Hilton Best Price Guarantee

[Dave G]

Hi All,
I am considering booking at the Hilton for a holiday coming up in January next year, and found considerably cheaper rates through amex travel site.
Hilton have a best price guarantee - where they will beat the price by 25% - however they have declined my claim stating :

Thank you for taking the time to submit an Our Best Price Guarantee claim for your stay at our Hilton Hotel Whistler Resort & Spa, BC, Canada. I have carefully reviewed your reservation and the information about the lower rate on your claim.
The terms and conditions of Our Best Price Guaranteed program states:
Our Guarantee does not apply to the following:
Discount or negotiated rates not available to the general public, including but not limited to the following rates: membership (e.g., AAA, AARP or Saga), corporate, government, promotional, unpublished, Senior HHonors®, employee, offline wholesale/FIT, pre-paid rates which may include a voucher (including electronic vouchers), group or other specially negotiated rates.
I regret to inform you that we are unable to honor your request due the above policy. We realize that every guest has a choice when traveling and we thank you for making Hilton portfolio of hotels your choice. Should you need further assistance regarding this matter, please reply to this email and we will respond within 72 hours. We look forward to the opportunity to serve your future travel needs.

I reckon it is available to the general public - Any ideas / opinions ?

 

[fairbasa]

Definitely available to the general public. They're an OTA like any other.

I've successfully claimed BPGs with SPG and Marriott using AMEX travel.as the comparison site.

 

[hydrabyss]

I checked the payment page and the only card option I could see is Amex which would explain their refusal.

 

[fairbasa]

I don't understand which of those terms they quoted are breached by the OTA only accepting payment by AMEX. If you were required to login to the AMEX travel page to book I would understand, but you don't. I would re-submit the claim and hope to get another agent to review it.

Regardless, if it's available on AMEX Travel, I'm sure that rate is available at other OTAs too. Just needs some further hunting.

 

[redwoodw]

The AMEX Travel program is only available to AMEX cardholders, so I guess they don't consider that to be "public" enough. Definitely go to other OTAs to look for better rates. I've just done a random search and I've found better than AMEX rate on Elvoline.

 

[mingzie]

Anything on Orbitz? (or expedia group in general)

Orbitz runs Amex Travel, maybe prices are similar.

 

[Dave G]

Hi all,
Ended up getting a great price - and Hilton Matched it
Thanks for all your help
Cheers

 

[Steady]

Hi all,
Ended up getting a great price - and Hilton Matched it
Thanks for all your help
Cheers

Good news - where from?

 

[Dave G]

Amex travel -
Have to love a deal

 

[deepakabc]

what was amex travel deal ?

 

[Milboo]

Bit of frustration dealing with Hilton on Price Match yesterday.

Wotif was $10 cheaper than HH price. Called them to confirm they'd price match. Girl was very insistent that they did not price match to Wotif even after I went through the terms point by point with her. Conveniently for her, the call got 'disconnected'...

Go to Live Chat and the guy confirms yes they'd price match. So I book direct with Hilton and submit the price match.

They responded today and in doing so confirmed they price matched to wotif - except the price has now increased there. Have sent the screenshots and will see what they say.

 

[k_sheep]

I've never had a single one matched. They were all legitimate in my eyes, but not theirs. Waste of time in my experience.

SPG has honoured all bar one of my matches.

 

[albatross710]

I would have thought this was going to be easy but .....

Hilton site, Sydney King Room, 4 nights $1,236.

Hotelopedia $929.96

Both rates not pre-paid and can be cancelled day before.

Hilton advise:

The third party site hotelopia.com is no longer considered to be valid because it does not immediately verify bookings (per the terms and conditions on their website).

Any thoughts on this one? By the use of "no longer" it seems they used to honour it until someone at Hilton found the better definition.

BD

 

[Danger]

View attachment 112406

I would have thought this was going to be easy but .....

Hilton site, Sydney King Room, 4 nights $1,236.

Hotelopedia $929.96

Both rates not pre-paid and can be cancelled day before.

Hilton advise:

The third party site hotelopia.com is no longer considered to be valid because it does not immediately verify bookings (per the terms and conditions on their website).

