Marriott's 'Look No Further' best price guarantee

GlennTheBaker

Bumped this one just to say that budgetflyer has added an article I've written on this subject to his excellent website and that there is a thread HERE where folks have posted their successes.

BrightonR

I work for a fairly big hotel booking website and know that the reason all of the Hotel chains can offer Best Rage Guarantees (BRGs) is because they operate price fixing across the market. If we undercut the the hotel, we are threatened and have to stop selling the hotel. This means that to offer the best rate is a bit meaningless as they have made sure everyone is more expensive and have people who's job is literally to sit there all day checking other rates. This is particularly true of US chain hotels. This is why some sites sell rooms opaquely (like hotwire and priceline) as they can avoid the attention of the hotel chains because you don't know what hotel you are getting and cant use these in BRG claims.

this isn't to say there aren't exceptions as some companies will ignore/avoid the chains attention for as long as possible but It means the big websites like expedia (who work directly with the hotels and not through wholesalers) will virtually never offer a cheaper rate than the hotel.

It's a really dubious situation and possibly illegal but no one is really in a position to challenge the hotel chains.