boxo

My Renaissance LNF was approved no problem. The adjusted daily rate including taxes is ~$150 per night for a club level room.

I was not specifically looking for BRGable rooms for my trip. Location is of the utmost importance. I am not willing to jump through as many hoops anymore when programs make it harder and harder to truly get a guarantee better/lower rate. I mean, the rate I found above, at a Radisson Blu, is a difference of $89. That's not some 1%-3% currency conversion fluctuation. It shouldn't matter who bills in which currency. That was a seriously vast difference.

No thanks, Club Carlson. I'll happily spend a little more somewhere else.

nacho

I totally understand your view about the currency thing - well it's their rule. What made me really annoyed was their credit card guarantee thing. The reason why I wanted the Radisson BKK is that it's the only hotel that allows "Children under 12 share existing bedding with parents", most hotels in Thailand allow 1 kid per room and we have 3. So being able only book 1 room save us a lot of $$$$$.

I'd normally go for Marriott but in this situation Marriott will cost 4 times as much as I'll need a second room - furthermore I couldn't even find LNF possibilities.

jxd

Any way to lodge a complain regarding incompetent staff? Its simple english and they don't understand? Jesus!

Here's my email to them about the brg claim.

nacho

Facebook.

reisevergnuegen

Would you believe that Raddison customer service after more than a week of correspondence has still not accepted their Best Rate Guarantee, despite this message I received directly from the hotel in Bratislava and forwarded to them:

Thank you very much for your e-mail and informing us about this website offer. The FTI agency are selling the rooms below our cost level and I already report this breach of contract to the account manager.

Besides, a week later the nearly 50% lower rates are still available through multiple agencies, easily visible on Kayak, e.g.

This reflects another bad experience like the many reported here in this forum already.

deovrat

I had a (nearly) perfect BRG experience. Following is the timeline:

T:00 - Booked a room at Radisson Blu Pune, India. 2 nights. INR 6847 per night including taxes. Standard room with Breakfast and 48 hour cancellation policy.

T+01 hour - Found a better rate on www.cleartrip.com for the exact same conditions. INR 4418 per night including taxes. Took screenshots of all booking process pages and specifically, of those which displayed rate rules.

T+02 hours - Filled out the online BRG form and attached screenshot in their (stupidly restricted) file formats.
Did not receive a confirmation email for the same.

T+50 hours - Emailed all the email addresses I could find on this thread, outlining concisely the facts and attached the screenshots. Immediately received an acknowledgement from [email protected] .

T+55 hours - Received a response from [email protected] . Advised me that they found the lower rate on another website and adjusted my rate to INR 3681 + taxes.
I did not understand their calculations. Tax inclusive rate should have been lowered to (4418/1.25) = INR 3534.
Tax exclusive rate should be (3534/1.19) = INR 2970. (Taxes are 19%).


T+63 hours - Replied to their email, outlining my calculations and requesting a readjustment to the rate.

-------Weekend------

T+107 hours - Received a reply along the lines of "We have already lowered your rate. (What more do you want? )"

T+108 hours - Replied and outlined my calculations step by step. Attached screenshots again and asked them to check my calculations and if correct, readjust the rate.

T+109 hours - Received a reply indicating my calculations were correct and my new adjusted rate is INR 2982 + taxes.

Checked my reservation and as indicated by many posters on this thread, it indeed indicates a room rate of INR 0.00 now and this appears under Special Requests :
"VALID BORG: 4909 - 19% taxes = 3976.29 3976.29 - 25% discount = 2982.22 (new rate)"

Also received this email from hotel:
"Your reservation has been adjusted for your stay at Radisson Blu Hotel Pune Kharadi. Your confirmation number is XXXXXX. Please find the details of the adjusted reservation below. Thank you for choosing our hotel and we look forward to welcoming you soon.
Reservation Summary
Confirmation: # XXXXXX
Guest Name: JOHN DOE
Arrival Date: November XX, 2016
Departure Date: November XX, 2016
Rate:
November XX, 2016 0.00 INR City View Standard Room
November XX, 2016 0.00 INR City View Standard Room
Subtotal: 0.00 INR Plus applicable Fees and Taxes **"


All in all, pretty much went as I expected from reading this thread. Would have been faster but for the weekend.

Tl;dr:
1) Take screenshots of competitor booking site at every stage as soon as you spot a better rate. Make sure to include system time/date in them.
2) If confirmation email doesn't arrive after submitting BRG claim online, it hasn't reached them yet, email them.
3) Even after they reduce your rate, do your calculations and check if these match. If not, reply to them with concise calculations and be politely insistent. They will honor it.

JohnMI

It's a bit funny that we're used to it being such a hassle that we call it "(nearly) perfect" when you: don't get a response at first and have to email again and then have to contact them multiple times to correct a math error on their part.

"nearly perfect" indeed! ;-)

- John...

deovrat

Hehe, agree that after reading all posts up and down this thread, I was conditioned to expect this.
So when small glitches like late responses/mathematical errors occured, it was just a regular day at work for me.

sario

Very nice experience: claim accepted in 4 hours.

slickvik

Just put in BRG claim for Radisson Decapolis Panama City, $139 on site $106 on Priceline/Booking.com. Let's see what happens.

Update: No response after 60 hours, just sent emails to bpg, omahacsissuereview, and emea.

Update 2: Received very fast response from EMEA, claim rejected because Radisson website includes $25 of casino credit.

Update 3: E-mailed hotel directly, they matched the price to Priceline's price. I'm okay with that.

loimu

Just tried the BRG for the first time.

Booked a Park Plaza in Asia and I found a significantly cheaper (20-30%) price on hotels.com. The first response I got was a no due to the fact that I have booked a room with a breakfast! ("Per our Best Rates Guarantee terms and conditions, the guarantee does not apply to package rates that include the room and other components, such as meals, amenities and entertainment.") This of course does not make any sense to begin with - and also the BRG T&C explicitly state that a breakfast doesn't mean that a rate would be considered to be a package rate.

This is also what I replied to them and got denied again, this time because the hotels.com rate includes a breakfast while my direct booking does not. This was not true either as both rates include breakfast. I asked them to take a third look at my case after which they accepted my claim. The whole process took approx. 6 days.

The end result is that I got my room for a good rate but I'm still a bit disappointed with how the claim was handled. It feels disloyal and deceiving. One mistake would be understandable but especially the first one, claiming that rate with a breakfast would be a "disqualified package rate" is an elementary mistake in my opinion.

oavsett

Ok, now I'm really confused.
My claim was denied because (what I thought they meant) the competetive rate was a "member rate". I showed that the rate I found on booking.com was clearly not a member rate (was not logged in, and also whenever booking.com has "member rates" it clearly says so). Now I get an answer that the claim is rejected because the rate I booked at clubcarlson.com is a "member rate"?!?
So, are you not allowed to be a clubcarlson member and make BRG's? This makes no sense...

jackebofh

They told you fair and square - non members are better off then members. Seems perfectly in line with the recent 'miscommunication' and all.

kaaria

How did you guys get around the log in requirement. Don't most hotels sites require you to log in when booking?

• Any other unpublished or private rates or sites requiring login.

anthony.a

Have you guys tried to match using a "Pay at the Hotel" rate? I am booking a room in Sydney and I found a better "Pay at the Hotel" rate on expedia.com which quoted in USD (for ref only) and I will have to settle in AUD at the hotel. But then they've denied my claim as expedia.com shows the USD rate despite I am paying in AUD at the hotel...