Hotels - It pays to shop around

[oz_mark]

I would be making a claim on the following program if I was the OP:

Lowest Internet Rate Guarantee <H2>

</H2>Every hotel reservation booked through an InterContinental Hotels Group web site is guaranteed to have the lowest rate publicly available on the internet or IHG will match a lower rate under the following conditions:

If you find a rate on a competing web site that is lower than the lowest rate shown on the 'Best Available' search of InterContinental Hotels Group web site, InterContinental Hotels Group will honor that rate for the nights for which the lower rate was found, plus give you an additional 10% discount off the lower rate found upon its verification by InterContinental Hotels Group.

For the purpose of the Lowest Internet Rate Guarantee, a competing web site is defined as a web site that is not owned by InterContinental Hotels Group.

Rooms on the other web site must be publicly available, viewable and bookable on the Internet at the time of verification.

Not sure a Qantas Holidays Telephone Operator constitutes a web site for the purpose of the guarantee.

[StevePER]

Lowest Internet Rate Guarantee

The guarantee is basically worthless due to the requirement that it has to be a rate that can be booked instantly online. So even though some sites are always cheaper (asiarooms.com for example) they are not eligible. In this case it would apply to the ReadyRooms website but not the Qantas Holidays price.

[GDSman]

On the contrary, StevePER, I think InterContinental's is a very good guarantee - given the huge % of hotel rooms globally that are booked online these days: Travelocity, Expedia, Hotels.com, Zuji, etc etc, InterCon are saying that you can forget shopping around online and go direct to them....I think it's quite compelling if it works...

[wandering_fred]

I'm going to show my 3* mentality here......

I normally live (at least while working in Perth) about a km from the Burswood Dome..... There are plenty of motels in the 3* range along Great Eastern Highway and the Perth domestic airport. I would be VERY surprised if they all were sold out or priced more than $80-120 double....... In fact one that I did use on occasion before puchasing the flat is now being converted to apartments...... OTOH one did sell out for the recent Jehovah Witness' convention. But that was one of the better and that convention has a lot more people the Billy Joel will attract. No I did not attend that convention.

So if the original complaint was about the price level....
I have very little sympathy.... Happy to supply names if people are interested though chains like Flag Inn and Best Western will do the same.

Happy wandering (if you can find a room)

Fred

[chrisb]

So if the original complaint was about the price level....
I have very little sympathy.... Happy to supply names if people are interested though chains like Flag Inn and Best Western will do the same.

The original comment was more about the variation in price, and that sometimes it pays to look beyond the usual cheap sources of rooms. That's why I posted to the tips section of the forum.

The point of staying at Burswood was simply to avoid all of the pre and post concert crap and make the whole thing more relaxing and pleasant. Anything that would involve a train, driving, parking or a 2km walk would kind of defeat the purpose - we may as well just go home

Anyway, as it turns out, I have used a $150 credit I had with Qantas Holidays and got a great deal, so the room at the 5* Burswood has cost under $100.


Chrisb.

[serfty]

... Anyway, as it turns out, I have used a $150 credit I had with Qantas Holidays and got a great deal, so the room at the 5* Burswood has cost under $100. ...

All in all a good result.

I should have woken up and mentioned it earlier, but all "Qantas Ready Room" Quotations are inclusive per room per night.

Prices are per room per night in Australian Dollars (AUD) and are inclusive of applicable taxes and charges, but do not cover any charges or taxes imposed directly by third parties. Prices are displayed for the cheapest available room type for each night. Different room prices may be displayed for each date depending on availability.

[markh]

Hope it is okay to resurrect an old thread ...

Was looking a night at the Interncontinental Melbourne for this Thursday 21st May and did a bit of searching last night and found a Queen Rialto with breakfast for two and complimentary parking for $269 on lastminute.com.au. The Priority Club website listed a Queen Rialto with breakfast for $325 for the same night but could not find a rate with complimentary parking.

Promptly booked the PC rate for $325 and fired off an email last night to lowrateguarantee@ichotelsgroup.com

Got an email this morning confirming the the lower rate but cannot guarantee the rate with complimentary parking:
___________________________
Dear Mr. Markh,

Thank you for contacting our office regarding our Lowest Internet Rate Guarantee in reference to rates at the InterContinental MELBOURNE THE RIALTO. We appreciate the opportunity to assist you with this matter.

We have verified the lower rate you found on www.lastminute.com.au. We have contacted the hotel and requested a rate adjusted to 10% off the lower rate you found. Please be advised we are matching room rates only. Since parking is included in the rate you found in the third party website, we will try negotiating this to the hotel. However we do not this request is not guaranteed. We appreciate your patience and will contact you via e-mail when this has been confirmed.

We look forward to accommodating your upcoming reservation. If you have any questions or concerns please contact us via e-mail or phone at 800.447.2981.

Sincerely,

Lera Madrona
Lowest Internet Rate Guarantee
Guest Relations
InterContinental Hotels Group
Phone 800.447.2981
Email: lowrateguarantee@ichotelsgroup.com
www.ichotelsgroup.com/lowest

______________________________________


I will wait to hear back from them but wanted everyone's opinion. Should they be guaranteeing the same rate with parking ?

Cheers
Markh

[oz_mark]

I will wait to hear back from them but wanted everyone's opinion. Should they be guaranteeing the same rate with parking ?

Hotel lowest rate guarantees always seem to come with enough weasel words to allow them an escape for most things. In the case of ICH, the trick is the guarantee applies to the same hotel, same terms, same dates.

So if the rate on the PC website had included parking then I would expect that the guarantee would have applied. However, I think that since the terms of the lastminute offer don't match exacty what is being mad available on the PC website you are a bit out of luck with this one!

[markis10]

Pity the IC melbourne has dropped off the points break list, you could have got a room for 5K of PC points, after buying those points from PC for USD 67.50 (and get a 10% bonus).

[markh]

Pity the IC melbourne has dropped off the points break list, you could have got a room for 5K of PC points, after buying those points from PC for USD 67.50 (and get a 10% bonus).

Never thought about BUYING points ! I did see that PointsBreak offer a couple of weeks ago but did not have my dates in Melbourne confirmed ... oh well will still be nice to stay in for the first time ...