The acronym jargon of this title stands for Online Travel Agency (OTA) like Expedia.com, Hotels.com, Travelocity.com limited time offer (LTO) sale where the rates are reduced by 20 to 30% or so and Hyatt Best Rate Guarantee (BRG) comes through.
Last night, my parents asked for help in finding a good hotel rate in Denver. While on the phone with Mom, I pulled up Kayak.com and saw a rate at Hyatt Place Denver Cherry Creek for 30% lower on Expedia, Hotels.com and Travelocity than the rate at Hyatt.com. The timer for this limited time offer of 30% off was running down at 4 hours 43 minutes.
Factoid: Expedia, Hotels.com and Travelocity use the same hotel rates since Travelocity changed to be run by Expedia’s hotel search.
These limited time offers are a great opportunity to file a best rate guarantee claim if there is more than 24 hours of the sale left to go. The problem though is most chains require you to book the hotel on the brand website first, then file a best rate guarantee claim and wait for a response.
Choice Hotels will give a free night for an approved claim, but the chain’s best rate terms state they can take 48 hours to respond. Starwood and Marriott are good about responding in 24 hours. IHG is the only major chain to not even post a response time in their terms. Best Western states sale rates at online travel agencies do not qualify for a best rate guarantee claim which essentially makes their BRG program useless.
With less than five hours before the rate discrepancy was set to expire, Hyatt is the best hotel chain for a best rate guarantee. Hyatt and Starwood are the only two hotel chains that allow a person to file a best rate guarantee before booking a hotel room through the Hyatt site.
Checking the Room Rate Terms
- Hyatt rate = $129 for King bed.
- Travelocity rate = $90.30 for King bed.
A quick check of the terms showed both Travelocity and Hyatt rates were flexible cancellation. Hyatt allowed cancellation up to 4pm day of arrival. Travelocity allowed cancellation with no penalty up to day before arrival.
I made a call to Hyatt Best Rate Guarantee number 1-866-886-5054 and within five minutes the agent verified the rate discrepancy between Hyatt and Travelocity for Hyatt Place Cherry Creek Denver.
The reservation was booked at 20% off $90.30 and the $129 room rate on Hyatt was reduced to $72.24 per night for my parent’s hotel stay.
Hyatt Hotels is the only hotel chain where this best rate guarantee claim would have worked since they are the only hotel chain that will process the claim over the phone in real time.
Thanks Hyatt. You gave my mom a great Mother’s Day gift and made her proud of her son for finding a great hotel deal.
Best of all is Dad is happy too. He has a hotel room reservation for their first trip to Denver in a good part of town for under $75 with free breakfast, free internet and free parking.
*****
Analysis of eight Best Rate Guarantee claims with six hotel chains
Last month I did a series of posts on best rate guarantee claims where I filed a claim with six of the nine major hotel chains and only Marriott approved my claims. Best Western, Choice, Carlson, Hilton, and Starwood denied my claims.
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