Why Is Hotel Price Matching/Beating Almost Impossible?

immrnonamehello on 23/04/2023 - 10:50

Almost all hotel sites and chains offer some sort of price guarantee, but in practice it's almost always impossible to get. I've tried several times over the years and I've had 0 success so far.

A couple of examples I have just from last night:

Booking.com -

Claim rejected because the name of the room is "different". It's actually the same along with everything else such as free cancellation date/time and meals, but they decided to put in "free transfer to Burj Khalifa" in the room name to avoid being the same as every other site!

IHG -

"The reservation is not booked under the lowest priced rate for the room type you booked." - but anything cheaper than what I booked would be non-refundable rates!

Does anyone know why that's the case? I was under the impression that hotel profit margins should be relatively big, or at least if you try to claim with the chains themselves (IHG/Accor, etc) there would be more success as you're cutting out the middle man…

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Comments

  • screensaver on 23/04/2023 - 11:24

    Try Hotels.com, they have some kind of guarantee if you read all member info

  • bobbified on 23/04/2023 - 11:36

    With the bigger chains, it could depend on who you get on the other side of the phone. I've only bothered trying to match a few times and it's been fine. (But I don't go into the 'details' about refundability (don't need it) and always just look at the final price I'm paying).

  • payless69 on 23/04/2023 - 11:55

    Agoda was slightly better in 2019
    anybody got newer feedback?

    • vodamerc on 23/04/2023 - 12:07
      +3

      Agoda is just booking.com

  • SimpleLeverage on 23/04/2023 - 13:01
    +1

    For IHG you may need to make it clear in your claim that you are comparing the "Best Available" rates with "Free Cancellation" (you should also check the cancellation terms are the same - i.e. free cancellation if made x number of days prior to your stay)

    From the IHG Price Guarantee T&C "We will verify the lower rate by comparing the rate found on the IHG website or mobile app with the rate found on the non-IHG website for the same hotel, room type, stay dates, number of guests, and cancellation policy."

    • immrnonamehello on 23/04/2023 - 13:11
      +1

      Yep, i just tried it again with another IHG hotel this morning. Came back with the same answer!

      I guess at least they reply pretty quickly… /s

      • SimpleLeverage on 23/04/2023 - 13:14

        Just checking you are submitting via the IHG online Claim Form within 24 hours of booking your reservation on IHG and not contacting the hotel directly?

        • immrnonamehello on 23/04/2023 - 13:28
          +1

          Yep, via this link: https://www.ihg.com/hotels/us/en/customer-care/forms

          Submited 5 mins after booking, both times

          Here's the email reply:

          After reviewing the details of the reservation submitted, please be advised that your claim has not qualified for the Guarantee because of the following reason:

          • The reservation is not booked under the lowest priced rate for the room type you booked.

          Rate Booked: AED 193.03 per night excluding 12.50% tax and 10% service charge under Best Flexible Member Exclusive Rate

          Lowest Priced Rate: AED 162.15 per night excluding 12.50% tax and 10% service charge under Book Early and Save Member Exclusive

          Please be advised that all requirements listed under the Terms and Conditions of the program must be met to qualify for the rate match and bonus points.

          • SimpleLeverage on 23/04/2023 - 14:13

            @immrnonamehello: Yeah their T&C wording is not clear what's "Best Available" rate means, but a common sense approach would dictate that it's best available for a room type and cancellation terms given people may want free cancellation for various reasons.

            You could try replying and pointing out that the "Book Early and Save Member Exclusive" has a different cancellation policy and point to their own T&C where the comparison rate needs to be on the same cancellation terms. If that fails you could try bringing it up separately as a complaint that IHG isn't honouring their best price guarantee.

            It might be possible that they take a very narrow view of "Best Available", in which case you may have no choice but to book with the 3rd party platform to get the rate you want. I would be interest to know the outcome if you do pursue it further.

            • immrnonamehello on 23/04/2023 - 14:34

              @SimpleLeverage: Yeah it would be very dodgy of them if their price guarantee only works for the absolute cheapest rate (which would be non-refundable 90%+ of the time), and that pretty much means they can say anything to deny your claim and there's nothing you can do about it other than staying there as you can't get a refund anyway.

              I've replied to them to question this, if that's indeed the case I'll probably refrain from booking any IHG hotels in the future because that's just dodgy…

  • TNTomer on 23/04/2023 - 17:50
    +2

    Using the Accor app and being logged in as even a base tier status member, I have never seen a site have cheaper rates than the app. But between 3rd party sites there is different prices everywhere.

    • makibaow on 10/05/2023 - 22:44

      I have a terrible experience with ACCOR, and end up paying $500 extra compared with 3rd party sites. Lesson learnt, i am still chasing to get my money refunded :(

  • spackbace on 23/04/2023 - 18:45

    Booked our overseas holiday hotels directly through their own websites. Couldn't find cheaper plus figured it's the best way of getting good service (upgrades etc)

  • TimmyTims on 24/04/2023 - 07:36
    +1

    I'm not too familiar with those sites price matching policies, but I am familiar with using those sites to find the best price.
    I only use them to find what is available and what I want, I never book through the sites direct. Instead, I call the actual hotel and say something like, "Hi, I saw your room X on Y.com for $Z on ABC dates. Can you beat that if I book direct with you?"
    9/10 they can beat it. They simply offer you the same rate they would get paid but since you aren't paying Y.com commission, you end up paying less

    • Darayus on 11/05/2023 - 09:45
      +1

      Agree or sometimes they throw in early check-in or check-out or free breakfast or spa or even transfer.

      This is because they cannot reduce the price that they have offered to book aggregators, so they will give in something which is better than giving 15% to 20% commission to booking aggregators.

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