Marriott Best Rate Guarantee
Hotel best rate guarantees are something I’ve never been keen on. Over the years I’ve made several claims, each time thinking my claim meets their terms. In only one instance, the hotel chain came through. Oddly enough, it was a previous Marriott best rate guarantee.
What is a Best Rate Guarantee?
Hotels on the whole prefer you to book directly with them rather than through a third-party online travel agency (OTA). For most, OTAs are a necessary evil, as they need their hotels to appear in searches alongside all the others. But they lost a decent amount of the rate when people book through an OTA rather than directly through the hotel chain.
A hotel best rate guarantee (BRG) is a promise that many chains make to you: they guarantee you will pay the lowest possible price when you book directly with them. OTAs will usually match this price, but you’re guaranteed to get the best deal possible with the chain.
As part of this guarantee, the hotel chain will offer you an incentive if you manage to find a better price somewhere else. The Marriott best rate guarantee states that Marriott will match the lower rate and offer one of the following:
- An additional 25% off the rate OR
- 5,000 Marriott Bonvoy points
Choose wisely, as the 5,000 points is a lump sum, while the 25% off applies to the entire reservation. For a long stay, this could be an amazing savings.
Beyond Marriott, all other major hotel chains offer their own best rate guarantee (under various names): Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, Radisson, Choice Hotels. They all offer various compensation. Years ago, IHG offered the first night free, which meant that you had a free stay if you had only booked one night!
A Nice Idea That Often Doesn’t Work
Best rate guarantees may sound nice, but they often aren’t so hot in practice. The hotel chains like to play games with guarantees, with many being super stingy about approving them. You see…each has their own list of terms and conditions. Some make sense. Others can offer weird loopholes that hotel chains will quickly exploit.
First, you need to book a qualifying rate. You can’t make a BRG using a corporate or other special rate that isn’t publicly available (e.g. event rate). Rates available through paid memberships (e.g. AAA) aren’t eligible as well. This shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Beyond this, Marriott considers the following when comparing rates:
- Cancellation rules such as cancellation or refund policies
- Guaranteed room type
- Room amenities
- Other stay perks or benefits
This means that if Marriott offers you free cancellation up until 24 hours before your stay, while the OTA offers cancellation up until only 48 hours out, they can deny your claim (and almost certainly will). Details like these often make BRGs more frustration than they are worth in practice.
My Marriott Best Rate Guarantee Experience
A few days ago I started looking for a hotel for a potential work trip to southern Utah. I was going to be there for two nights, with the first night paid by work. I’d be footing the second night to stay an extra day. Cedar City, Utah doesn’t have any Hyatt properties, and I locked in a room at the Hampton Inn for a reasonable rate.
However, I was interested in booking a Marriott property instead, on the off chance I have a path to Platinum status this year. However, the SpringHill Suites was a solid $20 higher than the Hampton Inn. Justifiable? Probably. But I try to book the cheapest decent place I can.
For some reason I had started by searching Hotels.com, which is not my typical MO. Before I closed the tabs, I noticed that the SpringHill Suites was available at a lower price than at Marriott.com. Intrigued, I checked the details of each rate.
Marriott’s rate:
And the Hotels.com rate:
They showed as exactly the same (room type, cancellation policy, etc.). I figured I might actually have a BRG claim! Booking the room directly with Marriott, I headed to the Marriott best rate guarantee form for the first time in years.
Plugging in all my info, I submitted the form. There were a couple hiccups. The auto-populated information was unhelpful, as it didn’t submit correctly. Then it wouldn’t let me select the 5,000 Marriott points instead of the 25% off the second time around. Be wary of technical issues.
Submitting the form, I received an email response that my claim would be looked at within 24 hours. You must submit a claim within 24 hours of booking your hotel directly with Marriott.
Lo and behold, a representative emailed me back the following morning with the good news that my Marriott best rate guarantee had been approved! My new total after taxes is right around $150, since I (unfortunately) opted to take the extra 25% off rather than the points.
Decent hotel for $70 per night before taxes? I’m in.
