You are correct. Marriott, Hilton, and IHG (and probably others) have price match guarantees, offering 20-25% discount (or a load of reward points) on top off of the cheaper rate that you found. Submitting claims can be a little inconvenient, but it’s worth attempting before booking an expensive trip.
Booking through a third party also usually prevents you from receiving loyalty rewards, if that's something you're concerned about.
All the hotel chains offer a Best Price Guarantee discount or maybe even a free night if you report that you found a cheaper hotel room than the official website (at the same time/date of shopping):
If you actually have a better price, then at least these brands will give you discounts or points. I don't see why they wouldn't hardcode it into their systems to not allow a cheaper priced to be reserved unless via their direct non commissionable channels, seems like a pretty easy thing to prevent.
Edit: I'm going to have to retract my comments about cheapest price being on official hotel brand websites. I did a cursory search and find many cheaper options on Hotel Tonight (and expedia) for same day reservations than the brands, and while I haven't looked at all the brand's best price guarantees, at least IHG's exempts them from having to provide the lowest price within 24 hours of checkin, so it seems like a loophole to let them dump rooms for cheaper on third party websites day of arrival.
There are a few exceptions, such as Hotwire-style hidden rates, or rates negotiated for conferences and events, but displayed rates from places like Booking.com, Expedia and the like nearly always qualify.
I'm familiar with the reservations systems the hotel brands use, and I have yet to come across a situation where the same hotel room is being offered for cheaper on a third party website. It's also their official policies, and as I said, it doesn't make sense to me that they would advertise that and then not set a simple technical limitation in their reservation system to prevent anyone from being lower than them.
Yes, for some specific hotels that don't belong to a big brand, it makes sense for them to price discriminate so that the person willing to pay $500 doesn't end up paying $200, but on the level that the big brands operate, it doesn't make sense to give up 15% of gross revenue for that reason, especially when they have better ways to price discriminate by tiering their rewards members and the rate at which people earn points.
Edit: As jonknee pointed out in another post, the ihg.com price for Kimpton Monaco in Seattle is higher than the hotel tonight price, and by quite a bit, and there's a carveout in the best price guarantee for rooms reserved within 24 hours of checkin. So I guess the best price guarantees aren't really worth much...
Also, I understand outside of the US, credit card rewards aren’t as lucrative. I get 20x points per dollar from Hilton for staying and an additional 14x from Hilton for using my cobranded Amex Hilton Aspire card when paying Hilton directly.
I have never been able to find an Expedia/Priceline price that is lower than the Hyatt/Hilton/Marriott/IHG/etc rewards member price. And being a rewards member is free, so effectively you get cheaper prices directly.
I also do not see how it would be technically possible. The hotel brands’ reservations systems are surely set to offer a discounted price on their own website than they send out to Expedia/Booking.
> they only allow pay later which in certain currencies, I'd rather not risk (Looking at Japan right now). I'd rather pay now and lock in the rate.
Hiltons are usually individually owned and managed. I would try emailing the front desk and see if they will accept a prepayment from you. I was able to prepay a Hilton in Hawaii earlier this year by contacting the front desk.
All the big brands get around this by offering cheaper pricing restricted to their rewards members reserving directly via the brands' website or call center, which is non commissionable. It's free to be a rewards member for all of the hotel rewards programs, so there's no reason not to go that way if your goal is to spend the least amount of money.
Edit: I'm going to have to retract my comments about cheapest price being on official hotel brand websites. I did a cursory search and find many cheaper options on Hotel Tonight (and expedia) for same day reservations than the brands, and while I haven't looked at all the brand's best price guarantees, at least IHG's exempts them from having to provide the lowest price within 24 hours of checkin, so it seems like a loophole to let them dump rooms for cheaper on third party websites day of arrival.
Most large hotel chains have a best price guarantee which states the hotel's official website will have the lowest advertised price you can get anywhere else (e.g. expedia).
But, non advertised prices can be lower such as on Hotwire, where you don't know which hotel you are reserving, you only get to choose the price and have to stay wherever Hotwire makes the greatest margin.
If you do find a lower advertised price for a specific hotel, you can usually call their 800# and get it price matched and something extra.
