Jan 1, 2018, 7:21 am
Last edit by: Starwood Lurker
Signed-in FT members with 90 days / 90 posts can edit this Wikipost.
POSTING FORMAT
Hotel Name:
Arrival Date:
Departure Date:
Number of Rooms:
Number of Guests:
Room Type:
Starwood Brand Web Site Room Rate:
Competing Rate:
Competing Web Site:
Comments:
FAQ
What is the Best Rate Guarantee (BRG)?
If a lower rate at an SPG Hotel is made available on a non-SPG website or non-SPG mobile application, upon its receipt of a claim that satisfies these Best Rate Guarantee terms and conditions, SPG will honor that Competing Rate and provide the individual that submitted the valid claim one of the following rewards: (1) an additional 25% discount off the Competing Rate (20% for Design Hotels) per room per night (up to a maximum of three rooms); or (2) 2,000 Starwood Preferred Guest® Starpoints® per room per stay (up to a maximum of three rooms).
What should I do if my claim is successful?
Yes. You should receive the same SPG elite member benefits and stay/night credit as for a normal paid stay.
How do I view my reservation after my BRG has been approved?
• You cannot BRG against a rate on a Starwood Website/App (hot escapes, promos, Gov. Rate etc.). It has to be a 3rd party website/App.
• The rate you submit the BRG against must be a rate that is available to the general public
• Cancellation/Deposit Policies and amenities must match on both websites to be valid
• A valid Starwood website reservation is required to submit a BRG
• If a room category is available on an external website but not on Starwood, you may still make a claim. You still need to make a booking with Starwood using the next lowest category of room and must include the cancel/deposit polices and amenities you are wanting- if your claim is approved the room type in the booking will remain what is booked.
• Only one claim may be submitted per reservation number (If your first claim is denied, you may submit a new claim for that reservation if you find another lower rate after you receive the denial email)
• You must book and submit a claim for the room type, cancel policy, deposit policy and amenities you are comparing. If you a flexible rate on SPG.com, they will look for a flexible rate when processing your claim, even if a lower rate for non-cancellable is available.
• You cannot BRG with a flexible rate against a prepaid rate. All information must be the same on both websites and the claim will be denied.
• If your comparable rate includes extras like breakfast or parking, make sure there is a room available on spg.com that includes the exact amenities. If there is no room available with the same amenities, it will be denied.
• Room types must be the same for a BRG.
• If you are booking and comparing rates for a non-refundable booking, note that you are responsible for any and all charges including cancellation charges, even if the claim is not approved
• If you have an approved and finalized claim and you find an even cheaper rate later, then you may submit a new BRG claim that is not connected to any existing reservation. If this BRG claim is approved, you will need to make a new reservation on SPG.com. Once the process is completed, you will then email the BRG desk to cancel your first reservation, if it is within the cancellation deadline.
• The cancel policy of an approved claim will be the same as what was booked and approved. It will no longer default to flexible.
• If you find availability for the room type you want on a third party website/app but there is no availability for that room type on the Starwood Website, then this may be an approved claim if it meets all other terms and conditions. You will need to make sure that you specify the room type you actually want on the Starwood Website section and enter 0 in the rate and currency. This will ensure that the processing associates know that the room type you want is not available on the Starwood Website. You may also add additional comments near the end of the claim form indicating that there is no availability on the Starwood Website for that room type to help clarify.
• If you find availability on a third party website/app but there is no availability on the Starwood Website, then this claim cannot be submitted as you must have a valid reservation to submit a claim. If it is submitted somehow without a reservation, the claim will not be processed as a valid Starwood reservation is required.
• Per the FAQ, "Any questions regarding claims should be directed to [email protected] or call 1-866-500-0368." A human is available at this number beginning at 9am EST.
OTAs not eligible because they do not confirm instantly:
Special Conditions for BRG & Design Hotels
Differing currencies
Marriott may deny claims where the difference between the comparison rate and the Marriott rate is less than $1. Rate disparities primarily attributable to fluctuations and/or differences in currency exchange rates are excluded from the guarantee.
