Hotels - It pays to shop around

[oz_mark]

I would be making a claim on the following program if I was the OP:

Lowest Internet Rate Guarantee <H2>

</H2>Every hotel reservation booked through an InterContinental Hotels Group web site is guaranteed to have the lowest rate publicly available on the internet or IHG will match a lower rate under the following conditions:

If you find a rate on a competing web site that is lower than the lowest rate shown on the 'Best Available' search of InterContinental Hotels Group web site, InterContinental Hotels Group will honor that rate for the nights for which the lower rate was found, plus give you an additional 10% discount off the lower rate found upon its verification by InterContinental Hotels Group.

For the purpose of the Lowest Internet Rate Guarantee, a competing web site is defined as a web site that is not owned by InterContinental Hotels Group.

Rooms on the other web site must be publicly available, viewable and bookable on the Internet at the time of verification.

Not sure a Qantas Holidays Telephone Operator constitutes a web site for the purpose of the guarantee.

 

[StevePER]

Lowest Internet Rate Guarantee

The guarantee is basically worthless due to the requirement that it has to be a rate that can be booked instantly online. So even though some sites are always cheaper (asiarooms.com for example) they are not eligible. In this case it would apply to the ReadyRooms website but not the Qantas Holidays price.

 

[GDSman]

On the contrary, StevePER, I think InterContinental's is a very good guarantee - given the huge % of hotel rooms globally that are booked online these days: Travelocity, Expedia, Hotels.com, Zuji, etc etc, InterCon are saying that you can forget shopping around online and go direct to them....I think it's quite compelling if it works...

 

[wandering_fred]

I'm going to show my 3* mentality here......

I normally live (at least while working in Perth) about a km from the Burswood Dome..... There are plenty of motels in the 3* range along Great Eastern Highway and the Perth domestic airport. I would be VERY surprised if they all were sold out or priced more than $80-120 double....... In fact one that I did use on occasion before puchasing the flat is now being converted to apartments...... OTOH one did sell out for the recent Jehovah Witness' convention. But that was one of the better and that convention has a lot more people the Billy Joel will attract. No I did not attend that convention.

So if the original complaint was about the price level....
I have very little sympathy.... Happy to supply names if people are interested though chains like Flag Inn and Best Western will do the same.

Happy wandering (if you can find a room)

Fred

 

[chrisb]

So if the original complaint was about the price level....
I have very little sympathy.... Happy to supply names if people are interested though chains like Flag Inn and Best Western will do the same.

The original comment was more about the variation in price, and that sometimes it pays to look beyond the usual cheap sources of rooms. That's why I posted to the tips section of the forum.

The point of staying at Burswood was simply to avoid all of the pre and post concert cough and make the whole thing more relaxing and pleasant. Anything that would involve a train, driving, parking or a 2km walk would kind of defeat the purpose - we may as well just go home

Anyway, as it turns out, I have used a $150 credit I had with Qantas Holidays and got a great deal, so the room at the 5* Burswood has cost under $100.


Chrisb.

 

[serfty]

... Anyway, as it turns out, I have used a $150 credit I had with Qantas Holidays and got a great deal, so the room at the 5* Burswood has cost under $100. ...

All in all a good result.

I should have woken up and mentioned it earlier, but all "Qantas Ready Room" Quotations are inclusive per room per night.

Prices are per room per night in Australian Dollars (AUD) and are inclusive of applicable taxes and charges, but do not cover any charges or taxes imposed directly by third parties. Prices are displayed for the cheapest available room type for each night. Different room prices may be displayed for each date depending on availability.

 

[markh]

Hope it is okay to resurrect an old thread ...

Was looking a night at the Interncontinental Melbourne for this Thursday 21st May and did a bit of searching last night and found a Queen Rialto with breakfast for two and complimentary parking for $269 on lastminute.com.au. The Priority Club website listed a Queen Rialto with breakfast for $325 for the same night but could not find a rate with complimentary parking.

Promptly booked the PC rate for $325 and fired off an email last night to [email protected]

Got an email this morning confirming the the lower rate but cannot guarantee the rate with complimentary parking:
___________________________
Dear Mr. Markh,

Thank you for contacting our office regarding our Lowest Internet Rate Guarantee in reference to rates at the InterContinental MELBOURNE THE RIALTO. We appreciate the opportunity to assist you with this matter.

We have verified the lower rate you found on www.lastminute.com.au. We have contacted the hotel and requested a rate adjusted to 10% off the lower rate you found. Please be advised we are matching room rates only. Since parking is included in the rate you found in the third party website, we will try negotiating this to the hotel. However we do not this request is not guaranteed. We appreciate your patience and will contact you via e-mail when this has been confirmed.

We look forward to accommodating your upcoming reservation. If you have any questions or concerns please contact us via e-mail or phone at 800.447.2981.

Sincerely,

Lera Madrona
Lowest Internet Rate Guarantee
Guest Relations
InterContinental Hotels Group
Phone 800.447.2981
Email: [email protected]
www.ichotelsgroup.com/lowest

______________________________________


I will wait to hear back from them but wanted everyone's opinion. Should they be guaranteeing the same rate with parking ?

Cheers
Markh

 

[oz_mark]

I will wait to hear back from them but wanted everyone's opinion. Should they be guaranteeing the same rate with parking ?

Hotel lowest rate guarantees always seem to come with enough weasel words to allow them an escape for most things. In the case of ICH, the trick is the guarantee applies to the same hotel, same terms, same dates.

So if the rate on the PC website had included parking then I would expect that the guarantee would have applied. However, I think that since the terms of the lastminute offer don't match exacty what is being mad available on the PC website you are a bit out of luck with this one!