Hilton/Marriott/IHG/choice/Wyndham/Hyatt all guarantee cheaper prices for reserving directly on their websites. Google them, if you see a lower price they will give you a hefty discount, but the computer systems shouldn’t allow it.
The hotel brands I stay at (Hyatt/Hilton/Marriott/etc) offer the cheapest pricing directly on their website, with best price guarantees giving discounts or free nights if another website offers it for cheaper. I've never seen it cheaper anywhere else though, so I'm pretty sure they have their computer systems configured not to allow it to happen.
And I reserve a cancelable price so that I can always see if they lowered the price before the cancelation deadline, sometimes yes, sometimes not.
Even if I wasn't staying at a brand that offered a best price guarantee, I would still contact them and offer them the chance to win business directly by being lower than the aggregator and avoid paying commission.
If it's Hilton/Hyatt/Marriott/IHG/Choice/Wyndham, you can go to the hotel brand's website, you will get the same room for cheaper if you are part of the free hotel rewards program. You're also more valuable to the hotel since you'll be paying netting the hotel more income than someone coming from HotelTonight (since the hotel doesn't have to pay HotelTonight commission), therefore more eligible for perks or upgrades.
You might be looking at different room types, or different rates. Or, I frequently find that Priceline and Expedia show a certain rate, but once you click it, they will actually ping the real rate and say something like "rates have changed recently" or something like that.
If you can legitimately find an advertised price lower than the hotel's actual website (roomkey.com is owned by the hotel chains themselves), then you can even get free and deeply discounted nights:
I mostly deal with Hilton brand hotels for both work and our newish “hybrid digital nomad” lifestyle where we hop across cities in the US for 7 months a year.
We stayed in Hilton brand hotels for around 160 days over the last year.
You don’t get loyalty points and days don’t count toward status when booking through a third party. With Hilton, those loyalties points can account for 20%-35% toward future stays. Meaning if I spend $100, I will get points worth $20-$35 toward future stays. Based on rooms I’ve already booked this year with just points, we are staying free for 25 days in 5 cities this year. Of course point accumulation is a lot slower for most people. But there are a lot of people who stay in hotels using other folks money when traveling for business.
Most hotels chains also have a “lowest price guarantee” where they will match a price found on a third party site.
This isn’t even mentioning all of the hassle you can avoid dealing with hotels directly if things go wrong or if you just don’t like the service.
Last year, I booked a 7 day half work half personal stay in San Francisco at the Hilton Financial district. It was a run down dump. I went to the front desk, told them I would be cancelling the rest of my stay and booked another hotel - the Hilton Parc 55 - for the rest of the week.
The first hotel charged me for one night. That would have been much more of a hassle going through a third party site. First you would have to hope that Hilton gave the money back to booking.com and then go through the hassle of getting your money back from them.
On that same note, I booked a regular room at Parc 55, messaged the hotel on the app before I got there and asked did they have any free Diamond upgrades available. They upgraded me to the fitness room - with a gym inside the room - for free. You don’t get those benefits when booking through a third party.
Edit: I'm going to have to retract my comments about cheapest price being on official hotel brand websites. I did a cursory search and find many cheaper options on Hotel Tonight (and expedia) for same day reservations than the brands, and while I haven't looked at all the brand's best price guarantees, at least IHG's exempts them from having to provide the lowest price within 24 hours of checkin, so it seems like a loophole to let them dump rooms for cheaper on third party websites day of arrival.
I apologised in another comment and admit it is not universally true, as many people have pointed out. However I have repeatedly tried to get hotels to price match; they don't, and they never mentioned a loyalty scheme. That is my personal experience. Of course it may differ based on the type of hotel (I don't use very expensive chain hotels), the country, etc.
I found that to be the case a lot more during covid. Hilton and other chains had these amazing deals where if you found something cheaper they’d match plus knock 30% off or whatever. It was almost a certainty that was the case so I was getting good deals on rooms.
That guarantee still exists but I find the prices are now usually the same for those mega chains.
Booking through a third party also usually prevents you from receiving loyalty rewards, if that's something you're concerned about.
https://www.marriott.com/look/claimForm.mi
https://hiltonworldwide3.hilton.com/en/price-match-guarantee...
https://www.ihg.com/content/us/en/customer-care/best-price-g...
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