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BRG is a way of getting compensation for finding a cheaper rate then the one offered by the hotel website.  Compensation varies greatly by the hotel brand policy. It can be in the one following: first night free, gift cards, matched rate with an additional percent discount as well as bonus points.

Hotel brand/ site compensation policy
Please note: most will match the rate plus give compensation.
Choice hotel : $50 VISA gift card plus rate matched (US residents) OR first night free plus rate matched (non-US residents). It goes by the address you write on the reservation so if you Write down an Israel (or anywhere non U.S) address, you're good
Ihg: rate matched plus 5x points for the reservation
Best Western: rate matched plus 100$ BW travel card
Marriott: 25% off matched rate or 5,000 Marriott points
Hyatt: 20% off matched rate or 5,000 Hyatt points
Hilton: 25% off matched rate
Wyndham: rate matched plus 3,000 Wyndham points



How to find a brg claim
Search for the hotel and dates of your choice and then the fun begins.
Hotel price comparison web sites are great way of finding BRGs. Some of the following work very well:

TripAdvisor.com
Hotelscombined.com
Trivago.com
Wego.com

If you want some tutorial articles about how BRGs work, how to find them, how to match them, and all the details, go to http://brgdeals.blogspot.com/ and read the articles.

The site run by a guy named David, and he also finds BRGs and posts them there. So If you don't want to start making one yourself, just go to his site, search for the city you need and see if there are any current BRGs available. You can also be spontaneous and look at his most recent finds (he posts new ones almost daily), although you may have not planned a trip, but if you can get it free (or discounted) hey why not.

How to claim a brg
You do need to book the hotel first and then file a BRG claim.  Just search the hotels/ third party site for a best rate gaurantee policy and you should be able to find a link to a brg claim form. Be aware that room and conditions need to be a perfect match.
As they often find ways to wiggle out of this policy it's not advised to book a non refundable room unless you would have stayed there regardless.


Redeeming brgs
No  diff as to the form of compensation ( discount or free night) redeeming Is all the same. Your reservation will look like a standard reservation except it will be either discounted or show a 00.00 balance. Most hotel receptionists aren't familiar with brgs and automatically assume that it's a points stay.


Why I love choice brgs
Choice hotels include brands like quality inn, comfort inn, rodeway and of course the ascend collection. They are fairly easy when it comes to approving claims as long as you stick to the following:
- 1 claim per household per 30 days
- price match before taxes (ymmv on this one)
- your claim is submitted / approved 72 hours before your scheduled stay
However even within those policy's there are plenty of loop
Holes.



When Posting a brg please use the following Example format:

BRG claim for: Choice Hotels
Hotel Name: comfort suites
Hotel Add: 320 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, IL, US, 60601
Room Type: Queen Suite
Room Rate:197
Better rate found: Hotelscombined.com
Better Rate: 127
« Last edited by a mirrer on August 05, 2019, 01:23:12 PM »

Author Topic: Free hotels/Best rate guarantee  (Read 427180 times)

Offline E

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Free hotels/Best rate guarantee
« on: February 25, 2009, 07:53:10 PM »
   So ive been keeping up to date on this for a while now, and although ive seen it on other sites its never really been addressed on this forum. Dan has posted deals in the past 1 2 . I'm planning on going on a little vacation after Purim when i get home so i was looking at hotels and i realized how incredibly easy it is with a little searching to get free hotels. For those who have never heard of this before im going to explain exactly how to do it.

There are many different Best-Rate Guaranteed Hotels with each their own way of compensating you for finding a better rate
Wyndham hotel group has the best Guarantee, they will give you the first night free if you find a cheaper rate than what is on their website.
These are the hotels which are part of the Wyndham hotel group.
Hotel List in order from most economical to expensive:
Knights inn
Amerihost inn
Travelodge
Super 8
Baymont
Days inn
Howard Johnson
Ramada
Wingate
Wyndham

  • first you want find the area and dates that you want to stay
  • second you need to find a cheaper rate, the simplest way to do it is by going to kayak at the bottom of each location they give the cheapest prices for that location, you can usually see if other websites offer the night cheaper than the hotels own website, the problem is kayak is not always are they accurate always double check before filling out the claim form
    These websites can be used to match prices on "Trip Rewards" Wyndham's website
    Travelocity
    Expedia
    Reserve Travel (look for their "pre-paid internet rates")
    TripRes
    orbitz
    HotelsatAnywhere
    Lodging
    Hotelscheap
    Hotels
    Priceline (fixed price part only)
  • once you find a better rate than the hotels own website you can then fill out a claim form for that particular chain
  • finally this gets complicated when booking multiple nights, only one claim per chain per month will be honored so if you want to stay in the same location for more than one night you'll need another name/person to book it under

