One has to wonder whether third party sites are deliberately using their own room names in order to prevent BRG claims and therefore a loss of revenue.

IMHO yes.

Another data point - tried a BRG with aavacations.com and hyatt.com at Hyatt Regency SFO Airport. >$50 difference but aavacations.com just said 'Standard Room". No dice.

Anyone run into this? I found a better rate on getaroom.com but when I called I was told that they were asking you to join. I pointed out that there was a 'Continue as guest ' button. So then she says that to get to that page you are required to enter an email address so that was the site's way of 'making you join' and 'getting your information'

I told her it was an obvious way of getting out of their 'guarantee' and next it would be that asking for credit card info was a way of 'getting your info'

Yes it's pretty arbitrary. hoteltravel.com is another one. I guess there will be more sites being 'taken away' through that...

As a frequent guest at both Starwood and Hyatt, I find Starwood's Best Rate Guarantee to be MILES ahead of Hyatt's. All communication is electronic, completely painless, and in most cases you have a response within 24 hours or less. They also don't play half as many games with semantics to dodge the guarantee.

Just had a BRG done for Aruba. BAR is $255 for lowest category and $350 from partial ocean view. Hotels.com had partial ocean view for $178.50. Matched without any problem to $142.80. Was able to use FUN22K and apply Diamond suite upgrade.

Hi seawolf that's a great rate. What are the dates?

I would even say that SPG has the only BRG that actually works. Hyatt is a scam like other, e.g. Hilton, BW, etc

Early June for 5 nights. I think the hotel is dumping rooms last minute. Early June should be off-peak since US school kids are still in school. If you have a AMEX Platinum, FHR is offering 4th night free from now till end of November.

BRG with HYATT CURASAO
 

Booked 5 nights basic room at 168 a night, then used 12,000hp to upgrade to a suite. Saw on AA.com a basic room for 135 a night. They said they would match the price but not let me upgrade after the match. I went with the suite upgrade instead, but gave no problems with the original request to match AA.

I've had no problems upgrading a BRG to a suite - I just didn't ask at the same time! The rate shows as daily rate, so hotels seem happy to do it.

Same here.

Used hoteltravel.com earlier this month to invoke the BRG for 3 nights at the Toronto Regency. Was relatively hassle free, called the booking line and they verified the rate and it was applied to the booking later that day.

Hyatt.com daily rate was $179.00
HotelTravel was $102.00
BRG ended up at $81.60

Hyatt - Best Rate Guarantee - Experiences - MASTER THREAD
 

How did you get them to accept hoteltravel.com? I'm always rejected with ' this site requires a login' which is nonsense as we all know...