frankxinyu

not having a go at you, but thats the lamest excuse.

from a customer's point of view, i honestly do not care how they conduct their business within their organisation. if they can not honour the policy they advertise, they should not be advertising it. simple as that.

Errata

If anyone is still interested in my IC Park Lane case, I spoke to them again last night. The BRG agent told me that they could not source a manager neither on the telephone nor email, thus I rang the hotel front office.

Although the front office member of staff had never heard of the guarantee. I was asked to email in my correspondence with the BPG office, which I did, covered with this:


This did the trick! Lo and behold, within five hours I had a confirmation email from both the hotel and the BRG office, showing the good ol' "HOUSE USE COMP" rate adjustment. Excellent service there.

I was very uneasy about paying the money and sending off for reimbursement as knowing the nature of the BPG office to interpret the terms and conditions of the "guarantee" with a machiavellian tendency, I had a feeling the cheque would never appear -- or take weeks to arrive from the US/Phillippines. I didn't even have any written evidence that my night would be complimentary from the BPG department until early this morning, other than that advising me to send in my receipt.

Therefore maybe it would be beneficial to step in if your reservation is impending within the next day or so and you still haven't had a confirmation from the hotel, whether it is and argumentative/non-complying property, or one that is unresponsive to the BPG staff. I surmise the latter with the IC Park Lane, although I am mystified as to how the corporate-owned properties seem to be the most deviant...

Good luck everyone; you are more than welcome to PM me if you need more info. about how I went about this.

MattGreenfield

Just as I feared. BRG Guest Relations is claiming the "Bella Suite" on priceline doesn't qualify for the BRG.

"Please be informed that the lower rate you are claiming is for a different room type. This, as verified by Priceline.com that the USD 449.00 for a Venetian Bella Suite (Suite Features A Living Area, Personal Business Center And Large Bathroom With 17-Inch Flat-Screen Tv) is a smaller room with only 1 bed. Unlike the Bella-2 Qn Beds-700 Sq Ft-Marble Bath which is an upgraded version of the first room listed."

I've e-mailed The Venetian Reservation Desk asking if they have a Bella Suite with only one bed.

More updates to come.

Shimon

You are right but this is something good for us. We shouldn't ruin it.

Actually they may be getting a 25% commission from the chains but I have seen the small hotels pay expedia a 50% commission.

Raffles

But IC has a deal with the Expedias of this world that they will not undercut the headline rates, except with vouchers. They pulled ALL their hotels off Expedia a couple of years age when they started not playing ball . . . Expedia quickly changed their tune.

Amyrlin

I am looking at booking a rioom for next week, the HI site, gives a prIce of £99 with breakfast on a flexible rate, which means I do not need to pay in advance (best flex are the only rates tnat show up when searching under best rate). The third party site gives a rate of £73 but I have to prepay, does this knock it out as they are not compraible.

Also, when going to pay on the third party web site it goes to Euros rather then Stirling, which may also muck it up, please what are your thoughts.


I think I may just book in at the HIX that has a bettter rate.

MattGreenfield

The T&C distinguishes between refundable/non-refundable and not between pre-paid/non-pre-paid so as long as the pre-paid third party site is refundable and includes breakfast you should be good to go. (Of course, subject to approval by BRG.)

The different currencies shouldn't matter as long as the price difference in US dollars is greater than $5.

MattGreenfield

According to the T&C:
"For purposes of the Guarantee, “price” or "rate" does not include any taxes (unless otherwise noted), tariffs or fees imposed by any governmental authority (e.g., federal, state or local) on either IHG or the guest for the duration of the guest's occupancy. Rates being compared to determine if the Guarantee applies must both either be with taxes included, or without taxes included. "

So you should be able to just use the base rate for the BRG.

asian_journeyman

Well, so far I have filed 6 BRGs and have gotten 5 approved. 2 Intercontinentals, 3 Crowne Plazas. Rejected - CP. All hotels were in Asia. Some agents will claim greater china claims are not part of the guarantee, but don't be ........ted, they are. So tell them to read the part of the guarantee that specifically says greater china is excluded. They cannot, because it doesn't exist.

