One block west of North Michigan Avenue, the major shopping district and upscale retail section of Chicago called the ‘Magnificent Mile’ is Four Points Chicago Downtown-Magnificent Mile. The hotel is next to Trader Joe’s supermarket for access to food and drink when a restaurant is not in your meal plans. 

This hotel stay was a Starwood Hotels Best Rate Guarantee claim where I saved about $10 on the room rate and earned 2,000 bonus Starpoints. Starwood Hotels had a prepaid, nonrefundable room rate of $105 for a room with two Double beds and Hotels.com rate was $95 for a King Bed. Read More…

I am traveling 16 of the next 17 days and staying in ten or so different hotels in seven or more different cities. This week I will be in Chicago for the Carlson Global Conference and next week Berlin for ITB 2013 travel trade show. The trip home from Berlin includes overnight stops in Oslo, Helsinki, London and Chicago.

Yesterday I had Best Price Guarantee claims approved for two nights in Chicago and one night in San Francisco. These approved claims mean the first night of the hotel stay is free and all three hotel stays are one night stays.

Last Wednesday I stayed at the Crowne Plaza Denver on a free night using IHG’s Best Price Guarantee reducing the $199 room rate to free.

IHG denied my claims twice over the weekend for a free night at the Crowne Plaza – St. James, London. Read More…

Crowne Plaza Denver lowest published rate was $199 per night for a Standard Room Wednesday, Feb 20. The lowest rate found on Kayak.com for a Standard Room was $107.65 at getaroom.com. Rates on both sites were refundable rates with getaroom.com allowing cancellation until Monday, 10pm 2/18 with no charge and IHG site allowing cancellation to Tuesday, 6pm 2/19 with no penalty.

I booked the $199 room on the IHG site and immediately filed a Best Price Guarantee claim with InterContinental Hotels Group on Saturday, February 16. Within 12 hours my claim was approved and I was notified the room night at Crowne Plaza Denver would be free. Read More…

A Fairfield Inn hotel stay generally does not warrant a hotel review. Fairfield Inn, along with extended stay brand TownePlace Suites are the lowest hotel market segment brands in Marriott International. These two brands are classified as Upper Midscale hotel brands according to STR Global U.S. chain scale ranking for hotel brands. This is the same market segment as Hampton Inn, Holiday Inn Express and Country Inn & Suites.

Two reasons I want to give Fairfield Inn Cherry Creek (Marriott Rewards category 3) a brief write-up.

The first reason is I have not stayed in a Fairfield Inn since my LatinPass 1,000,000 bonus miles mileage run days when I stayed at the brand in Miami the night before flying out to Bogota, Colombia back in the year 2000. I do not remember that hotel with fondness for the brand.

The second reason is this stay was a successful experience with Marriott’s Look No Further best rate guarantee for 25% off the lower rate found. I’ll briefly share how I seek out lower rates at online travel agencies while I am searching for hotels to get even bigger discount rates on my paid stays. Read More…

• Grand Hyatt Denver with a suite upgrade.
• Fairfield Inn Cherry Creek with a Look No Further 25% discount rate.
• Crowne Plaza Denver with a Best Price Guarantee free night.

After basking in the 80 degree sun of Monterey Bay with sea otters and sea lions on Friday, Feb 15, I had my hands freezing on the chilled steering wheel of a Toyota Corolla driving out of DIA, Denver International Airport 48 hours later on Sunday night. Despite the one-day hot spell in Monterey, the temperature this winter has been abnormally chilly in central coast California with overnight lows frequently in the 30s since December. I packed the right clothes for a high plains drifter spending time in cold weather Denver.

Southwest Airlines out of San Jose got us to Denver on time and we were on I-70 heading to the Grand Hyatt Downtown Denver before midnight. One interesting observation is the rental car rate offered at the time I booked my Southwest Airlines ticket was $90 from Payless for four days and that rate was comparable to the best rate I eventually found from FOX car rental at DIA.

Grand Hyatt Denver was part of my four night Denver hotel plan since the AAA rate was $89 last Sunday night for a downtown Denver hotel. Rates went over $200 per night for Monday and the hotel was sold out for Tuesday during the weekdays when a banking conference was in town. I had a Diamond member suite upgrade to burn before expiration at the end of February. Read More…

Finding one potential Best Rate Guarantee option is a great find for a reduced cost hotel stay. Finding two Best Rate Guarantee rates in different chains means a duel for the best rate and benefits.

