anabolism

Which GA number did you call? I thought GA didn't touch BRG issues.

kyushuman

Congrats!
But if you have a few minutes, I think everyone here would love a specific, hotel-by-hotel success listing, and what web site you used, and what price you found---since (as you have noticed here) essentially, from what most have found with BRG, the only "guarantee" is that they will refuse.

OkieFlyer

Ok I'll do my best here. The first one I don't remember as well as it was for a stay on January 1st. It was for the Homewood Suites in Addison Texas. I booked a prepaid rate of $69.52 and found a cheaper rate of $69 even I believe, but can't remember which site it was. They informed me since it was a prepaid rate they couldn't adjust it, but they would give me 1000 bonus points instead. (note I still haven't received the bonus points, but emailed with the BRG rep this week and he actually apologized and said it hadn't been submitted but that he did it this week and to give it 5-7 business days). I did receive the $50 AMEX check promptly.

Now the next 3 where all on the January rate where I found something that helped with all of them. On all 3, if I booked the January sale rate on HHonors site for 1 person in the room, it would be the lowest I could find, but when I moved it to 2 people the rate jumped up (sometimes only by a few dollars, but it still went up). However, on the competing websites, the price for 2 people stayed at the lower rate that HHonors had for 1 person in the room.

#2 was the Skirvin Hilton in OKC for tonight Jan 29th. When I checked the HHonors site, the January sale rate was $113.23, but for 2 people in the room it was $120, so I booked that and submitted the BRG based on Hotels.com rate of $113.23 for 2 people on the January sale. That one went right through with no hassles. Though they never mentioned lowering the rate so I emailed back the BRG rep that handled this one and she never responded. I had emailed her twice before I called Guest Assistance and spoke with someone who told me that they where actually able to adjust the rate with the hotel and I should see a credit on my card after the stay (we'll see if this happens but I'm skeptical)

#3 was for the Hilton Tulsa Southern Hills for tomorrow night Jan 30th. This one I only booked for one person and the January sale rate on HHonors site was $66.33. I found a rate on Hotelclub.com for $66.00 that was for the January sale and included breakfast. So I submitted that claim and it was approved within 24hrs. Now the strange thing about this one was the BRG rep that approved it said they where able to verify my claim on expedia.com even though that's not what I submitted it for. So I don't know if they just mistyped or they actually verified it there. I didn't complain and accepted it. The rep that approved this one emailed me the next day and told me that they couldn't lower the rate based on it being prepaid so they would send me an additional $10 check upon checkout.

#4 was for the Hilton Garden Inn in Addison, TX for March 20th. Same deal on the January sale here. HHonors site for 1 person was $67.99 but for 2 people was $71.99. Booked it for $71.99 and then submitted a claim on expedia where for 2 people it was $67.99 for the January sale. (was the same on hotels.com). This is the one they tried to deny because the rep said I was claiming a handicap room and I had to go through the supervisor for him to verify it. He informed me since it was a prepaid rate they would mail me an additional check to cover the difference in the rate.

#5 I didn't use the January sale because the competing rate I found didn't include breakfast. This was the one I was worried about because it was on easyclicktravel.com and I wasn't sure how they would treat it. It was for the Hilton Lincoln Centre in Dallas on March 19th. I booked an advanced purchase rate on HHonors site for $87.20. The easyclick rate was a ridiculously low rate of $56.35. This was the one that the rep denied saying the room wasn't available for cash on easyclick and the supervisor ended up verifying it and saying I would be mailed an additional check for the difference.

I have noticed that since my last one was approved it appears some of the hotels have been adjusting the January sales rate because if I try and do the Skirvin again for another weekend, Expedia now says they're an additional charge for the 2nd person whereas there wasn't when I did it. I've search several hotels and it looks like Expedia and Hotels.com are both adding an additional person charge now. Maybe this was in response to me who knows

I hope this helps. Like I said earlier, it is still a pain and the worst BRG I've encountered among the hotel programs, but when you get it to work, it can be pretty good. I'm going to be submitting another one I found in the next couple of days and can report back if anyone is interested.

