Marriott Best Rate Guarantee (BRG) in 2024 - it still works but you need time.

Just a short summary and experience from my side with regards to the Marriott BRG.

First of all, thank you to all the helpful posts so far on this. It was really great to get some information upfront, esp. with Marriott's way of handling the BRG. This post is a summary about the current state of BRG and a short experience from my side.

BRG means that if you find a rate for a Marriott hotel at a lower price than on Marriott.com, Marriott will match the rate and either take another 25% off OR gift you an extra 5000 Bonvoy points for the stay.

First the logistics:

- BRG can only (!) be claimed via this form: https://www.marriott.com/look/claimForm.mi

- If you have questions about BRG, you can send an E-Mail to [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) or call 24/7 to +18007715665. However, the information on the phone is pretty useless and they won't follow up on a BRG without getting a claim form. Even then, they will advise you to wait for a written reply.

- The procedure is in theory pretty simple:

  1. Book a rate at Marriott.com (without using any corp codes!). The rate should be the cheapest option available for the room and meal options, you want to create a claim form for. This means that you can also book a Suite and/or an All Inclusive rate but you always need to provide the identical room and options for comparison when creating a claim. So booking an All Inclusive Suite at Marriott.com and then providing a rate for a Double Bedroom with breakfast only at Expedia won't do the job.One good thing about Marriott's rates are that even non-refundable rates can still be cancelled until Midnight the day after (e.g. you book in the morning at 1am which gives you 47 hours to cancel for free).
  2. Within 24h of the reservation, you have to create a claim at the form linked on top of this post. Create the claim immediately after booking your room as Marriott allows 24 hours for a reply to the form.
    1. The form has to provide enough information for the agent to find the rate by himself or herself
    2. The rate must be identical or as comparable as possible (room type, cancellation rules, meal options).
    3. The following pages are not accepted by Marriott (don't ask...): Super.com, Traveluro.com and all websites that don't provide immediate confirmation about the booked rate.
  3. Now it's time to wait. A Marriott employee will look into the case and reply with feedback. Be aware that their main goal is to avoid matching the BRG at any cost. They will look for any gap so make sure to prepare everything and not just drop any rate you found without at least comparing it in terms of rule fares.
    1. If your claim is approved, the Marriott employee will automatically adjust your booking and confirm the approval.
    2. If your claim is denied, you can reply to the claim and start discussing and adding more information like screenshots, booking information etc. Be prepared that you may need to spin some round. If your time for the cancellation is coming to an end, cancel the reservation, create a new one and start from the beginning. Make sure to add more information the claim form this time to avoid getting the same questions back.

In general, getting the BRG approved is not very easy but doable. Always remember, that there are people on the other end of the line who handle your claims so stay respectful and don't get mad at them as this will not really help your case.

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Supported websites (not complete!):

Unsupported websites (not complete!):

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In my experience, it took more than two days and multiple E-Mails but in the end, the outcome was great. I booked a resort which was listed only way below the Marriott rate at a 3rd party page a few weeks ago. Just by accident, I came across the BRG and got to work right away.

The hotel, I booked was at approx. USD 3600 for a Junior Suite (cancellable rate). Marriott.com had the same room at USD 6000+ (they only had a cancellable rate that matched the same meal option). So, I went ahead and booked the option.

Not knowing anything, I created my first claim by mentioning traveluro.com - the denial came within hours and I replied to the E-Mail but communication was slow and didn't really led to any goal. So, I found a better rate at reserving.com.

I booked another room, created a new claim. This time, the Marriott employee for some reason was able to see my rate but not book it. While I could easily go to the last step, the Marriott employee told me that they got a message stating the room being sold out. Communication went back and forth and in the end, I even booked the room via reserving.com (cancellable) and sent the Marriott employee a screenshot to prove that the room is existing.

The employee assured that he/she is not able to book the room but will wait until my reservation will pop up in the Marriott system to process the approval of the claim (which sounded great first of all). After me asking back, how long I should wait to check back, the employee suddenly came back telling me, that he/she went ahead and found the same rate at another OTA and was able to create a reservation there. Needless to say, the claim was finally approved and matched, sparing me another 25%. Can't wait for that stay now. :)

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I know, this is just one example but I hope that it motivates you guys to still try BRG in 2024. It may be cumbersome but you can save a lot of money here.