Link to T&C
https://www.starwoodhotels.com/bestrate/terms.html
POSTING FORMAT
Hotel Name:
Arrival Date:
Departure Date:
Number of Rooms:
Number of Guests:
Room Type:
Starwood Brand Web Site Room Rate:
Competing Rate:
Competing Web Site:
Comments:
FAQ
What is the Best Rate Guarantee (BRG)?
If a lower rate at an SPG Hotel is made available on a non-SPG website or non-SPG mobile application, upon its receipt of a claim that satisfies these Best Rate Guarantee terms and conditions, SPG will honor that Competing Rate and provide the individual that submitted the valid claim one of the following rewards: (1) an additional 25% discount off the Competing Rate (20% for Design Hotels) per room per night (up to a maximum of three rooms); or (2) 2,000 Starwood Preferred Guest® Starpoints® per room per stay (up to a maximum of three rooms).
What should I do if my claim is successful?
- Re-confirm your rate at check-in; normally the hotel will have the correct BRG rate in your reservation, but sometimes you will need to remind them.
- If you choose points, they will be credited after the stay; check in one week to see if they have posted. If they have not posted, then contacted the BRG team to get it posted.
Yes. You should receive the same SPG elite member benefits and stay/night credit as for a normal paid stay.
How do I view my reservation after my BRG has been approved?
- Log into your SPG account.
- Click on your stays to view your current reservation.
- Click on "Set Stay Preferences" link for the BRG reservation, then SAVE.
- Refresh your stays page and the reservation should be visible again. You may need to repeat this step if the hotel touches your reservation. If you apply for Your24, you will not be able to view the reservation details.
- Follow the steps as outlined under: How do I view my reservation after my BRG has been approved?
- At the end of this process, you should be able to select "Apply SNA to this Stay" from within your stays page.
• You cannot BRG against a rate on a Starwood Website/App (hot escapes, promos, Gov. Rate etc.). It has to be a 3rd party website/App.
• The rate you submit the BRG against must be a rate that is available to the general public
• Cancellation/Deposit Policies and amenities must match on both websites to be valid
• A valid Starwood website reservation is required to submit a BRG
• If a room category is available on an external website but not on Starwood, you may still make a claim. You still need to make a booking with Starwood using the next lowest category of room and must include the cancel/deposit polices and amenities you are wanting- if your claim is approved the room type in the booking will remain what is booked.
• Only one claim may be submitted per reservation number (If your first claim is denied, you may submit a new claim for that reservation if you find another lower rate after you receive the denial email)
• You must book and submit a claim for the room type, cancel policy, deposit policy and amenities you are comparing. If you a flexible rate on SPG.com, they will look for a flexible rate when processing your claim, even if a lower rate for non-cancellable is available.
• You cannot BRG with a flexible rate against a prepaid rate. All information must be the same on both websites and the claim will be denied.
• If your comparable rate includes extras like breakfast or parking, make sure there is a room available on spg.com that includes the exact amenities. If there is no room available with the same amenities, it will be denied.
• Room types must be the same for a BRG.
• If you are booking and comparing rates for a non-refundable booking, note that you are responsible for any and all charges including cancellation charges, even if the claim is not approved
• If you have an approved and finalized claim and you find an even cheaper rate later, then you may submit a new BRG claim that is not connected to any existing reservation. If this BRG claim is approved, you will need to make a new reservation on SPG.com. Once the process is completed, you will then email the BRG desk to cancel your first reservation, if it is within the cancellation deadline.
• The cancel policy of an approved claim will be the same as what was booked and approved. It will no longer default to flexible.
• If you find availability for the room type you want on a third party website/app but there is no availability for that room type on the Starwood Website, then this may be an approved claim if it meets all other terms and conditions. You will need to make sure that you specify the room type you actually want on the Starwood Website section and enter 0 in the rate and currency. This will ensure that the processing associates know that the room type you want is not available on the Starwood Website. You may also add additional comments near the end of the claim form indicating that there is no availability on the Starwood Website for that room type to help clarify.
• If you find availability on a third party website/app but there is no availability on the Starwood Website, then this claim cannot be submitted as you must have a valid reservation to submit a claim. If it is submitted somehow without a reservation, the claim will not be processed as a valid Starwood reservation is required.