On the BRG page it says to call 1-800-HILTONS and ask for Guest Assistance which I did the first couple of times but then just started calling the Diamond Desk and asked them to transfer me to Guest Assistance. The Best Rate Guarantee people work in that department. They will never put you through to one of the BRG reps though and I even had one lady tell me that those reps didn't have phones!! (I laughed her off and hung up and called right back). I know they have phones because while most of them don't have a phone number on their email, one of them messed up and included it in their email which I promptly called.

cfischer

submitted a claim last night and after reading all of this I was worried. 12 hours later I got an Email telling me my claim was valid and approved!
Maybe not so bad after all (at least for me).

cfischer

I used booking.com yesterday and got approved. Booking.com does NOT operate on a voucher system, I have used them before for other bookings.

nsr

FYI I used hotels.com and they sent me an email that the BRG is approved. 2 hours later I get a second email from the same person in the BRG dept saying it is denied (!) since it requires immediate credit charge (although the cancellation policy was exactly the same, both rooms were fully refundable). She also sent me an email requesting to retract her previous email (!).

yyliu88

Although member mentioned getting claim approved from booking.com or easyclicktravel.com, I won't count on that.

only safe one is expedia.com or orbtiz.com

margarita girl

My mistake. I double checked and it was a www.gtahotels.com BRG that was denied. I've had many BRGs approved by SPG with this website.

travelinfoo

Thanks for the great detailed post OkieFlyer! I hadn't considered using the BRG given all the problems others reported. But it appears if everything is exactly the same (payment policies, cancellation policies, room type) it should go thru.

Since it has to be submitted w/i 24 hrs of making the res, did you get BRG answers over the weekend too?

cfischer

It was both January sale, but hilton had upped the price by 10 EUR and booking.com still had the old one. It was EXACTLY the same conditions, so they had no chance to get out of this one

nsr

Nothing is safe. Same reason I got for hotels.com apply to expedia and orbitzs. If you already prepay a non-refundable rate you have a better chance that the BRG will go through, but there is no way I'm going to risk a non-refundable rate which in most cases without the $50 AMEX GC isn't worth it.

BTW even if everything is exactly the same, the BRG dept has all kinds of bogus reasons to decline a BRG. The most ridiculous one, detailed early in this thread is that expedia.com and such are members only websites.

Smart Shopper

Please mind that Hilton's BRG "offer does not apply" (written in capital letters) to pre-paid rates that may involve a voucher (including electronic vouchers). Bookings on gtahotels.com are pre paid and involve an accommodation voucher as proof of pre payment.

ESSEX TRAVELLER

Hi

Have been reading these forums with interest and have now joined up. Hoping that someone can assist? This is my first, but certainly not my last, post.

I booked the Hampton Inn Edmonton West in Canada direct with Hilton using a promo code that reduced the booking by about 10% - this was available to all via a link on their site too. When I was about to log off I checked my emails and had received a mail from Thomas Cook - when I checked their site they were offering the same hotel, same dates same room etc at a cheaper price of about $40 saving over the three nights of our booking.

I immediately filled in the BRG form via the Hilton site and sent it off. I received a screen confirmation that it had been received but no email within 24 hours. I chased this a couple of days later and got an automated response to say the matter was being dealt with.

A day later I received an email from the BRG dept to state that they had no knowledge of the claim at all!! So forwarded them, at their request, the copy of the screen confirmation along with a screen capture of my internet history which shows the BRG form being sent off and the acknowledgement received.

I have now chased this up three times and am getting no response whatsoever. Obviously rates with Thomas Cook have now changed as has availability but I am so annoyed that through their incompetence in losing my claim I may lose out not only on the $50 Amex Certificate etc but also on getting a better rate.

I have told them that if they do not honour their obligations I will cancel my reservation but, again, no response.

What do you all advise?

nsr

Cancel and forget it.

anabolism

Normally, I'd suggest basing your decision to stay or not on other factors, ignoring BRG. However, in this case, since you have evidence that Hilton received your claim and ignored it, you may wish to pursue it through a consumer protection agency in the U.K. or the equivalent of small claims court (which in the U.S. is a low-cost court mechanism for small-value claims). Also, if you have a travel or consumer columnist for a newspaper, radio, or T.V. show, you may try asking them for help as well. Some public embarrassment over the BRG matter would be good for Hilton, i think.