Best Western Low Rate Guarantee $100 travel card

Yesterday I spent about an hour searching for the email with the Best Western Travel Card code I received sometime in June or July last year. I stayed in Brunswick, Georgia at a Best Western last June on a successful low rate guarantee claim on the first night of my ‘Drive Out of Florida’ rental car road trip from Orlando to Knoxville, Tennessee.

The deal with Best Western Low Rate Guarantee claims is a successful claim receives the lower room rate and a $100 Travel Card sent by email with a redemption code. I knew I had received one of these $100 Travel Card emails last summer after my $89 low rate guarantee stay in Georgia last June.

‘Best Western’ did not bring up any search results that matched my Low Claim email. ‘Best’ and ‘Low’ did not work either. Finally, I searched manually over a date range through thousands of emails. I found the email with the Best Western $100 Travel Card code sent about one week after my stay.

Sender was ‘BWR’.

Sure would be nice if these Travel Card codes were listed somewhere on the Best Western Rewards member ‘My Account’ page.

Amsterdam Hotel Stays on the Cheap

The reason I was searching for my Best Western Travel Gift Card is the best value hotel rates I found for upcoming trips to Amsterdam were at Best Western Hotels.

Best Western Premier Hotel Couture is priced at 55EUR/$62 USD per night. This hotel receives 4.5 circles on TripAdvisor, and ranked #40 of 357 hotels in Amsterdam. The hotel is a bit west of the tourist area of the city, but still within the central part of the city and an easy 15 minute tram ride into the tourist area of Amsterdam.

Best Western Leidse Square is in the city center, but not as highly rated a hotel at #169 of 357 Amsterdam hotels on TripAdvisor. Room rate was $64 per night.

Last May I paid $89 after tax for a Best Western hotel stay in Brunswick, Georgia and earned a $100 Best Western Travel Card from an approved Low Rate Guarantee. In a couple of weeks I will pay $188 for three nights in Amsterdam using my $100 Best Western Travel Card and $88 cash. That works out to $30 per night for hotel stays in Amsterdam.

Another Best Western Low Rate Guarantee $100 Travel Card Scored Today

Yesterday, I realized that I had not stayed on a Best Rate Guarantee claim for any hotel chain since last June. Nearly all my hotel stays since July have been international and mostly using hotel points. Finding best rate guarantee rates for international hotels is far more challenging for me.

Over the next six weeks I have several nights coming up in Las Vegas as I fly American Airlines tickets AMS-LAX I purchased for $422 round trip each.

I decided to search for a low rate discrepancy in a Las Vegas hotel. The main problem is three of the nights I am in Las Vegas are Friday or Saturday nights with far higher rates for Las Vegas Strip hotels. I did not want a 20% or 25% discount on a $200 room rate for a Starwood or Marriott hotel. IHG and Choice give a free room night for a successful best rate guarantee claim. No luck finding rate discrepancies with those chains.

Best Western gives a $100 Travel Card and when I saw a Best Western with a $119 rate and $77 on Vegas.com or $85 on Priceline.com, I booked and submitted my claim. The $77 Vegas.com rate was widely available for booking until I went to file the Best Western Low Rate Guarantee and I could not find it without using the direct link provided by Kayak.com. The rate was $107 when I went directly to Vegas.com. That is the reason I used the $85 Priceline rate for my Low Rate Guarantee Claim.

Final Talley for Five Nights in Best Western Hotels

• Best Western Brunswick Georgia $89 (May 2015 earned $100 BW Travel Card)
• Best Western Hotels in Amsterdam, NL $188 ($88 after redeeming $100 travel card earned in May 2015)
• Best Western hotel Las Vegas $95 (earns $100 BW Travel Card for future Best Western hotel stay)

Best Western Low Rate Guarantee Policies changes

I long considered the Best Western Hotels Low Rate Guarantee claim policy of  to be about the most difficult to get approved. One of the terms used to be ‘discount rates’ from competitors were not eligible for best rate guarantee claims. That rule kind of made the whole claim process useless.

Best Western Low Rate Guarantee rules are different now and seem much more reasonable and consumer friendly for 2016 claims.