking) so I could place a hotel booking for 3 months after my flight arrived.

Question now is this rate is not exactly "publicly" accessible. You'd need an AirAsia booking and because its a cookie (not code, link etc) one has to use the same browser to be shown the discount. However it's open to anyone who has an AirAsia booking to any destination, ie: I could fly to Singapore with AK but use the discount for Thailand properties.

Did a BRG claim for this at first but was denied as BRG could not see discount rate. As the Hilton rate was 3x what the Expedia rate was, I went ahead and booked on Expedia, got BRG to verify with hotel I had a new reservation at the discount rate, which BRG then honored. Thanks to Expedia's cancellation policy I managed a full refund from them. Successful claim but very roundabout method and not quite sure its worth the hassle.

Any thoughts if there's a better way than making 2 bookings for BRG to work ?

ztcheong

Does it mean that you guys would rather pay more and get a refundable rate?

wantan

It actually means we spend more time looking for deals :P :P so if a cheaper rate is found, Hilton will match it + USD50 ... if not, at least you still have a place to stay.

ztcheong

and it has to be done within 24 hours?