Of the 5, 4 have been altered to reflect the comp night while 1 hasn't. I am still waiting for an appropriate response and it has been 96 hours. Good thing the trip doesn't come up til another 2 weeks.

I can say for sure that if you book a refundable rate which is cheaper then a non-refundable rate on the IHG website, it will be rejected and vice versa. Also if the cheaper rate includes breakfast but the IHG rate doesn't, your claim will be rejected.

Also, lets say the cheaper website allows you to cancel 3 days prior to arrival and the IHG site 24hours before, BRG claim will be rejected. The cancellation conditions have to exactly the same. Currency doesn't matter but make sure you site is at least USD$5 cheaper. To be safe, I made sure it was USD$10 cheaper due to exchange rate fluctuations.

Its a very, very frustrating process to get the BRG approved but, hey, so far I have managed to snag USD $1400 in total of free nights, so I guess it is worth it. But beware of the pitfalls as IHG rates are often non-refundable for the advance purchase rates and usually these are the only rates where you will be able to score a BRG hit.

In order of ease of use and claim filing, I rate the BRGs for the firms so far ( for travel in Asia Pacific) - I concede it will be different in US
1) SPG
2) Marriott
3) Hyatt
4) IHG

For value
1) IHG
2) Hyatt
3) SPG
4) Marriott

mnredfox

Thanks for your posts, FYI cross-posting is against FT T&C, I personally don't care but some mods do. I personally appreciate your posts. ^

MattGreenfield

After several e-mails to BRG Guest Relations (and one to V/P Reservations) I got APPROVED! Now I just have to wait for the hotel to confirm the rate adjustment.

If anyone is in the Las Vegas area and wants a free night Oct 21 at The Venetian the lower rate is still on priceline. I would hurry. I sure it's going to be pulled soon.

Hope to see a bunch of FTers there!

I haven't checked any other dates.

3544quebec

Thanks for posting your experience - the more date points, the more likely we will be able to assess what claims will and what claims will not be accepted.


Not wishing to be (too) contrary but with 1 rejected claim the only way to knowfor sure that all these parameters will invalidate a claim is if they all applied to the 1 rejected claim -no? It doesn't seem that the 1st point could apply fully to one reservation -especially the vice versa part

My experience with 4 accepted and 2 rejected claims is:
1) They sometimes have issues finding a rate that I can find - this resulted in the 2 rejections and I had options equally good available so didn't push them.
2)If you find a cheaper rate that includes breakfast then book a rate that includes breakfast on IHG - given you are expecting a rate match it doesn't matter if the rate you book on IHG is much higher because of the added breakfast (unless its non-refundable and your claim is rejected) I had 1 claim where Absolute lowest rate on IHG was AP at $370/night.Lowest rate with breakfast on IHG was $530 and fully flexible. Competing rate was $280 flexible with breakfast and claim was accepted with booking $530 IHG rate
3)All my reservations were fully flexible and the cancellation terms on the competing websites were also flexible but in each case there were some differences -usually the competing website required cancellation a few days before the limit on the IHG site and made a $20-$30 charge for amendments.

From all this what I can say for sure is this is what happened in my cases.I can't say anything for sure about what might happen to anyone else's claim or indeed to claims that I make going forward.

carrotjuice

Managed to get a successful claim. Thought I would share the agent's reply:

"Please be advise that we do not match cancellation policy, say third party site has a lower non refundable rate and IHG has a higher refundable rate – [your claim] would qualify (regardless if competing site is non cancellable and IHG’s is a flexible/cancellable rate).

Good to know.

blindman

This is what I found and posted earlier:- Good to hear it from an agent source, but as we know YMMV

BTW
asian_journeyman
is wrong :

Presently I and three others over this week have booked the same hotel for the same night under the BRG and all got a free night.

Wonder how many free nights they'll give away before pulling their cheaper rate from the 3rd party.
BTW Its only a Crowne Plaza, but over £100 per nght.

Happy

AFAIK, ALL Bella-Suite are the SAME Size.