Reader Email: Marriott Best Rate Guarantee Scam?

A LoyaltyLobby reader sent us a Best Rate Guarantee case in which Marriott refused to match with a third-party site that sells the same room at a significant discount.

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You can access Marriott’s Best Rate Guarantee program page here.

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Email from reader

I have traveled extensively over the past 40 years, with over 5 million miles on airplanes, a thousand nights at Marriott hotels and so on. I recently had several inconsistencies with Marriott’s Rate Guarantee (on their home page with links to policies and forms to fill out). One is particularly noteworthy.

The King Kamehameha Courtyard Hotel in Kona is one of my favorites in the world. I live on Maui and enjoy visiting family and friends on the big island which is based at this hotel. I was looking to book a few nights July 8-10 and was surprised at the prices on the Marriott website (unusually, points weren’t even an option). I found a list with prices ranging from $449 to $529 per night. The best rate for two nights was $898 to $1089.

I went kayaking to see if I booked the same nights. Kayak connected me to SnapTravel where I got the rate of $206 per night. I called Marriott and they told me to fill out their rate match form. I did. As promised, I received an answer within 48 hours. They wrote that they could not confirm that a lower rate could be reserved for an equivalent room. That “…after extensive testing, we have determined that this website does not accurately reflect pricing and availability and therefore we cannot approve your claim.”

Then they wrote:

“We do not reauthorize any claims (sp)SnapTravel.com.”

It then states, “Marriott reserves the right to deny a claim if it cannot independently verify the availability of a comparable fare at the time the claim is processed.”

So I put my 8 year old on my iPad and he booked the reservation on Snap Travel at the King K Hotel, nights reported in about 3 minutes for $206 a night. I replied to the first mail merge with a copy of the booking which they said they couldn’t do.

I would also like to point out that nowhere on their website or in any of their advertisements that tout the benefits of booking on Marriott.com with their rate guarantee do they exclude any supplier, and certainly not SnapTravel.com in particular.

There was then a response to my sending a copy of the booking. “I appreciate you taking the time to provide screenshots of the confirmation (note: I’ve attached a PDF of the reservation, not a screenshot). While guest-provided screenshots can provide valuable clues as to how prices are doing, they do not provide sufficient information to approve or deny claims. We must be able to independently verify the availability of the competing fare at the time the claim is evaluated.”

Apparently they need to hire more 8 year olds.

To improve my understanding, they continued: “…It will be helpful to know that we have a specialized team that is investigating the suitability of the competing websites we use and that team has advised us that Snap Travel is not a legitimate website for us is to be used when processing the claims we have received. Please note that this is a decision made at the corporate level and we must comply with any claim made through this website.”

In summary, I saved over $500 on a two night stay by booking with Snap Travel. My reservation has been confirmed (and updated) by the hotel. Nowhere on their website does Marriott exclude SnapTravel from their price guarantee. I, like many other loyal Bonvoy members, have been fleeced by their company policy. I noticed this a few times driving across the country in June of this year……but this was the most extreme example.

Kayak search:

I decided to do a kayak search for the same hotel.

A two night stay on Marriott’s website would set you back $1,089.97.

And the same room on an OTA is only $711.36. Marriott’s price is 53% higher.

The SnapTravel site that the reader is referring to was not available when searching Kayak (the OTAs shown are market specific and I was searching from Austria).

SnapTravel was priced even lower at $524.97, including all taxes and fees. That Marriott’s price is 108% higher!

Marriott Best Rate Guarantee Rules:

Marriott only lists the following websites that are ineligible for the program:

Prices on auction sites, sites that do not disclose hotel brand until reservation is complete (such as Priceline and Hotwire), sites that require login or a specific credit card to view or book, or sites that do Do not offer instant confirmation (e.g. an “on request” rate) will not be accepted. Prepaid, prepurchased, or non-refundable fares on Qunar, eLong, Meituan Travel, Ctrip/Trip.com, Ctrip/Trip.com Affiliate Sites, or Flggy are not eligible. All rates on WeChat are not eligible.

Conclusion

As I said before, these Best Rate Guarantee programs that all hotels offer today are just marketing promises and not real guarantees.

You can almost always find the same hotel at a lower price on an OTA than on branded websites.

Hoteliers believe that consumers who book on their site are not price conscious and sticky. So why should they offer them the lowest prices?

Also, it is becoming easier and easier for hotels to dispose of excess inventory via OTAs. Guests with previous bookings can also be upset when rates drop if they’re locked into higher non-refundable rates.

The reader is cautioned that the OTA SnapTravel is NOT listed on Marriott’s website as not being eligible for the “Guarantee”. I guess they don’t want to promote sites that keep selling their hotels at a significant discount?

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