In that case I’m curious to see how the BRG team handles this claim as with a $3USD difference at a hotel in LA.

Sounds like I need to make a trip out to Osaka in November with these BRGs.

Congratulations!

SPG required a best available rate comparison, regardless of rate actually booked. The comparison was always based on BAR on spg.com independently of rate on the reservation, which means you could not book a flex rate on SPG and claim against an OTA flex rate if SPG nonflex was lower than the OTA. LNF allows you to claim flex against flex even if Bonvoy nonflex BAR is lower than the OTA’s, which could not be done with SPG. They also allow you to book a nonflex rate, submit a BRG claim and then cancel your reservation in the event the claim is unsuccessful (within 1 day of booking), which of course was never a possibility with SPG.

The OTA does. Lower OTA rates have essentially two sources: properties that sell directly to OTAs outside Marriott’s GDS systems; or OTA buying rooms in bulk from Marriott’s GDS and getting significant quantity discounts. In either case, OTAs are contractually required to abide by Bonvoy’s best rate guarantee, which means they are not allowed to sell publicly rates lower than those posted on Bonvoy’s public channels. They may use the rooms nights they buy to bundle into packaged tours, where the lower rate goes unnoticed, but they can’t resell directly to the public (for that purpose OTAs can use GDS’s commissionable rates). However because the lower prices OTAs pay are contingent on room nights quantity targets, they will sometimes resell directly to the public often for a rate lower than Bonvoy’s BAR. Violation of these contractual obligations may result in the property assessing the OTA a contractual penalty and charging it the rate difference between the BRG appproved rate and the BAR rate on the Bonvoy website. Some properties however are highly dependant on a few OTAs, so they will just eat up the rate difference and move on. SPG used to fine properties each time a BRG claim was approved but I think Marriott abandoned that practice because properties where I often stay that were extremely apt at blocking OTA’s lower rates are now very nonchalant about it.