Hotels - It pays to shop around

[markh]

Ha ! They confirmed they will beat it by 10% with parking ! (Plus booked me in for an extra night even cheaper ?)
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Dear Mr. Markh,
We understand you have many options when booking your reservations and for this reason InterContinental Hotels Group is happy you have chosen our web site to arrange for your accommodations.
You are scheduled to arrive at theInterContinental MelbourneonMay 21, 2009 for2 nights. Per our Lowest Rate Guarantee, your rate onMay 21 will beAUD 242.10and AUD 198.00 (which is 10% off the lowest rate you found),includingbreakfast, parking andapplicable taxes. This rate is not subject to additional adjustments. Please refer to your original confirmation for the cancellation policy. Your confirmation number for this stay is xxx.
If your plans change please contact our office, or obtain a cancellation number from 1-800-HOLIDAY. In addition, if you have booked other reservations througha third party site site, please take the necessary steps to cancel them to avoid unnecessary charges.
We look forward to accommodating your upcoming reservation. If you have any questions or concerns please contact us via e-mail or at 800.447.2981.

[oz_mark]

Ha ! They confirmed they will beat it by 10% with parking ! (Plus booked me in for an extra night even cheaper ?)
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Congratulations on that! Obviously these things do work sometimes!

[moa999]

Ha ! They confirmed they will beat it by 10% with parking ! (Plus booked me in for an extra night even cheaper ?)

Very good.
Much better than Starwood's policy, whereby they specifically exclude any package deals (inc breakfast, parking or anything else)

eg. will reject any comps to the DiscoverWest rates for Sheraton Perth
Perth Luxury Hotels Save up to 65%

The Best Rate Guarantee does not apply to packaged rates. Packaged rates include (a)Hotel accommodations sold as part of a travel package, in which the property does not provide the extra service, including, but not limited to accommodations plus airfare and/or car rental and/or cruise, and (b) hotel accommodations sold with value added amenities, including, but not limited to, free breakfast and hotel parking

[yo yo ma]

Ha ! They confirmed they will beat it by 10% with parking ! (Plus booked me in for an extra night even cheaper ?)

Well done... I did a similar thing using Meriton apartments best rate guarantee. I find hotels will almost always beat rates from Wotif etc when you book with them direct.

[albatross710]

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.

I wonder if I can claim on this one. On the night I wish to book a room in Darwin, the ICHotels website is showing no availability. There is availability at the same hotel on Wotif, HotelClub & Lastminute. I wonder if they would give 10% in that case.

Any thoughts?

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

usually when i am travelling i use a few of the major websites to get an understanding of the hotels in an area, relevant reviews there as well as on tripadvisor and then start doing goole searches for particular hotels and yeah maybe working my way thru quite a few sites to get the best deal.

it sure helps to have a quiet nite shift or 2 at work to do it, but i've been able to score some great deals over the yrs - like 2 nites & 3rd for free at the Westin KL (with free upgrade).

im a stingy traveller, so see spending a few hrs searching for cheap hotels as sometimes paying myself the equivalanet of $100+ an hr.

i've foudn the qantas holiday + virgin blue holiday sites to be quite good value when bookign flights + hotel

expedia regualrly has 15-50% off hotel deals. sometimes it's just luck that you are travelling at a time when hotels are discounting.

[Alanslegal]

Much better than Starwood's policy, whereby they specifically exclude any package deals (inc breakfast, parking or anything else)

Guess YMMV as this week I have had a SPG BRG claim for the Westin Sydney which includes breakfast;

Arrival: 15 September 2009
Departure: 16 September 2009
Room: Tower Superior with Breakfast
SPG rate: $390.00

Competing site and rate: www.expedia.com.au for $225.00

Took the 2K bonus points reward.


Also Swissotel's BRG claim is just FAB!!

Successful claims @ Swissotel Sydney - meaning they beat the first night by 50% and match the remaining nights.

Arrival: 10 Sept 09
Depart: 12 Sept 09
Swissotels rate: $229pn with breakfast

Competing site and rate: www.hotelclub.com for $168pn with breakfast.

Rate: $84 + $168 = $252 for two nights with buffet breakfast


And 14 Sept 2009 for one night = $84 with breakfast!!

And 16 Sept 2009 for another single night = $84 with breakfast. Now tell me any 5* hotel with buffet breakfast for less than $100 per night, that's just FAB!!


And I'm a super cheap traveller but love BRG claims!! So bring them on!!!