• Per the FAQ, "Any questions regarding claims should be directed to [email protected] or call 1-866-500-0368." A human is available at this number beginning at 9am EST.
OTAs not eligible because they do not confirm instantly:
- AsiaWeb
- BestDay
- Cancelon
- Ctrip (Known as MyTrip from Dec 2017)
- Elvoline
- HappyRooms
- Hoteling
- Hotelreservierung.de (according to BRG team 5 Sept 2017)
- HotelsClick (Some rates on request, some instant)
- Ostrovok
- Roomertravel
- Laterooms (according to BRG team 24 Oct 2016)
- Hotelius (according to BRG team 21 Sept 2017)
- Zenhotels (according to BRG team 10 Nov 2017)
- Travelbag (according to BRG team 22 Dec 2017)
Special Conditions for BRG & Design Hotels
- You may only claim against the absolute lowest rate on SPG.com, for the date(s) in question.
- The rate must be the lowest on sale on SPG.com, and is regardless of the type of room you actually want, the number of occupants, cancellation policy and the amenities provided. In all likelihood this will mean you have to use a rate for a standard room, for 1 person, non-refundable and without any amenities.
- It is not necessary for the rate on the external website to match the SPG.com rate in any way including room type and number of occupants. The only requirement for a successful BRG claim is that the rate be lower than the lowest rate on SPG.com for the date(s) in question.
- As with normal BRG claims, you need to make a booking before submitting a claim but it must be the lowest rate for the hotel and dates. Since this will likely be a non-refundable booking, note that you are responsible for any and all charges including cancellation charges, even if the claim is not approved.
- Amenities are not included in the comparasin
- You will retain the category of room booked on SPG.com, even if the external website rate submitted for the claim refers to a different category of room. This is especially pertinent in situations where the hotel continues to sell lower categories of rooms on other websites, while not making them available on SPG.com. You will then be able to book a higher category of room on SPG.com, BRG the lower rate, and retain the higher category of room while paying the lower rate.
- If you need to BRG Design Hotels for Double or higher occupancy.
- The BRG will be processed for a single occupant, even if the rate does not change for more than one occupant. You must book the actual number of occupants intended. Effectively, you can only BRG for single occupant unless double rate happens to be the same as single. It is not possible to BRG if double rate is higher than single. No modification to occupancy is allowed if BRG is approved. If you submit with single rate, you will be stuck with single room; if you submit with double rate and single rate is lower, it will be automatically denied irrespective of competing rates.
Differing currencies
Marriott may deny claims where the difference between the comparison rate and the Marriott rate is less than $1. Rate disparities primarily attributable to fluctuations and/or differences in currency exchange rates are excluded from the guarantee.
Link to T&C
https://www.starwoodhotels.com/bestrate/terms.html
SPG Best Rate Guarantee (BRG) 2018: Success, failure & discussion thread
Sep 23, 2018, 4:10 pm
#1156
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: LHR
Programs: Accor PLT,Thai Silver, HH Dia, SPG Titanium (LT Gold), Aegean Gold, BA Silver
Posts: 5,116
Don't agree as I have recently had discussion regarding BRGs
Sep 24, 2018, 8:05 am
#1157
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: India
Programs: Bonvoy Lifetime Titanium, IHG Plat, HH Gold, Trident Plat, DL Diamond, AI Maharajah
Posts: 29,649
i was just going to post something similar....3 days & 2 emails later, when i had not received a response & was just a couple of days from my cancellation deadline, i called the brg desk & they cancelled the reservation on the spot....
Sep 24, 2018, 8:08 am
#1158
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: India
Programs: Bonvoy Lifetime Titanium, IHG Plat, HH Gold, Trident Plat, DL Diamond, AI Maharajah
Posts: 29,649
i have 2 more brg stays coming up this week....this is a complete disaster....its amazing how long they are taking to get their act together....i'm losing count of the number of points i'm rightfully owed at this point....nothing is posting correctly....
Sep 25, 2018, 2:44 pm
#1159
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: MEX/YVR/YYF
Programs: AS MVP/AC75K/AM Gold/UA*S/SPG-Marriott Lifetime Titanium/Accor-FPC Gold/HHDiamond/Hyatt Exp
Posts: 5,035
Another datapoint.