Final Thoughts
I’d honestly expected my Marriott best rate guarantee to go nowhere. My previous attempts a few years ago had gone nowhere, with the exception of one where I did manage to snag the Denver Airport Marriott for just $70/night after it was approved. I thought I had a case this time around. Turns out I did! But do beware…most hotels chains love to deny BRG claims. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
What is your experience with hotel best rate guarantees?
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I booked my room on Expedia and at Marriott.com and filed my claim before I found this site and learned about the fact that AAA rates aren’t allowed.
Yet the terms also state “When multiple rates for the same hotel, reservation dates, and room type are available through a Marriott channel you must reserve the lowest rate for that room type to be eligible for the guarantee.”
Wouldn’t that seem to contradict the ban on AAA rates?
My claim is pending. I’m not optimistic.
Was this a Marriott AAA rate? Special rates like these aren’t eligible. They must be publicly-available rates. I should clarify that.
To be clear, this was:
– AAA Rate booked on the Marriott website. (This part made me nervous).
– Public rate booked on Expedia, which was 35% below the standard rate.
Cancellation policies were the same for both rates.
And…. (drumroll please)…. they approved my claim!
A logical explanation on the ban of AAA rates is that applies to the third party site, not to the rate you booked on the Marriott site. That would make a lot of sense. I don’t know if that is actually their position, however.
That being said, I’m a very happy Marriott customer, and will definitely look to stay there more in the future, so that is a win for them I guess.
Tried reading the rules and cannot find an answer to this:
Can I book the standard rate (even if a member rate is available to me) so that it’s higher than the OTA rate? This way I would be able to submit the claim and get the 25% off?
For example –
Standard Marriott rate: $155
Member Marriott rate: $149
Expedia: $150
If I book the Standard Rate, then I qualify for 25% off. Considering all cancelations, room type, etc match of course.
I don’t believe so. The member rate is meant to undercut the competitor rates for program members.
You mention that “rates available through paid memberships (e.g. AAA) aren’t eligible as well. For me, this is a head-banger. I book on the Marriott site using the AAA rate — typically one of their lowest rates, if not their lowest, and almost alway below the Marriott “best rate.” Then I stumble across a lower rate with the same terms on another site and submit a BRG. It is rejected because “rates available through paid memberships (e.g. AAA) aren’t eligible.” But I’m comparing one of your lowest rates to a lower one I found somewhere else! Even using one of their better rates, Marriott loses the comparison. REJECTED! Huh? Thump. Thump. Thump.
They will use any and every excuse to get out of paying out for a BRG. That has at least been my experience. You’d think with their broad membership, AAA rates would qualify. But still no.
When I do BRG I always book multiple room keeping my lowest rate and book extra room that fit in to their requirements then just cancel everything before your charged
I only tried the BRG once with IHG about 3 years ago. I had a a 2 month in advance reservation I clearly booked the same room through IHG and a 3rd partly for about $20 cheaper everything was the same so I tried it, I was shocked it was denied for something stupid. So just due to frustration on how the BRG works I submitted a claim 24hrs for 2 weeks straight until it was finally they approved it. At that point it was beyond wanting to save money I only wanted to see what it took to receive an approval as they continue to give crazy reason for denial. That was my 1st and last time to every try it but I may try it again on future planned travel that I have time to play with.
The reasons are often crazy. Glad you eventually got one through! Persistence pays off.
It looks like you saved ~$69 between the hotels.com rate and the new rate, so go buy 5,000 Marriott points for $62.50 (or wait for the next discount/buying bonus for a cheaper price) and go buy a beer with the remaining $6 🙂
Over the years, I’ve rarely had an issue using Marriott’s Look No Further guarantee. On some reservations I’ve saved over 50 percent over the Marriott rate. Unfortunately, it’s become much more of a challenge in recent years to find lower rates.
Agreed. Most OTAs are much better about matching the direct rate.
Haha, I guess I could. But I also don’t mind saving the cash. I just get to split the savings with work. 🙁
Sounds like a lot of work for a trivial amount. Not worth my time (and amount of time) for less than $1000. Anything below that is a rounding error and not worth worrying about.
Must be a slow news day. Continues to amaze me the type of articles the travel blogs post to get clicks since there is limited travel. Better off just not publishing anything IMHO!
If we hadn’t published anything, I wouldn’t have been able to read your excellent comment. 😉