Most, if not all of the major hotel groups offer Best Rate Guarantee, where members who find a lower rate elsewhere can match that rate and get an even further discount sometimes. Personally I have a few positive experiences with Hilton’s Price Match, and wrote this post about it.
I happened to make another claim recently, which turned out successful and taught me a couple of new things. Hilton’s Price Match page is here and these are the basics:
- Room details and rate rules have to be identical
- Hampton hotels in China and SLH hotels in certain countries are excluded
- You can apply without a reservation
The Price Match service has evolved since I looked at it last time – everything can be done online, including claiming without a reservation, in which case they’ll make a reservation for you after the claim is approved. If you claim online Hilton aims to process it within 24 hours, for quicker response you’ll have to make a phone call.
Remember that hundreds of SLH hotels are part of the Hilton Honors program now, the pricing of which can be quite odd. It’s not unusual to see much lower rates on travel agency websites or even the hotel’s own website, compared to Hilton / SLH. Here’s Sukhothai Bangkok:
Google is pretty good for comparing hotel rates now.
I’m visiting Malaga soon and my claim is against the Palaco Solecio hotel. As you can see from the two pictures below, Hilton’s rate is noticeably higher than all other platforms.
I made two separate claims, quoting Palacio Solecio’s own website:
- For an existing flexible reservation
- For the non-refundable (cheaper) rate, without a reservation
On the second day, my first claim was rejected due to discrepancy of the cancellation deadline which was totally anticipated. In the meantime, I missed two phone calls from the U.S. which turned out to be from the Price Match team – the second claim was accepted but as it’s a non-refundable rate, they had to speak to me to create the booking.
In our scheduled call next day, everything was dealt with quickly and smoothly.
That saves me over one hundred euro and makes me a happy man! I wasn’t sure if it’s going to be charged by the Hilton reservation centre directly, but so far there’s nothing on my credit card account yet – good news because I should be able to use my Amex offer to save another £100, if paying at the hotel.
In addition to the extra savings, you’ll earn Hilton points and get benefits such as free breakfast and room upgrade at SLH hotels.
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