Booking rooms directly via a hotel's website comes with a lot of perks and advantages not only can you earn points for your stay you can also earn tier points which help you get status for that hotel chain. Hotels also provide a best rate guarantee which basically means that they promise to provide you the lowest possible rate for the room of your choice, if they break that promise i.e you find a lower price on another OTA the hotel promises to match that price plus give you additional benefits for not meeting that promise. This article focuses on how to file a BRG (Best rate Guarantee) claim and also talks about the additional benefits which you can expect if your claim goes through. I will also be sharing my story on how I used a BRG claim to my advantage and reduced the cost of my trip significantly.
Filing a BRG claim is pretty simple, once you make a booking you just have to fill a form with the link to the competitors website in which the lower rate is available, you have to mention the lower rate which you are getting on that website and then hit the submit button and that's pretty much it. After which you have to wait for at least 24hrs for the hotel to review your claim and send you an acceptance or a rejection letter.
Somethings to note in order to avoid a rejection:-
Please book the lowest available rate for that claim to be eligible, for most of the big chain hotels this is the member rate.
You have to file the claim within 24hrs of making the booking
The OTA's rate, benefits and terms & conditions against which you are filing a BRG claim should be identical to the rate you have booked at the hotel. For e.g. you book a rate with a cancellation upto 10/08/2020 and you find a rate on another website which is lower but with cancellation upto 5/08/2020; this rate will not be eligible as they both have a different cancellation policy.
If you follow the terms and conditions you will be fine and there should be no problem with your BRG claim. Once your claim gets approved the hotel will not only reduce your rate to that of the OTA's rate but most of the hotels also give you an additional discount ranging from 10-20%.
On my recent trip to Rajasthan this is how I got my room rates significantly reduced. I am attaching a screenshot of the mail I received from Alila conforming that my BRG claim went through.
Getting approved for a BRG can be very easy as long as you stick to the terms and conditions and follow it properly. It's also advisable to file a claim via phone for hotels which allow it as its easier to explain the agent on call about the website in which you are getting the lower rate and you can also direct her properly to the website.
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Siddharth Sanganeria