Any thoughts on this one? By the use of "no longer" it seems they used to honour it until someone at Hilton found the better definition.

BD

In my experience, hotel program BRGs are largely a farce.

You could search hotelopia's website and try to find information about when a booking is confirmed. If you find something that says it's immediate, take a screenshot and send it to Hilton. But even then, don't expect to win.

One other option may be to get in touch with Hilton Sydney directly and ask if they would at least match the competitor's rate.

 

[k_sheep]

I've never had success with a Hilton BRG despite being very clearly different prices for the same room, same conditions. Sure you can fight it but always get some half baked excuse in my experience. The above is a favourite. Currency differences are another (even when they are in the same currency on the screenshot! Arrgh!)

 

[glasszon]

You can get amazing deals with BRG as they provide another 25% discount on top of matching the price, got an upcoming 1 night stay in Doubletree Qatar for $70, can't really beat that! But yes it's luck on whether they will accept your claim or not, so certainly don't book a non-refundable rate if you are intending to use BRG unless you feels like gambling.

 

[albatross710]

Thanks Danger for the extra encouragement on actually reading the T&Cs.

First knock back : The aforementioned "Hotelopia doesn't immediately confirm bookings"​

I provided a screenshot.

Second knock back : Screenshot apparently didn't include everything they needed, AND even if it did, even if it didn't hotels need to contact Hotelopia for confrontations.​

Well that double knock back really got me more interested. This time actually committed funds to making a refundable Hotelopia booking, received the immediate confirmation. For good measure had remade the Hilton booking so I was within the 24 hour window.

Third knock back: Hilton could not also find the available rate.​

Provided another screenshot, of the final booking window, showing all details. For good measure included Hilton's own T&C condition that they too can change any booking even after confirmation.

Finally, this morning, received the notification that it was all done and approved.​

The BRG seems to be available, eventually. Just be persistent.

Alby

 

[Danger]

Thanks Danger for the extra encouragement on actually reading the T&Cs.

First knock back : The aforementioned "Hotelopia doesn't immediately confirm bookings"​

I provided a screenshot.

Second knock back : Screenshot apparently didn't include everything they needed, AND even if it did, even if it didn't hotels need to contact Hotelopia for confrontations.​

Well that double knock back really got me more interested. This time actually committed funds to making a refundable Hotelopia booking, received the immediate confirmation. For good measure had remade the Hilton booking so I was within the 24 hour window.

Third knock back: Hilton could not also find the available rate.​

Provided another screenshot, of the final booking window, showing all details. For good measure included Hilton's own T&C condition that they too can change any booking even after confirmation.

Finally, this morning, received the notification that it was all done and approved.​

The BRG seems to be available, eventually. Just be persistent.

Alby

Oh, wow. That's awesome. Four goes is ridiculous though.

 

[Deleted member 29185]

I think they bank on most people not having the time to a) look for cheaper prices in the first place; and b) follow up and fight their phoney excuses.

 

[HeavyElectricity]

I also got fobbed off yesterday when submitting a claim. One worthless excuse after another, none of which were valid from my point-of-view:

• AMEX Travel - apparently a membership site requiring login (they sent me a screenshot of the amex account login screen) so invalid for claim - I replied with screenshots showing the flow all the way to payment/booking without requiring any login, including the prompt option which says "Continue without login".
  
• I then also found a slightly cheaper price on agoda.com and booking.com, so screenshots from there were also submitted. I was told that these prices didn't include tax so wouldn't be valid. I replied with cropped screenshots clearly showing "Final price including tax - no surprises!" messages from all three sites.
• Next reply stated "Unfortunately Hilton considers Travel American Express is a membership site and invalid for this program" again. They then said "Since your claim was submitted with this another website can't be given because your first option was denied. Only one claim is allowed per confirmation number."

As others have said, what a farce! I booked a non-refundable rate too, now the saving compared to AMEX Travel wouldn't have been much at just over CA$16 (however the 25% from Hilton would have been very welcome!), but it's the principle that bothers me. The "Honors" rate is advertised as discounted from the public rate, when in actual fact it's still more expensive. The promises that you'll always get the best rate booking directly on the Hilton website are blatantly false.

What a good way to piss off customers before they even arrive! But I suppose I'll just have to get over myself!