Just received 2 BRG approvals in a little over 3 hours from the same St Thomas-based agent. Very pleased.
The only glitch is that one approval referred to 2K Starpoints and the other 5K points. Not a big deal.
This will be my first Starriott stay in a month after the ongoing mess that is this company.
I still have a half-dozen issues outstanding and no resolution date in sight.
Just received 2 BRG approvals in a little over 3 hours from the same St Thomas-based agent. Very pleased.
The only glitch is that one approval referred to 2K Starpoints and the other 5K points. Not a big deal.
This will be my first Starriott stay in a month after the ongoing mess that is this company.
I still have a half-dozen issues outstanding and no resolution date in sight.
Sep 25, 2018, 3:00 pm
#1160
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: MEX/YVR/YYF
Programs: AS MVP/AC75K/AM Gold/UA*S/SPG-Marriott Lifetime Titanium/Accor-FPC Gold/HHDiamond/Hyatt Exp
Posts: 5,035
Yet another datapoint.
Pro:
- the approved Starwood brand property approved rate actually shows corrected, which is a positive step
Con:
- the reservation details page is an awful, convoluted mess that makes my head hurt. This redesign is a miss and worse.
Pro:
- the approved Starwood brand property approved rate actually shows corrected, which is a positive step
Con:
- the reservation details page is an awful, convoluted mess that makes my head hurt. This redesign is a miss and worse.
Sep 28, 2018, 11:06 am
#1161
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: MEX/YVR/YYF
Programs: AS MVP/AC75K/AM Gold/UA*S/SPG-Marriott Lifetime Titanium/Accor-FPC Gold/HHDiamond/Hyatt Exp
Posts: 5,035
Another datapoint.
I am missing the BRG bonus points on multiple stays and after nearly 6 weeks and follow-ups....this response from one of my favourite BRG agents:
I dug around a little to find out our new policy regarding missing Best Rate Guarantee Rewards Points and was informed that they would take 7 - 10 business days to post. That being said, I know that this has been a bit of a frustrating experience for you, so I will follow up in one weeks time to see if they have posted, this way, if any follow up is needed, I can further escalate this case.
Somewhere, someone at Marriott Corporation is slowly things down and making this mess worse. Unacceptable service, and not the fault of the agents from I can see but some incompetence management or IT or both knowing Marriott.
I am missing the BRG bonus points on multiple stays and after nearly 6 weeks and follow-ups....this response from one of my favourite BRG agents:
I dug around a little to find out our new policy regarding missing Best Rate Guarantee Rewards Points and was informed that they would take 7 - 10 business days to post. That being said, I know that this has been a bit of a frustrating experience for you, so I will follow up in one weeks time to see if they have posted, this way, if any follow up is needed, I can further escalate this case.
Somewhere, someone at Marriott Corporation is slowly things down and making this mess worse. Unacceptable service, and not the fault of the agents from I can see but some incompetence management or IT or both knowing Marriott.
Sep 29, 2018, 3:58 am
#1162
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: CPH
Programs: UAMP S, TK M&S E (*G), Marriott LTP, IHG P, SK EBG
Posts: 11,071
Maybe it's time to try Hilton.....they have just revamped their BRG and now you can call in and make a claim WITHOUT making a reservation - just like what SPG used to be.
Sep 30, 2018, 11:51 am
#1163
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Europe/SEA
Programs: TK E+, Bonvoy LT Plat, Hilton Diamond, IHG Platinum, Dusit Gold
Posts: 1,714
read it as well, very clever move of hilton !
Oct 1, 2018, 12:34 pm
#1164
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 55
How closely do the room names need to match? The OTA description mentions a classic room king bed, 2 double beds
am I ok matching with non smoking king or should I match classic 2 double beds?
am I ok matching with non smoking king or should I match classic 2 double beds?
