Which search sites have the best pricing on the hotel you want to book? Is it Trivago, Expedia, Booking.com or another online aggregator or is it the hotel itself? What about the ‘best price guarantees’ hotel chains offer? How do they stack up? And if they are the best price, what about the aggregators who promise “search one site and be done?” We were curious so we ran our own tests to find out what’s going on with hotel price matching.
Hotel Chain Best Rate Guarantees
First, here are the price guarantees that seven major hotel chains offer.
- Fairmont – Their Best Rate Guarantee promises “Find a lower qualifying rate online and we’ll match it and give you a 10% discount when you book through Fairmont Hotels”
- Hilton – Their Best Price Guarantee states “We guarantee you always get the lowest price when you reserve a room through an official Hilton booking channel… or we’ll match the lower price and give you an extra 25% discount.”
- Starwood Hotels, which includes Westin, Marriott, Sheraton, Ritz-Carleton offer the Look No Further® Guarantee Claim Form. Their guarantee reads, ‘book a room directly with a Starwood hotel brand. If you find a lower rate for the same hotel, room type and dates within 24 hours of making your reservation, submit a Look No Further® Guarantee claim form. We’ll review the claim, and if approved, we’ll match the rate and give you an additional 25% discount on the room or 5,000 Marriott Rewards points…it’s up to you.”
- Best Western’s Low Rate Guarantee says “We are committed to making sure that you will always find our lowest rates on bestwestern.com. If you find a published rate on the Internet that is lower than what is published on bestwestern.com, we will honor the lower rate and send you a $100 USD Best Western Travel Card®.”
- Choice Hotels – offers a Lowest Price Guarantee. “Simply book directly with ChoiceHotels (Comfort Inn.®Comfort Suites.® Sleep Inn.® Clarion.® Cambria® Hotels. Ascend Hotel Collection.®† MainStay Suites.®) and we’ll stand behind our rate with our Lowest Price Guarantee. If you happen to find a lower published price for the same date and terms on any other qualified online source, we’ll not only match that rate—we’ll also give U.S. and Canada residents a $50 Reward Card (in USD or CAD respectively) to spend any way you want. International residents will receive their first night free instead.”
- Hyatt’s Best Rate Guarantee: “When you book directly on hyatt.com, you know you’re getting the best rates at any Hyatt hotel or resort worldwide. We guarantee it. If you find a lower, qualifying rate published on another site, we’ll not only match it but we’ll also give you $50 to use toward your next Hyatt stay.”
- IHG (includes InterContinental Hotels, Crown Plaza, Indigo, Even, avid, Holiday Inn, Staybridge, and Candlewood). Their Best Price Guarantee: “If you find a better price somewhere else, we’ll match it and give you five times the IHG® Rewards Club Points, up to a 40,000-point maximum”
Now, the test
We checked the same hotel in the same city for the same dates and compared the rates you would receive from aggregators against the rate received from the hotel directly. Here are the results with our conclusions listed at the end of the article.
1. Trivago
To reserve the NYC Hilton Garden Inn Central Park from Sept 10 to 12, Trivago’s best rate pulls up Expedia at $313 per night. Trivago says the same room on Booking.com is $323 and that the Hotel Website is $314.
2. Booking.com
Now we checked Booking.com to find out:
- Was Booking.com’s rate on Trivago the same as Booking.com quotes on their own site?
- Find Booking.com’s rate to compare it with the hotel’s direct rate.
Booking.com showed as $646 for 2 nights = $323/night. So Trivago was accurate on that.
3. Expedia
Now, we wanted to check Expedia directly to find out:
- Was the Expedia rate on Trivago the same as the rate Expedia quotes on their own site
- How does Expedia’s rate compare to the hotel direct rate?
Interesting – Trivago returned a $1 lower price when they quoted Expedia than Expedia did on their site for the same hotel (see #1, Trivago image above).
4. Hilton
Now, what does the hotel’s direct site list for pricing?
Sure enough, Hilton’s direct site returns the best rate of $307 per night.
We also conducted a search a few months ago using the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto, Canada. We came up with similar results for that one too. The hotel site provided the best rate when compared with other aggregator sites.
Hotel Price Matching Conclusions
- Trivago’s stated rate for the hotel on Booking.com was exactly as Trivago said it was, $323.
- Trivago’s stated rate for the hotel on Expedia was $1 less expensive than that same hotel if you searched directly on Expedia. This is curious because Expedia owns Trivago, so not sure if there’s a rationale for doing this. Overall, let’s just conclude that they list their rates similarly.
- Trivago’s reported hotel price of $314 was higher than the hotel’s direct rate. A direct search of the hotel site turned up $307, a $7/night difference.
- In both the U.S. and Canadian examples we tested, the hotel’s site was less expensive (but not by much) than Expedia or Trivago’s price.
- At least for Canada and the U.S., it appears the pricing hotels are providing to aggregators is more expensive than the pricing you’ll get when contacting the hotel directly. In other places (e.g., Europe) and depending on the negotiated terms between Aggregator and Hotel, the hotels may NOT be able to offer a lower price.
- For the U.S. and Canada, the hotel seems to ensure their direct rates are lower to support their Best Price Guarantee.
For hotel price matching, rules are constantly changing and results vary depending on dates and locations, so do your research and check the hotel directly. Remember to use Opptee Travel Search to make your comparison shopping fast and easy!
Learn more money-saving tips in “7 Ways to Find Best Hotel Deals” and “Searching Hotels Just Got Easier”.
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