There has been much talk in the past about Best-Rate Guaranteed Hotels. For those of you unfamiliar with what that is, there are sites like wyndhamrewards.com that have a policy where if you book a hotel on their site first and then find a cheaper rate somewhere else within 24 hours of booking it on their site, they will give you your first night free - even if it is only a one-night stay
Here are the steps to follow
- Visit Sidestep, and search for city and dates, you are looking for
- Once you find the results, on the left side of the pane, there is hotel groups listed, click on Wyndham Hotels Group, so that you can compare rates, easily with wyndham website directly. Also select search by distance, as in wyndham also it is as default, so its easy to compare
- Look below for example
- Search wyndhamrewards.com and search for same dates
- Great we found the match, 159 on sidestep and 209 on wyndham rewards
- Also the easier way is directly on SIDESTEP we can see that there is one venere.com rate 159, and ramada rate of 209, which directly shows that rate mismatch, which makes you eligigble for free night
- Now book the one on wyndham website
- Also please see, if the room type, number of person, on wyndham and venere matches that is needed for free night, same room type and persons
- Please make sure, you see the rules on cancellation, just in case this doesnt work out
- Then once you have booked the room, go to wyndham claim form, and fill it up, you will get reply within 4 business hours.
- Please go to final booking page at venere.com, and take a print screen copy of that page, in case, they couldnot find the page
- Some other websites, where you can find a lower rate
Travelocity Expedia Reserve Travel (look for their "pre-paid internet rates") orbitz.com HotelsatAnywhere Lodging Southwest Hotelscheap Worldres Hotels Priceline (fixed price part only) http://www.ocean-city.com/ http://www.venere.com/
- WAYS TO GET MULTIPLE FREE NIGHTS
A rather aggressive poster on Flyertalk earlier today uttered one of the cardinal misconceptions about these free night deals - that they are "one night" stays.Sure, they are on paper, but there are easy ways to stay more than one night and still play by the rules. The Triprewards BRG terms and conditions state:Only one free room night will be offered per stay. A stay is any number of consecutive nights spent at the same hotel, even if the result of more than one reservation.To be more precise, that is one free night per stay per person/unique address. If you have a friend or travel partner who lives at a different address and has a different last name, feel free to book every-other-night under your name, and the same for them. Thus, you can stay 8 nights in a row if you really want. In my experiences, I've never had a problem - just make sure the respective person is checking in on their respective reservations. No one can tell you who can stay in your room with you, and who can't.Another way to do it even MORE legitimately is to find two BRG opportunities in the same city - I've done this several times. Under your name, you may book one hotel for every-other-day and the same for another hotel. Then, as long as you don't mind shifting back and forth between hotels, you can enjoy a two week stay for free. So, I'm glad in a way that the poster spent their time jabbing my blog this afternoon, as it reminded me to remind you that you're not limited to one night. The sky's the limit when it comes to BRG's.
- FAQ's
Some FAQ's from the past that you may be wondering about:
Q) How long will this deal last? Since there are active members searching for price mistakes, will it go away?
A) No, it will NOT go away. Triprewards and sites like it have been doing this for over 5 years, and if you look at the other SD thread at the top you will see there have been periods of increased activity where there were literally THOUSANDS of claims pouring in and they have continued the program.
Q) Will my credit card be charged if it doesn't go thru?
A) Your card is not charged until the day before you stay. If you book the hotel first and submit a claim that is denied for some reason, you can cancel your hotel reservation up to 24 hours before your stay and you will NOT be charged.
Q) How long does it take for my claim to come thru?
A) When there is a spike in activity (which you can expect the moment this thread goes live) it usually takes about 3 days to hear back. The *normal* response time is closer to 3 hours.
Q) Are there any sites currently culling this information? Is this thread REALLY necessary?
A) There is one site that culls this information VERY infrequently, it used to be called freetraveling.com but now it is called travelglitch.com. They have one or two deals posted, but there are at least 4 I know of in my city alone right now and this changes daily, so this thread is the perfect spot for people to post the deals they find.
Q) What's the BEST way to find cheaper prices with hotels?
A) The quickest way I know of is to use Kayak.com and filter the results (on the left side) to include ONLY Wyndham / TripRewards results (or whatever chain you are looking for that has a Best Rate Guarantee). This is also possible using Orbitz.com but it is faster and easier to do with Kayak.
Q) Are the nights listed the ONLY nights this hotel is going to be free?
A) Likely not - it takes a LOT of effort to find a price guarantee, and it's almost impossible to check every night of every week at every hotel. Once someone has found a rate difference, go check out the hotel for the dates you are looking for - you'll often find it available again for free!
