Originally Posted by silverfalls

You can't be serious. In my experience with all BRG claims across different hotel brands including SPG, I have seen most of the time, they are looking for ways to decline the BRG claim instead of verifying whether the claim is genuine and fixing the price from their end(I believe the original objective of the program is to encourage customers to book on their site without having to worry about lowest available price elsewhere).

IMHO, they should verify whether the claim is genuine, if it is then they should fix the price in their end and match the BRG claim(whatever was promised). After all the customer is helping you find the bugs/incorrect price.

Just my 2 cents

Originally Posted by pwflyer

AFter two calls back and one hour of holding the BRG representative said the supervisor said Starwood BRG should take responsibility and approve the claim "not because we did anything wrong" but because "we should have known better that Kayak was offering direct rates". When BRG initially rejected the claim they said it was because there were no direct bookings for Kayak. By the third day when they realized that it was possible to make direct bookings the rate was already gone and they had denied it because they said they could not find this published rate.

The person who worked on my claim said they would not take screen shots because people could use Photoshop to compose false rates. He also said the hotels are penalized by Starwood if they sell a rate under the rates offered on the Starwood sites...

Originally Posted by UAFlyer01

My personal experience tells me that Hilton BRG is really a joke compared to all others. I once booked a hotel from Hilton's own website and then found a much lower rate at expedia (both refundable rate). I submitted a claim and was denied. I was told that with Hilton rate, I pay the rate when I check in. but with expedia, I pay when I make the reservation. So they are not the same rate!!

Originally Posted by mahasamatman

They ignore refundability because all rates are refundable on spg.com with respect to BRG. Regardless of the rate being compared, you can book a fully refundable rate on spg.com after being accepted. As long as the room type is the same, they don't care.

I can usually get 3-4 per year, but there are others who get BRG claims on pretty much all their stays.

Originally Posted by uxb

I have only been able to execute two successful BRG claims for the entire time I have been with SPG. My hassle-free claim was for the Le Meridien Grand Pacific Tokyo Hotel (no longer w/ SPG). That was back in '07. A year later, like you, my hassle-filled claim was for the Sheraton Barra da Tjiuca Hotel & Suites. SPG did not want to honour my BRG claim because they didn't acknowledge it, took to long to research it, and/or did not want to process it. I complained to customer service, and ended up getting 2000 *pts for my efforts, and a rate that was even lower than the rate I found on Expedia.

In general, I find that these hotel companies (especially Hilton) have a solid lock on the prices that third-party vendors offer. There is no variation/deviation from the BAR. The only time you can get a deal from these vendors is when they offer a coupon, which means no *pts. At best, it's a cr*psh**t, but not necessarily dishonest.

Sorry.

Originally Posted by MSPDeltaDude

I don't really understand what you mean....

Originally Posted by scubadu

All the things that get reported on FT, customer services frustrations, unrealized expectations, etc. have occurred since time began. However, in today's Internet, Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, need everyone to know everything happening to me in real time culture, many on FT feel they must share every single, solitary customer experience issue they have with 5000 of their closet friends, while sitting around liquored up in their underwear, hovering over the warm glow of LCD screens rather than simply handling the issue as they would for any other customer issue they might have with their plumber, auto mechanic, florist, etc.

Originally Posted by controller1

I feel bad. I think I'll go get dressed.

Originally Posted by margarita girl

Welcome to FT jasonwc! Congrats on your 2 BRGs, however, for this to be helpful to anyone else, you would need to tell us where you found the competing rates. Please feel free to edit your posts and add this information.

Originally Posted by sc flier

I'm really not sure if the part in bold was a typo.

Originally Posted by scubadu

Because, as I stated in my earlier post, FT seems to have created and almost celebrates a culture that thrives on melodramatic statements that are made primarily out of initial, emotional reactions.

All the things that get reported on FT, customer services frustrations, unrealized expectations, etc. have occurred since time began. However, in today's Internet, Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter, need everyone to know everything happening to me in real time culture, many on FT feel they must share every single, solitary customer experience issue they have with 5000 of their closest friends, while sitting around liquored up in their underwear, hovering over the warm glow of LCD screens rather than simply handling the issue as they would for any other customer issue they might have with their plumber, auto mechanic, florist, etc.

And perhaps more sadly, many of these threads on FT end up with both the most views and the most posts.s

Originally Posted by margarita girl

Welcome to FT jasonwc! Congrats on your 2 BRGs, however, for this to be helpful to anyone else, you would need to tell us where you found the competing rates. Please feel free to edit your posts and add this information.


Thanks!

Originally Posted by mahasamatman

Let's say you find a valid BRG by comparing SPG's non-refundable rate with another site's refundable rate. Once it's approved, you do not have to book that non-refundable rate on spg.com. Book any rate you want that has the same room type (assuming it doesn't have additional features), refundable or not.