That's why immediately after booking a room I go hunting for a better price

It may seem like a mistake what is written in the title, and it is indeed so: when I book a room in a hotel that belongs to a chain, immediately after booking I go hunting for a better price on the various sites such as Booking, Expedia, RocketMiles and the like.

I also admit that sometimes I have booked a room only after finding the same solution, at a lower price, on a site other than the hotel chain. The reason is simple and is called "Best Price Guarantee."

When we explain here at TFC how to maximize the benefits of hotel chain statuses, we make it clear that you should only book through official channels, or at most through FHR from American Express, and the reason is simple: only then will you get the benefits and advantages provided by the status.

For hotel chains, it is a way of not paying commissions to OTAs and in return they promise the customer that the price displayed on the site will be the lowest price found on all third-party sales channels. But this is not always the case.

The Best rate guarantee

All major hotel chains advertise their promise and also explain how they will reward the guest in case the same accommodation is found on another site.

Of course, we Italians, who are used to always thinking wrongly, might be prejudiced by imagining that there is the classic afterthought that nullifies the claim. But this is not the case.

In this case it could be said that there is no trick and no deception, much less misleading advertising. The only rule is that the lower rate must be found on a "serious" site and not in combination with something else. It does not apply if, for example, the rate on a site that requires a subscription to access the offers and such. Personally, the first thing I do is go to Trivago and see if a better rate pops up there.

The rules of the various chains

As well as for upgrades, room availability and check-in/out times, each chain has its own rules.

• Hilton recognizes a discount of 25% additional to the identified tariff
• Marriott practice the same rate identified cheaper and offers additional compensation of the user's choice: 25% extra discount or 5,000 Bonvoy points.
• IHG applies the same rate found elsewhere and multiplies X5 the IHG Rewards points you earn from that specific stay, up to a maximum of 40k points.
• Hyatt recognizes the lowest rate and gives you a choice of an additional discount of 20% or 5,000 World of Hyatt points.

Of course, in addition to identifying the rate, one must have booked the room to trigger the request, all except Hilton, which also accepts prior requests instead.

In detail, here is what you need to do to apply for BRG

1. Complaints generally must be made within 24 hours of booking. This is because of course prices can fluctuate depending on so many factors, so it is not possible to request actions for rooms that have been booked for longer.
2. As stated, must be a known OTA And real, not a fake site
3. The lowest rate must have the exact same conditions as the rate booked directly through the chain hotel. This means same dates, same room type and cancellation policies.

Therefore, it is important that it is the same product. If it says that a room is cancellable within 24 hours of arrival, it is different from 'is cancellable by 11:59 p.m. the day before check-in.' We also need to be careful about other details, for example, the type of bed: in case it is not specified whether it is King or Queen, the operator might reply, "It is not the same room." When it happens, my advice is to take lots of screenshots of the site, save the links and the steps you took to get that rate.

In conclusion

Of course, it is "additional work," but it happened to me, with Hilton and Marriott, to find similar situations and instead of booking on the unofficial site I was able to get the cheapest rate and related benefits such as the accumulation of points and related bonuses.

My advice in this case is always to take the points instead of the extra discount, unless we are talking about a presidential suite for a week-long stay and then the extra discount is definitely to be preferred.