{"id":17769,"date":"2010-11-23T19:32:53","date_gmt":"2010-11-23T23:32:53","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/?p=17769"},"modified":"2010-11-23T19:32:53","modified_gmt":"2010-11-23T23:32:53","slug":"playing-the-best-rate-guarantee-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/playing-the-best-rate-guarantee-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Playing The Best Rate Guarantee Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the more advanced tricks in my travel arsenal is the Best Rate Guarantee that some online travel agencies offer.\u00a0\u00a0 I first found out about these offer through the invaluable Best Rate Guarantee blog.<\/a> The idea is pretty simple.\u00a0\u00a0 The online travel agency will meet a competitor’s price and give you a coupon for future lodging.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The great thing about the Best Rate Guarantee blog is that they have found a way to figure out where lodging is offered at a better price than the major companies such as Expedia and Travelocity.<\/p>\n

My Experiences<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have done this many times, but only on Expedia.\u00a0\u00a0 Once I have found a place to stay that is eligible for the best rate guarantee, I book the room and immediately contact Expedia.\u00a0\u00a0 The process takes about 30 minutes, so don’t bother calling unless you know you have some time on your hands.\u00a0\u00a0 Generally, you have to repeat your itinerary number a couple times, and then slowly spell out the name of the website that the better room rate appears under.\u00a0\u00a0 If there is even the slightest difference in how the rooms are described, then they might claim the room is not eligible, even if it is clearly the same room.\u00a0\u00a0 You can persist, or you can just hang up and call back.<\/p>\n

If the guarantee is granted, you are then placed on hold for a while why they confirm it.\u00a0\u00a0 They will read from their script all sorts of things, and they seem trained to repeat back everything you tell them.\u00a0\u00a0 Finally, your patience will be reward by both a refund of the difference, and an online coupon good for $50 off any hotel reservation.<\/p>\n

Using The Coupons<\/strong><\/p>\n

On Expedia, using the coupons is very easy.\u00a0\u00a0 They appear when you make a reservation, and you just have to click on them to use them.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You can use only one coupon per reservation, so the $50 is spread out if you are booking multiple days.\u00a0 \u00a0 If the room is less than $50, it is free. \u00a0\u00a0 If you have multiple coupons, you can get around this by booking multiple single day reservations at the same place, using a single coupon for each day.\u00a0\u00a0 The hotel will see this, and you won’t have to check out and check in every day.\u00a0\u00a0 The worst problem I ever had was when they had to reprogram my key card each day, a minor inconvenience considering the money saved, $50 per day.<\/p>\n

What The Hotels Think<\/strong><\/p>\n

The best part is that the coupons are coming from Expedia, the hotel has no idea of what you are really paying.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This is important, as it is nice to know that you are not cheating your favorite bed and breakfast out of a reasonable room rate.<\/p>\n

Is It Worth It?<\/strong><\/p>\n

For me, it is.\u00a0 I can spend the 30 minutes on hold in order to save $50.\u00a0 While my time is definitely worth $100, I am actually able to continue to work on my computer while I am on hold, so it really isn’t that bad.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The first one is the most challenging, but once you have the routine down, it is as easy as pie.<\/p>\n

When paying out of pocket, I really don’t have very fancy tastes in hotels.\u00a0\u00a0 Most of my vacations are not centered around hanging out in a hotel, so it is really just a place to sleep and store my stuff.\u00a0 It is very easy for me to book clean hotels and motels in most suburbs and small towns for under $100.\u00a0\u00a0 If I have best rate guarantee coupon, I often pay less than $20 a night for a hotel.<\/p>\n

For this traveler, the deal is definitely worth it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the more advanced tricks in my travel arsenal is the Best Rate Guarantee that some online travel agencies offer.\u00a0\u00a0 I first found out about these offer through the invaluable Best Rate Guarantee blog. The idea is pretty simple.\u00a0\u00a0 The online travel agency will meet a competitor’s price and give you a coupon for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nPlaying The Best Rate Guarantee Game<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/playing-the-best-rate-guarantee-game\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Playing The Best Rate Guarantee Game\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the more advanced tricks in my travel arsenal is the Best Rate Guarantee that some online travel agencies offer.\u00a0\u00a0 I first found out about these offer through the invaluable Best Rate Guarantee blog. 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