My dabbling in Best Rate Guarantees perked up my interest in seeing how easy it really was to claim in each of the chains. IHG/Priority Club offers a first night free guarantee, meaning that if you find a lower rate on a one night stay the stay is free. Sounds too good to be true right?
One of the airline websites seems to have about a 50% success rate in advertising lower hotel rates than the hotel directly so last weekend I found a property in my backyard ($67 vs $99). I make my booking on priorityclub.com and immediately phoned the BRG hotline based out of the Phillipines. 20 minutes later, mostly on hold while the rep was verifying the rate I had a claim to a free hotel Saturday night.
I was told that they would contact the hotel to adjust the rate to complimentary and email me a confirmation. Three days go by and it is getting close to the cancellation deadline and i have no email. I call the claim hotline again and am toldthey are still waiting to hear from the hotel. The following morning I receive an email stating that the hotel is challenging the rate and that I will have to pay for the stay and corporate would reimburse me in 4-6 weeks.
Well this isn't how I planned it. I pondered cancelling the reservation as I did not really want to be without my $100 for 4-6 weeks for a hotel stay I had no need for and on the promise of an already shaky organization. I decided to go through with it even after a strong series of doubts in the last hour of no penalty cancellation. At minimum I am going to pickup 2200 Priority Club points thanks to a double point promotion and my lowly gold status, that is progress toward Grand Slam '12. I also get the experience under my belt and if it is a positive one, I can repeat the experience. More details of the actual stay soon.
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