So far for my coming vacation i have 3 hotels booked and confirmed free
1.253 South Main Street            ramada staying two nights the 18,19 of March 09  matched with orbitz skiing in Vermont!!
Rt. 4 & Rt. 7
Rutland, VT 05701 US

2.Ramada El Monte                     ramada staying the 29th of March 09 matched with orbitz or expedia don't remember
1089 Santa Anita/I-605
South El Monte, CA   91733

3.Days Inn San Francisco            days inn staying the 1st of April 09 in San Francisco matched with orbitz or expedia dont remember
2358 Lombard Street Hwy-101 (Lombard Street)
San Francisco, CA   94123

I shouldn't really take credit for this because it is discussed with even greater detail on other websites but i thought the dansdeals community should have their own post on this topic. If anyone has any experience that they want to share please feel free.
There are various other best rate programs, i don't have any experience with any of them, although non of them offer free nights they could get you very good deals. Some of these guarantees below might not be accurate. Above all whatever you do please dont make a chillul ha'shem

LasVegas.com has a "double the difference" guarantee.
Vegas.com has a "double the difference" guarantee.
Hotwire.com has a "double the difference" guarantee on their "Hot-rates".
Hilton has a guarantee that if you book through a travel agent and find a better rate on a US location, you get a $50 American Express gift check, and for foreign locations, you get $50 off. (Offer does not apply to the following hotels: U.S.—Atlantic City Hilton, Las Vegas Hilton, and Hilton Reno Resort & Casino; Puerto Rico-Caribe Hilton and the Hilton Ponce & Casino.) The same guarantee applies when booking directly through Hilton.
Expedia has a $50 coupon and price match guarantee. can only be used for the next stay
Travelocity will refund difference + $50 coupon good for 2 nights or more only.
Grand Pacific Palisades does a price match + $50 Amex gift check.
Marriott does a price match + 25%.
Radisson does a price match + 25%.
Harrah's does price match + 25%.
Hyatt does price match + 20%.
Intercontinental hotels does price match + 10%.
Best Western does price match + 10%.
Choice hotels does price match + 10%.
Starwood does price match + 10% or 2000 Starwood points.
Hotel Magician does a price match + 10%.
Silver King does a price match + 10%.
Extended stay does a price match + 10%.
Sol Melia will price match + 10%.
Accor hotels price match + 10%.
Tropicana Atlantic City does a price match + 5%.
Orbitz will refund the difference (price match).
Travelocity will price match or refund (your choice) within 24 hours for Good Buy hotels.

« Last Edit: February 25, 2009, 08:14:50 PM by E »

Offline Yordai Dooma

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Re: Free hotels/Best rate guarantee
« Reply #1 on: February 25, 2009, 08:15:01 PM »
I have done these multiple times. In fact i just got one today for the Wyndham Chicago (4 star-$300 room).
Last time i stayed there, they had plumbing issues and put me up in the four seasons:):)

Be very wary with actual wyndham hotels...you must book the advanced rate(NON-REFUNDABLE rate), NOT the best available rate.

Also, the T&C are different with wyndhams and the others. Wyndham claims are evaluated with the final cost in mind (including taxes and fees) while the others (known as wyndham rewards hotels) are evaluated based on the base cost of the room. There are also many websites such as voucher sites that you CANT match against such as skoosh.com, and venere.com. Stick to the basic ones such as expedia, hotels.com, orbitz, travleocity etc...

Additionally, the room descriptions must match exactly! and the difference must be more than $0.25.

You may want to read all the terms and conditions....it is very easy to get messed over if you dont keep tabs on all of it.
Lastly, when matching to a site, double check that the rate on the other site is really available. Travelocity for example will change the rate on you when you try to book it. The reps reveiwing the claims will catch that and deny you. To date, i have done around 15-20 of these...and have gotten denied maaaany times as well because sometimes the rates change before they review your claim.

All in all, this is worth it, but proceed with caution and stick to the refundable rooms (not wyndhams) in the beginning.