Marriott offers a Best Rate Guarantee called Look No Further. A successful claim reduces the lower hotel rate from the competing website by 25%.

InterContinental Hotels Group Best Price Guarantee offers a lower rate price match plus first night free. Restrictions were added to the IHG free night offer a few months ago. Now there is a restriction disallowing multiple claims for a free night on consecutive nights by members of the same household for IHG hotels within 50 miles of a hotel where a successful BRG claim was submitted. Read More…

I need to plan eight stays over the next two months to reach SPG Platinum for 2012. I outlined why I want to requalify for SPG Platinum in my earlier post, Differences in my stays as SPG Platinum and Gold elite.

This post shares how I plan out hotel hopping for stays when I want to find the cheapest rates for my stays, but also try and stay in the best hotels I can find without busting my budget. I will be paying for my own travel so finding lower rates is important to me. Read More…

In July 2012 I wrote a series of articles describing the Best Rate Guarantee (BRG) policies for eight major hotel chains. This post provides links to those articles.

Best Rate Guarantee claims are something I file several times a year. They are not that difficult to find when comparing the rates through Online Travel Agencies (OTA) to the published rates on a hotel chain website.

In 2012 I have received free nights (IHG and Choice), $100 gift card (Best Western), 2000 bonus Starpoints (SPG), and rate discounts (Club Carlson).

In these articles I describe each program’s Best Rate Guarantee policy, along with the program’s advantages and difficulties with submitting and processing a BRG claim.

Loyalty Traveler Best Rate Guarantee series – July 2012

Overview: Devilish Details of Best Rate Guarantee Claims

Best Western Hotels: Best Western Best Rate Guarantee $100 Travel Card Update Oct 25 – Turns out Best Western dropped the $100 travel card for approved BRG claims in late September. That benefit lasted only about six months since being introduced earlier this year.

Carlson Rezidor Hotels Group: Over 100 Hours for Carlson Best Rate Guarantee Reply

Choice International: Choice Hotels Best Rate Guarantee Free Night

Hilton Worldwide: Hilton Worldwide Best Rate Guarantee – Weaker than Marriott?

Hyatt Hotels: Hyatt Best Rate Guarantee claims are handled over the phone

InterContinental Hotels Group: InterContinental Hotels Group Best Rate Guarantee Get One Free Night

Marriott International: Marriott Hotels Look No Further Best Rate Guarantee for 25% Discount

Starwood Hotels: Starwood Preferred Guest Best Rate Guarantee for 2,000 Points or 10% off

Ric Garrido, writer and owner of Loyalty Traveler, shares news and views on hotels, hotel loyalty programs and vacation destinations for frequent guests. You can follow Loyalty Traveler on Twitter and Facebook and RSS feed.

Yesterday a rate mistake of $60 per night for the Westin New York at Times Square was published on FlyerTalk and then re-posted on View from the Wing. That was a significant discount for a hotel with rates typically in the $400 per night range. The rate mistake was fixed yesterday and this deal is no longer available.

How many Westin Times Square rooms were booked at $60 per night?

Dozens, hundreds, thousands of rooms?

The Westin New York at Times Square with 863 rooms could probably accommodate several thousand $60 per night bookings.

I saw Gary’s post early enough to probably book rooms at that $60 rate. For my own reasons I didn’t even check for available dates.

Publishing Mistake Rates and Best Rate Guarantee Claims Read More…

In many respects Hyatt Hotels has the most consumer friendly Best Rate Guarantee policy among the major hotel chains with a 20% rate discount on the lower competing rate for approved claims.

Competitive Advantages of Hyatt Hotels Best Rate Guarantee

• Hyatt Hotels handles your Best Rate Guarantee claim immediately over the phone. All other programs require a BRG claim submission online. Hyatt Hotels customer service agents are more likely to find the same rate on the competing Online Travel Agency website in real time over the phone.
• Hyatt Hotels does not require the guest to book the room at a Hyatt.com site prior to submitting a Best Rate Guarantee claim. Starwood Hotels is the only other major chain to allow the guest to file a Best Rate Guarantee claim prior to booking a hotel room on their websites. This is a huge advantage for a Best rate Guarantee claim made on a prepaid, nonrefundable rate.

Hyatt Best Rate Guarantee Terms & Conditions.

Hyatt Best Rate Guarantee FAQ.

Read More…