Can I claim the best rate guarantee??

cheaptraveller70

I want to book 2 nights at the 4* Amba Charring Cross Hotel for the bank holiday in May. With their spring sale it comes to £427, non refundable, without breakfast for a deluxe double room. Expensive but its the missus' birthday and she loves that place for going to the theatre! NOw I found the same room (I think) - it's a double deluxe, on a site called ChooseYourOwnRoom.com. It's £401 INCLUDING bfast and refundable if we change our mind! Now Amba have a best rate guarantee saying I can contact them and they'll give me 10% off the rate I paid - that would be £43, so I would pay £384 (and they say they match the rate, so would i get bfast?). Does anyone know if this works?? ?

leylandsunaddict

cheaptraveller70 wrote: »

I want to book 2 nights at the 4* Amba Charring Cross Hotel for the bank holiday in May. With their spring sale it comes to £427, non refundable, without breakfast for a deluxe double room. Expensive but its the missus' birthday and she loves that place for going to the theatre! NOw I found the same room (I think) - it's a double deluxe, on a site called ChooseYourOwnRoom.com. It's £401 INCLUDING bfast and refundable if we change our mind! Now Amba have a best rate guarantee saying I can contact them and they'll give me 10% off the rate I paid - that would be £43, so I would pay £384 (and they say they match the rate, so would i get bfast?). Does anyone know if this works?? ?

No one can tell you because no knows if you're comparing like for like. I doubt you'll find out until you've booked and try to claim.

SW17

I think you might struggle with this one. Chooseyourownroom.com is operated by GLH, who also own Amba Hotels, so they probably won't consider it a competing website, which is a condition of their guarantee.

On the other hand, the Amba BRG terms seem to say you can make a claim before you book with them, so you could give it a go without booking the non-refundable rate.

littlereddevil

I thought it had to be like for like?
Why not just book the cheaper one?

leylandsunaddict

SW17 wrote: »

I think you might struggle with this one. Chooseyourownroom.com is operated by GLH, who also own Amba Hotels, so they probably won't consider it a competing website, which is a condition of their guarantee.

On the other hand, the Amba BRG terms seem to say you can make a claim before you book with them, so you could give it a go without booking the non-refundable rate.

Amba BRG terms say "If you find a lower, published rate for our hotel within 24 hours of booking, tell us about it and we'll match it, plus give you an additional 10% discount" so the OP would have to book first. You've also got to give your Amba reservation number to claim.

SW17

leylandsunaddict wrote: »

Amba BRG terms say "If you find a lower, published rate for our hotel within 24 hours of booking, tell us about it and we'll match it, plus give you an additional 10% discount" so the OP would have to book first. You've also got to give your Amba reservation number to claim.

No, they don't say that. On the BRG T&Cs at http://www.amba-hotel.com/group/best_rate_guarantee.html it says (my bold):

If you find a lower publicly available rate for the hotel in question, on a competing website, prior to, or within 24 hours of booking your hotel room, simply submit a Best Rate Guarantee Claim to us a minimum of 24 hours before the arrival date and we will create a new reservation for you honouring that lower rate and an additional 10% discount of that room rate.

It is rather strange given this, that a reservation number is a mandatory field on the form, but this is the wording. As I said above, I doubt this one would get approved.