Offline Dan

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Re: Free hotels/Best rate guarantee
« Reply #2 on: February 25, 2009, 11:04:45 PM »
According to the posts above that you linked to it's been a while since I've posted a BRG hotel...guess I've been slacking off.
BRG's are great, nice roundup there E.
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline Yordai Dooma

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Re: Free hotels/Best rate guarantee
« Reply #3 on: February 26, 2009, 12:56:55 PM »
Its coming to an end....book while you can! According to the T&C of Wyndham and WyndhamRewards:

Effective April 1, 2009 our guarantee is changing.  Now you will get the lower rate found plus an additional 10% discount if you find a lower publicly available rate on the internet.

Better stock up now!

Offline est

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Re: Free hotels/Best rate guarantee
« Reply #4 on: February 26, 2009, 03:15:16 PM »
can anyone post when they find available dates - anyone find any lower rates for over april in NY or NJ?
also do you have to stay for a second night - or could it be just one night, and that night free?

Offline Yordai Dooma

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Re: Free hotels/Best rate guarantee
« Reply #5 on: February 26, 2009, 03:48:56 PM »
just one night is fine...thats the point!

Offline est

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Re: Free hotels/Best rate guarantee
« Reply #6 on: February 26, 2009, 05:39:54 PM »
DAVID do you know if you can book now for after april 1 will it still apply?

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Re: Free hotels/Best rate guarantee
« Reply #7 on: March 01, 2009, 12:06:11 AM »
Yes it will....any night that is confirmed free beforehand will still work....already have a few set up

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Re: Free hotels/Best rate guarantee
« Reply #8 on: March 01, 2009, 04:53:41 AM »
david, anything you know of in the  ny nj area?

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Re: Free hotels/Best rate guarantee
« Reply #9 on: March 01, 2009, 09:44:11 AM »
david, anything you know of in the  ny nj area?
check out this google map

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Re: Free hotels/Best rate guarantee
« Reply #10 on: March 01, 2009, 07:13:57 PM »
search Kayak...

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Re: Free hotels/Best rate guarantee
« Reply #11 on: March 01, 2009, 07:48:04 PM »
seems very hard to find....

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Re: Free hotels/Best rate guarantee
« Reply #12 on: March 01, 2009, 08:05:16 PM »
its really not that hard...when they are there, they are there....if anyone is in chicago right now, for the last week the wyndham Chicago (four star $300 room) is cheaper on hotels.com

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Re: Free hotels/Best rate guarantee
« Reply #13 on: March 01, 2009, 09:42:27 PM »
its really not that hard...when they are there, they are there....if anyone is in chicago right now, for the last week the wyndham Chicago (four star $300 room) is cheaper on hotels.com
i checked just now for this week there, and it seems to be the same price, both with pre-paid or reg. rates.

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Re: Free hotels/Best rate guarantee
« Reply #15 on: March 12, 2009, 08:33:53 AM »
Has anyone ever pricematched a starwood hotel? I know the T&C of the wyndham BRG is that it must be a $.25 difference. Does starwood do that different? I found a 4 cent difference and want to get my 2000 points out of it:)

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Re: Free hotels/Best rate guarantee
« Reply #16 on: December 23, 2009, 01:32:56 AM »
Does anyone know of any chains that still offer free first night / best rate guarantee?

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Re: Free hotels/Best rate guarantee
« Reply #17 on: December 23, 2009, 02:21:34 AM »
Does anyone know of any chains that still offer free first night / best rate guarantee?


This is pretty much dead...

There are none (to my knowledge) that are as easy as wyndham was...check out this site: http://bestrateguarantee.blogspot.com/

They are on top of the whole thing and there's plenty of reading there on this topic.

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Re: Free hotels/Best rate guarantee
« Reply #18 on: December 24, 2009, 12:45:16 AM »
from my experience the e*pedia coupons once given are not retracted meaning once you do a price match you can cancel the stay and keep the $50 coupon towards you next stay not so bad if you want to do really cheap you can get 60-70 $ hotel rooms for 10-20 $ a night

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Marriott look no further
« Reply #19 on: June 28, 2012, 01:04:46 PM »
I know people generally don't like to pay for hotel rooms, but marriott's look no further best rate guarantee is pretty good. Find a lower rate within 24 hours of booking and they match it plus 25%
And they are really good about honoring it.
Life isn't about checking the boxes. Nobody cares.