 

[markis10]

Pity the IC melbourne has dropped off the points break list, you could have got a room for 5K of PC points, after buying those points from PC for USD 67.50 (and get a 10% bonus).

 

[markh]

Pity the IC melbourne has dropped off the points break list, you could have got a room for 5K of PC points, after buying those points from PC for USD 67.50 (and get a 10% bonus).

Never thought about BUYING points ! I did see that PointsBreak offer a couple of weeks ago but did not have my dates in Melbourne confirmed ... oh well will still be nice to stay in for the first time ...

 

[markh]

Ha ! They confirmed they will beat it by 10% with parking ! (Plus booked me in for an extra night even cheaper ?)
_____________________

Dear Mr. Markh,
We understand you have many options when booking your reservations and for this reason InterContinental Hotels Group is happy you have chosen our web site to arrange for your accommodations.
You are scheduled to arrive at theInterContinental MelbourneonMay 21, 2009 for2 nights. Per our Lowest Rate Guarantee, your rate onMay 21 will beAUD 242.10and AUD 198.00 (which is 10% off the lowest rate you found),includingbreakfast, parking andapplicable taxes. This rate is not subject to additional adjustments. Please refer to your original confirmation for the cancellation policy. Your confirmation number for this stay is xx_.
If your plans change please contact our office, or obtain a cancellation number from 1-800-HOLIDAY. In addition, if you have booked other reservations througha third party site site, please take the necessary steps to cancel them to avoid unnecessary charges.
We look forward to accommodating your upcoming reservation. If you have any questions or concerns please contact us via e-mail or at 800.447.2981.

 

[oz_mark]

Ha ! They confirmed they will beat it by 10% with parking ! (Plus booked me in for an extra night even cheaper ?)
_____________________

Congratulations on that! Obviously these things do work sometimes!

 

[moa999]

Ha ! They confirmed they will beat it by 10% with parking ! (Plus booked me in for an extra night even cheaper ?)

Very good.
Much better than Starwood's policy, whereby they specifically exclude any package deals (inc breakfast, parking or anything else)

eg. will reject any comps to the DiscoverWest rates for Sheraton Perth
Perth Luxury Hotels Save up to 65%

The Best Rate Guarantee does not apply to packaged rates. Packaged rates include (a)Hotel accommodations sold as part of a travel package, in which the property does not provide the extra service, including, but not limited to accommodations plus airfare and/or car rental and/or cruise, and (b) hotel accommodations sold with value added amenities, including, but not limited to, free breakfast and hotel parking

 

[yo yo ma]

Ha ! They confirmed they will beat it by 10% with parking ! (Plus booked me in for an extra night even cheaper ?)

Well done... I did a similar thing using Meriton apartments best rate guarantee. I find hotels will almost always beat rates from Wotif etc when you book with them direct.

 

[albatross710]

I would be making a claim on the following program if I was the OP:

Lowest Internet Rate Guarantee <H2>

</H2>Every hotel reservation booked through an InterContinental Hotels Group web site is guaranteed to have the lowest rate publicly available on the internet or IHG will match a lower rate under the following conditions:

If you find a rate on a competing web site that is lower than the lowest rate shown on the 'Best Available' search of InterContinental Hotels Group web site, InterContinental Hotels Group will honor that rate for the nights for which the lower rate was found, plus give you an additional 10% discount off the lower rate found upon its verification by InterContinental Hotels Group.

For the purpose of the Lowest Internet Rate Guarantee, a competing web site is defined as a web site that is not owned by InterContinental Hotels Group.

Rooms on the other web site must be publicly available, viewable and bookable on the Internet at the time of verification.

I wonder if I can claim on this one. On the night I wish to book a room in Darwin, the ICHotels website is showing no availability. There is availability at the same hotel on Wotif, HotelClub & Lastminute. I wonder if they would give 10% in that case.

Any thoughts?

 

[Jeffrey O'Neill]

usually when i am travelling i use a few of the major websites to get an understanding of the hotels in an area, relevant reviews there as well as on tripadvisor and then start doing goole searches for particular hotels and yeah maybe working my way thru quite a few sites to get the best deal.

it sure helps to have a quiet nite shift or 2 at work to do it, but i've been able to score some great deals over the yrs - like 2 nites & 3rd for free at the Westin KL (with free upgrade).

im a stingy traveller, so see spending a few hrs searching for cheap hotels as sometimes paying myself the equivalanet of $100+ an hr.

i've foudn the qantas holiday + virgin blue holiday sites to be quite good value when bookign flights + hotel

expedia regualrly has 15-50% off hotel deals. sometimes it's just luck that you are travelling at a time when hotels are discounting.

 

[Alanslegal]

Much better than Starwood's policy, whereby they specifically exclude any package deals (inc breakfast, parking or anything else)

Guess YMMV as this week I have had a SPG BRG claim for the Westin Sydney which includes breakfast;

Arrival: 15 September 2009
Departure: 16 September 2009
Room: Tower Superior with Breakfast
SPG rate: $390.00

Competing site and rate: www.expedia.com.au for $225.00

Took the 2K bonus points reward.


Also Swissotel's BRG claim is just FAB!!

Successful claims @ Swissotel Sydney - meaning they beat the first night by 50% and match the remaining nights.

Arrival: 10 Sept 09
Depart: 12 Sept 09
Swissotels rate: $229pn with breakfast

Competing site and rate: www.hotelclub.com for $168pn with breakfast.

Rate: $84 + $168 = $252 for two nights with buffet breakfast


And 14 Sept 2009 for one night = $84 with breakfast!!

And 16 Sept 2009 for another single night = $84 with breakfast. Now tell me any 5* hotel with buffet breakfast for less than $100 per night, that's just FAB!!


And I'm a super cheap traveller but love BRG claims!! So bring them on!!!