FatWallet

The basic deal is that the hotels want you to make reservations directly on their sites but if you find a cheaper rate on some other site (except for Hotwire and Priceline usually), they will match the lower rate plus offer something else. There are a lot of rules and restrictions so make sure you read them.


Below are the various hotel chains and their offers. If there is no direct link for a specific hotel, go the first hotel listed in the group.

Best Western
Match lower room rates plus 10% off
Best Western thanks JeebusSaves


Caesars
Match lower room rates plus 25% off
Caesars Palace
Las Vegas Hilton
Bally's Las Vegas
Flamingo Las Vegas
Paris Las Vegas
Flamingo Laughlin
Reno Hilton
Caesars Tahoe
Atlantic City Hilton
Bally's Atlantic City
Caesars Atlantic City
Caesars Indiana
Grand Casino Biloxi
Grand Casino Gulfport
Grand Casino Tunica
Bally's Tunica
Sheraton Tunica


Carlson
Match lower room rates plus 25% off
Radisson Hotels & Resorts
Park Inn
Country Inns & Suites
Park Plaza Hotels & Resorts


Cendant
Match lower room rates plus free night stay
Days Inn
Super 8
Ramada
Howard Johnson Warning: HoJo has not been fully upholding their part of the guarantee.
AmeriHost Inn
Knights Inn
Travel Lodge
Wingate Inn


Choice
Match lower room rates plus 10% off
Comfort Inn
Quality
Comfort Suites
Sleep Inn
MainStay Suites
Econo Lodge
Rodeway Inn
Clarion


Extended Stay
Match lower room rates plus 10% off
Extended StayAmerica
StudioPLUS
Crossland


Hyatt
Match lower room rates plus 20% off
Hyatt Hotels


Hilton
Match lower room rates plus a $50 gift check
Hilton
Doubletree
Doubletree Guest Suites
Doubletree Club Hotel®
Hampton Inn
Hampton Inn & Suites
Conrad Hotels
Hilton Garden Inn
Hilton Grand Vacations Company®
Embassy Suites Hotels
Homewood Suites by Hilton


InterContinental
Match lower room rates plus 10% off
InterContinental Hotel & Resorts
Crowne Plaza
Holiday Inn Hotels & Resorts
Holiday Inn Express
Express by Holiday Inn
Staybridge Suites by Holiday Inn

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Kimpton Group
Match lower room rates plus free upgrade
various boutique hotels (see list)


Marriott
Match lower room rates plus 25% off
Marriott Hotels & Resorts
JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts
Renaissance Hotels & Resorts
Courtyard
Fairfield Inn
SpringHill Suites
Residence Inn
TownePlace Suites
Marriott Conference Centers
Marriott Vacation Club International


Starwood
Match lower room rates plus 10% off or 2,000 loyalty points
Westin
Sheraton
Four Points by Sheraton
St. Regis
The Luxury Collection
W Hotels
Aladdin

Wyndam
Match lower room rate plus free first night stay
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts

EDIT: Orbitz (If you book a prepaid hotel rate that's backed by our Low Price Guarantee, and then find the same room, in the same hotel, for the same dates, at a lower price online within 24 hours, we'll refund the difference.) and Expedia.com (If you find a better price online for your exact trip within 24 hours, we'll refund the difference—and we'll give you a $50 travel coupon.) have similar best price guarantees.

I believe this is true of all the Hilton family hotels.

Most of the hotel chains are now claiming to have the lowest rates by booking directly through the hotel's website. Basically, the hotels are trying to cut out travel agents and other travel websites (expedia, hotels.com, orbitz, etc.) The problem is in the fine print...

One huge loophole is that the low rate guarantee doe not apply to rates obtained through Priceline or Hotwire.

If I was booking a hotel, I would still check the hotel's website, but don't fall for their hollow promises and not check the rates at a few other places too.

www.hojo.com, comfortinn, travelodge, all cheapest on the websites.

This is a very good thread. Yes, sadly all the hotel websites seem to be working pretty hard to keep their prices at the best price so nobody undercuts them.. I spent about 2hrs looking around to try to get a free night from cendant (daysinn, travelodge, etc) but found nothing that undercut them.. I even tried all the obscure searchengines like travelaxe..

Anyways, for cendant http://www.triprewards.com/ is an easy way to get a listing of all of their hotel prices without visiting each hotel site seperatly.

Good luck all! If anyone gets a free night outta it let us know!!

needadvice said:Good news for you fellows!

Called Hilton trying to clarify which sites thay match and one representative totally lied to me by saying that they match THEIR own website price - which is stupid comment of course. I felt that she is lying and called back to speak to someone else.


So I guess I can say it works!

Thats scandelous. Do these Reps get a commission for denying the price match? or are they just really trying to work hard for the company without getting anythign from it? whats the bottomline behind a reps motives to help a customer out? anyone know? thanks

Cornelius said:One huge loophole is that the low rate guarantee doe not apply to rates obtained through Priceline or Hotwire.The flipside, though, is that PL and Hotwire offer their own rate guarantees.

Hotwire is uniquely easy to work with. IIRC they'll give you back double the difference in rate. Neat thing is that occasionally they have some crazy high mistake rates... a knowledgeable Hotwire user can spot an $89 room for $400.. buy it... and get double the difference ($318 x 2) back. Net profit = $236. Someone will correct me here, but I believe an eagle-eyed user can make up to $1k a year this way...

This is a great thread. Thanks, OP!

I just got a free night validated with Howard Johnson Inn - Chicago Downtown yesterday. First, I booked the best available rate quoted on the hotel website at $83.00 for a night. Later, I found both TraveloCitiy and Orbitz had cheaper rates at $80 and $75, respectively. So, I submitted a claim using the on-line form, and in about an hour, got a email response for a confirmed free night. My first try with this kind of program and succeeded. Not only does it work with Howard Johnson, but also quite efficient. My only concern is if this may affect the room quality I receive when checking in. Guess we'll have to wait to find out next month.

Yes, thank you OP. you saved me %25.

Marriott had Towneplace Suite Cincinnati NE at $85. Expedia and a few others had it at $79. I ended up getting it at $59.25 for a Friday night 2 days away. It's still 2x the $25 I paid for the room the next night on Priceline, but oh well.

wonder if this works with expedia through howard johnshon do youi know?