Oct 2, 2018, 2:55 am
#1165
Join Date: May 2012
Location: SIN
Programs: JL GC | Marriott LT Silver | Global Entry | SQ Silver
Posts: 6,819
Oct 8, 2018, 8:16 am
#1166
Join Date: Oct 2017
Programs: ANA,Qantas,asiamiles,Royal Skies,Enrich
Posts: 198
Hotel Name: Glad Hotel Yeouido Seoul(member of Design Hotels)
Arrival Date: 15 Sept 18
Departure Date: 19 Sept 18
Number of Rooms: 1
Number of Guests: 1
Room Type: Superior Queen room
Starwood Brand Web Site Room Rate: 450,670 won
Competing Rate: 429,466.40 won
Competing Web Site: Agoda
Comments: rate was matched with extra 20% off so my total stay price is 343,568 won
after another 23,000 won tax refund I only paid 320,568 won and also earned 2780 Starpoints.Not bad for booking direct lol!
Arrival Date: 15 Sept 18
Departure Date: 19 Sept 18
Number of Rooms: 1
Number of Guests: 1
Room Type: Superior Queen room
Starwood Brand Web Site Room Rate: 450,670 won
Competing Rate: 429,466.40 won
Competing Web Site: Agoda
Comments: rate was matched with extra 20% off so my total stay price is 343,568 won
after another 23,000 won tax refund I only paid 320,568 won and also earned 2780 Starpoints.Not bad for booking direct lol!
Oct 8, 2018, 9:02 pm
#1167
Join Date: May 2017
Posts: 26
Has anyone successfully claimed BRG on prepaid rates? How does the process work? I called BRG and the agent said that if the claim is approved on prepay rates, I should get a refund from the hotel after my stay. Is that true? I can't seem to find any information on this on the Marriott/SPG website.
I got approved with the flexible rates, as they changed the policy that the room cancellation policies need to match between SPG/comparison site. I was wondering if it's worth the hassle/risk to submit a new claim and cancel the flex rate booking? I'll end up saving $45 USD a night if it's successful.
I got approved with the flexible rates, as they changed the policy that the room cancellation policies need to match between SPG/comparison site. I was wondering if it's worth the hassle/risk to submit a new claim and cancel the flex rate booking? I'll end up saving $45 USD a night if it's successful.
Oct 9, 2018, 3:32 pm
#1168
Join Date: Oct 2018
Posts: 5
Price match fail (November stay - London, UK)
Hotel Name: Great Northern Hotel (London, UK)
Arrival Date: 11/2018 - 4 nights
Number of Rooms: 1
Number of Guests: 2
Room Type: Couchette Room Non-smoking: Double Bed
Starwood Brand Web Site Room Rate: $1,482.60 (USD Total, prepaid, VAT included for all nights, as calculated by Amex)
Competing Rate: $1479.16 (USD Total, prepaid, VAT included for all nights)
Competing Web Site: Expedia.com
Comments: Claim Denied
I've been given 3 different reasons for denials of this claim on different occasions:
(1) Expedia's price was higher when they looked (it wasn't when I had checked again later and took my own screenshots)
(2)The SPG price had become cheaper (it hadn't) so the match doesn't apply - they don't match what a customer actually paid
(3) The Expedia rate I quoted didn't have taxes included (it does) / wasn't the grand total with fees (it is)
At this point, I was sore about feeling mislead. It wasn't the tiny difference in price - I turned down buying this reservation from other sites solely because of this guarantee, so I'm out 5000 Amex points for choosing to reserve through them. Strike one due to flimsy denials. I figured if I persisted politely, perhaps they'd throw me a tiny carrot like a free drink at the bar or a tiny upgrade. (Both my husband and I have SPG gold status, not that it matters much.)
I explained my frustration politely to the CSR, and they claimed they'd email the hotel to see if they could do anything for me as either a discount or a perk. Days passed, and no response from either the CSR nor the hotel. I email again - and the CSR claims to have started an escalation for the hotel's lack of response, providing a string of numbers as the escalation ID. Another five days pass - I feel as though the CSR is misleading me about even trying to contact the hotel. Strike two.
I email them after a few business days, and ask if they've heard anything yet. They indicate that no, they've not heard anything from the hotel. Strike three - this seems unlikely, fabricated even.
