Marriott Tightens Best Rate Guarantee Requirements

Marriott has a Best Rate Guarantee that promises to have the lowest prices on its website or if you manage to find a lower rate on 3rd third-party site, to match it with an additional 25% off or 5,000 Bonvoy points.

Marriott has today updated the Best Rate Guarantee requirements and further tightened the rates it matches from third-party sites.

You can access Marriott’s page for Best Rate Guarantee here.

READ MORE: Marriott Bonvoy Rate & Bonus Points Offers

Marriott has revamped the Best Rate Guarantee page, and I was able to come up with the following differences that are significant:

Membership

The new rules require you to be a Marriott Bonvoy member to participate in the Best Rate Guarantee program.

Booking

The rules now state that you must book the lowest available rate on Marriott’s website, including membership ones.

Rate Different

The rate difference previously had to be at least $1, but the new rules state that the difference must be at least 1% if comparison rates are in the same currency, or 2% if the currencies are different.

Inclusion

The new rules state explicitly that all the inclusions and cancellation policies must match.

Discount Coupons/Promos

Some comparison websites may display coupons or other discounts. These rates are now explicitly banned.

Residency, ID Requirements & Credit Card Requirements

It is now clearly stated that rates that require specific residency, ID, or credit card (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, or UnionPay) are excluded from comparison.

Conclusion

I have already said for a long time that most of these Best Rate Guarantee programs are nothing but marketing promises today.

Hotels and chains often offload inventory at significantly lower rates on third-party sites, believing that loyalty program members are a captive, non-price-sensitive audience.

Especially the fact that the cancellation policies must now match exactly invalidates the majority of these Best Rate Guarantees that Marriott promises.

Why not have a fair, clean, and understandable Price Match Policy, like the one Starwood used to have, rather than this one with so many caveats that they can deny any claim, however significant the price difference might be?

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