scubaccr

You book standard website rates.

For example you do not need to enter your company code (or AAA rate, government rate etc etc ) which gives you say 15% off and then go off and try and match that lower company rate at OTA's.

You are meant to compare eitther of
o Standard ADR with OTA ADR rates
o Standard Flex with OTA Flex rates

boboqui

This was my first time doing the BRG and I mistakenly thought I had to select the lowest rate, so I booked the non-refundable rate instead of the flexible rate, and after spending an anxious day yesterday, I'm breathing a little easier today, I think I'm out of the woods... But what a horrible experience this has been!

From: +Best Price Guarantee <[email protected]>
To: <boboqui>
Subject: Best Price Guarantee - Reference No.
Date: Mon 12/09/13 2:44 AM
Dear Boboqui,

Thank you for contacting our office regarding our Best Price Guarantee in reference to rates at the Holiday Inn Lugano Centre. We appreciate the opportunity to assist you with this matter.

We have verified the lower rate you found on www.booking.com. We are working on the best way to adjust your reservation to a FREE night stay. We appreciate your patience and will contact you via e-mail once this has been confirmed.

Please be reminded that:

The credit card on file should be approved when the hotel attempts to make the charge or adjustment. In the event of a failure transaction or declined credit card, the free night and rate adjustment will no longer be honored pursuant to the Best Price Guarantee Terms and Conditions.
Once a valid claim has been made and approved by IHG for a specific date, no further claims by the same person or anyone in the same household will be accepted for the same date. If an individual or members of the same household make multiple claims for two or more nights in the same seven (7) day period at the same IHG hotel or at different IHG hotels within fifty (50) miles of each other, the claims will be treated as, and limited to, one claim for one stay, even if booked through more than one reservation, and only the Best Price Guarantee claim for the first night will be honored.
A “stay” (for purposes of the Guarantee) may be one night; consecutive nights at the same hotel location, regardless of frequency of check-in/check-out; or two or more nights, even if non-consecutive, in the same seven (7) day period at the same hotel location.
“Within fifty (50) miles” means within fifty (50) miles when seeking directions between locations on Google Maps. Guests are only able to claim one (1) free night per stay at an IHG hotel globally, regardless of location.
In the event of a valid claim, reservations are non-transferable after the claim is found to be valid, and the name on the reservation must remain the same as when the claim is verified and no additional names may be added to the reservation after the claim is found to be valid.
Changes to the reservation such as number of adults, length of stay, dates of stay, type of room and such are not allowed and would mean the forfeiture of your free night.
A valid government issued ID is required upon check-in that matches the name found on the reservation for the free night to be honored.

We look forward to accommodating your upcoming reservation. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us via e-mail [email protected].


Sincerely,

XXX
Best Price Guarantee Helpdesk
IHG

Email: [email protected]
www.ihg.com/bestprice

scubaccr

I (and many others) would disagree...........
Since you would be booking a hotel stay anyway, you can only say you are out of pocket by the difference between IHG BRG attempted rate versus the lower rate you could of booked direct at an OTA ... OR ... lower rate at a not quite so nice hotel.

Further more, since this is your first BRG attempt (congrats on that). ..................You might not be aware that it is far far harder to find and BRG a Flex Rate, as frequently OTA cancelation is not as generous as IHG's, (or is package including breakfast) so you are out of luck

eg
OTA free cancel 4pm day before versus IHG free cancel 6pm day before would fail the equality test, as does OTA keeping a minimal fee as commision if you cancel the room.

Shanye2233

You can do a brg with a breakfast package against a breakfast package.

scubaccr

Agreed, quite handy the new screens, with tickbox to add breakfast to any room rate booking, as against previously needing a separate section for Breakfast Inclusive rates.

I am sure more than a few regular BRG'ers have noted and used the recently added tickbox the last few months, ....
..... as previously was kind of a hotel scam where frequently OTA rates including breakfast were cheaper than IHG rates without breakfast. In fact ticking the breakfast box now increases IHG prices making an OTA match easier than before.

htb

The tickboxes are not available for all rates at all hotels. That would be too simple...

HTB.

MilesGator

i recently read about a travel/hotel aggregator website that was really good of BRGs. I thought it was something similar to "webo"

Anyone have any idea what it is? Can't find it on google

MilesGator

Haha persistence.....it was wego

boboqui

The $100 mentioned was the difference between the hotel site rate and the OTA rate, actually, I found an even lower rate where the difference was over $150, but it's all hypothetical now, I hope... (sigh)

Shanye2233

Check the cancellation policies and the currency the OTA charges thats the hardest to match. Im trying to match a listing on IHG that includes a flight . If i can find a lower rate that includes the same flight then that would be a win.

rabbisset

any looking for a hotel in london...especially over new year feel free to pm me...wont be dissapointed!

scubaccr

Hmmn, seeing you have post count of 2, both today when you joined FT one would need to be wary of a scam. If something sounds too good to be true it usually is.

However if you are genuine, and found a nice London BRG then congratulations on your find, and enjoy your stay.

It maybe you just wish to share your find, in which case I am sure some people may well PM you.

rabbisset

yup that's right I want to share my find without broadcasting it on here!

kaell

omg, they are reciving aprox 500 claims per hour

joetro

Made a booking yesterday on an OTA for a lower rate than on IHG's website. This lower rate was because of an one-day flash sale on this well-known site. However, IHG did not review my claim until today, and the rates are now the same. Is there a way I can work-around this? This does not seem fair, as why should I be punished for the delay in when they review the claims? I clearly have met all the other criteria, and I did find a lower rate on another website just after booking the IHG hotel.