On my final email, I let them know in two day's time if I don't hear at least something from them or the hotel, that I'll take the issue up with my credit card ombudsman to see if they feel that SPG has lived up to their end of the guarantee. I take my screenshots, a printout of the guarantee as it is shown on their website today, and my logged emails and create a set of PDFs for American Express to review. Within 24 hours, Amex customer service had decided I had a legitimate complaint for services not being delivered as promised, and issued an immediate credit to my account for the nonrefundable stay.
What really astonishes me -- I sent the CSR all this detail about the dispute with Amex about goods/services not being as advertised, and suggest options for middle ground perk that would make me happy and close this matter without them having to risk their % of claim denials. (Free breakfast or a minor upgrade would square me for the lost Amex points.) Unsurprisingly, no reply.
My suspicions are that the CSRs I've been dealing with may be located in India and are probably not 'real' SPG employees, but rather probably work for some outsourced firm. (Paula Huey, Melissa Cove - can anyone confirm?) My rationale for thinking this, is that SPG has a vested interest in having people repeatedly stay with them, and handling my case in this manner (misleading me about contacting the hotel, etc) is a sure way to insure that loyalty goes away. The fact that there was no reply to my credit card dispute also reinforces this - easier to make this complaint just 'go away' by ignoring it if you don't have to live with the outcome.
Does anyone know of anyone in the UK at SPG Customer Service I could potentially email? I definitely don't want to stay at a hotel if it turns out that the CSR was being honest about them simply ignoring her emails. (It makes me immediately wonder what else is getting ignored.)
-cautionary_snail
Arrival Date: 11/2018 - 4 nights
Number of Rooms: 1
Number of Guests: 2
Room Type: Couchette Room Non-smoking: Double Bed
Starwood Brand Web Site Room Rate: $1,482.60 (USD Total, prepaid, VAT included for all nights, as calculated by Amex)
Competing Rate: $1479.16 (USD Total, prepaid, VAT included for all nights)
Competing Web Site: Expedia.com
Comments: Claim Denied
I've been given 3 different reasons for denials of this claim on different occasions:
(1) Expedia's price was higher when they looked (it wasn't when I had checked again later and took my own screenshots)
(2)The SPG price had become cheaper (it hadn't) so the match doesn't apply - they don't match what a customer actually paid
(3) The Expedia rate I quoted didn't have taxes included (it does) / wasn't the grand total with fees (it is)
At this point, I was sore about feeling mislead. It wasn't the tiny difference in price - I turned down buying this reservation from other sites solely because of this guarantee, so I'm out 5000 Amex points for choosing to reserve through them. Strike one due to flimsy denials. I figured if I persisted politely, perhaps they'd throw me a tiny carrot like a free drink at the bar or a tiny upgrade. (Both my husband and I have SPG gold status, not that it matters much.)
I explained my frustration politely to the CSR, and they claimed they'd email the hotel to see if they could do anything for me as either a discount or a perk. Days passed, and no response from either the CSR nor the hotel. I email again - and the CSR claims to have started an escalation for the hotel's lack of response, providing a string of numbers as the escalation ID. Another five days pass - I feel as though the CSR is misleading me about even trying to contact the hotel. Strike two.
I email them after a few business days, and ask if they've heard anything yet. They indicate that no, they've not heard anything from the hotel. Strike three - this seems unlikely, fabricated even.
On my final email, I let them know in two day's time if I don't hear at least something from them or the hotel, that I'll take the issue up with my credit card ombudsman to see if they feel that SPG has lived up to their end of the guarantee. I take my screenshots, a printout of the guarantee as it is shown on their website today, and my logged emails and create a set of PDFs for American Express to review. Within 24 hours, Amex customer service had decided I had a legitimate complaint for services not being delivered as promised, and issued an immediate credit to my account for the nonrefundable stay.
What really astonishes me -- I sent the CSR all this detail about the dispute with Amex about goods/services not being as advertised, and suggest options for middle ground perk that would make me happy and close this matter without them having to risk their % of claim denials. (Free breakfast or a minor upgrade would square me for the lost Amex points.) Unsurprisingly, no reply.
My suspicions are that the CSRs I've been dealing with may be located in India and are probably not 'real' SPG employees, but rather probably work for some outsourced firm. (Paula Huey, Melissa Cove - can anyone confirm?) My rationale for thinking this, is that SPG has a vested interest in having people repeatedly stay with them, and handling my case in this manner (misleading me about contacting the hotel, etc) is a sure way to insure that loyalty goes away. The fact that there was no reply to my credit card dispute also reinforces this - easier to make this complaint just 'go away' by ignoring it if you don't have to live with the outcome.
Does anyone know of anyone in the UK at SPG Customer Service I could potentially email? I definitely don't want to stay at a hotel if it turns out that the CSR was being honest about them simply ignoring her emails. (It makes me immediately wonder what else is getting ignored.)
-cautionary_snail
Oct 10, 2018, 4:44 am
#1169
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: CPH
Programs: UAMP S, TK M&S E (*G), Marriott LTP, IHG P, SK EBG
Posts: 11,071
Hotel Name: Great Northern Hotel (London, UK)
Starwood Brand Web Site Room Rate: $1,482.60 (USD Total, prepaid, VAT included for all nights, as calculated by Amex)
Competing Rate: $1479.16 (USD Total, prepaid, VAT included for all nights)
Competing Web Site: Expedia.com
Comments: Claim Denied
Starwood Brand Web Site Room Rate: $1,482.60 (USD Total, prepaid, VAT included for all nights, as calculated by Amex)
Competing Rate: $1479.16 (USD Total, prepaid, VAT included for all nights)
Competing Web Site: Expedia.com
Comments: Claim Denied
If you paid in GBP and the comparison site is in USD, the difference has to be greater than 1% which is not in this case. I doubt that you can file a claim based on this and I really don't think you have a valid reason to file a chargeback.
Oct 10, 2018, 9:57 am
#1170
Join Date: Oct 2018
Posts: 5
Did you actually pay for the hotel in USD or it's your own conversion?
If you paid in GBP and the comparison site is in USD, the difference has to be greater than 1% which is not in this case. I doubt that you can file a claim based on this and I really don't think you have a valid reason to file a chargeback.
If you paid in GBP and the comparison site is in USD, the difference has to be greater than 1% which is not in this case. I doubt that you can file a claim based on this and I really don't think you have a valid reason to file a chargeback.
The conversion is based on what American Express put on my card, so you may be absolutely correct. Oddly, that's not what the CSRs chose to focus on as the reason(s) behind the claim denial. I'm far less upset about the claim denial than I am about feeling that the CSR mislead me by claiming to contact the hotel to see if they'd be willing or able to tweak the pricing.
I'm not the sort who believes the customer is always right; I've done my stint in Customer Service. I'm genuinely okay with the hotel saying 'Whoops, that CSR over-promised what we would be willing to do, but we're sure you'll have a lovely stay with us nonetheless." But most importantly - I don't think it's unreasonable to expect honesty and transparency.
I suspect Amex sided with me because SPG failed to respond to their questions regarding the claim policy. Perhaps the chain of communication at SPG is seriously broken and no one knows (or cared enough) to respond to the dispute inquiry. I probably didn't do the right thing in escalating to Amex, but I was admittedly upset at the time that it felt like they (SPG) were being less than honest and their reasoning behind the claim denials seemed as if they had not used the Expedia site properly.
I am a bit sensitive about matters regarding responding to guest communication and hospitality. We have to rely on the staff for our local safety in a strange new place. On a past trip, I had a security issue when someone drunkenly tried to break into my room in Montreal. They were pounding on the door and screaming. No one answered my calls to the in-house emergency line. I was terrified, but did eventually manage to get assistance...but not knowing if the person might do me harm if that door didn't hold was terrifying. In retrospect, I should just have called the police, but I had figured that hotel security would be faster to get there, if only because they were physically onsite already. The person turned out to be harmless, but I couldn't have known that from their actions and words. That hotel later apologized to me, kept me informed of how they fixed the problem, and were up front about the mistakes that had been made. I've stayed with them again since they were transparent with me.
Knowing that I can rely on the staff to be responsive is very, very important to me. If they're unresponsive on little things, I'm not sure they can be counted on to respond if something more important needs handling. It speaks volumes that no one bothered to even reach out to Amex after the inquiry was started.
Last edited by cautionary_snail; Oct 10, 2018 at 10:04 am