With fierce competition in the travel market, websites are increasingly turning to gimmicks, tricks and guarantees to hook surfers into booking with them. Most frequent these days is the low price guarantee, where a particular airline or hotel chain will guarantee that their prices are the lowest — and if you find a lower fare they’ll either refund you the price of the booking or give you some sort of voucher.
In the case of most airlines, this is particularly useful because they control the supply and pricing of the tickets; therefore, obviously, their website has the lowest price. But the hotel industry hasn’t come as far. Their innumerable combinations of hotel rooms, rates, locations and discounts often create loopholes which one website will often miss in comparison to another.
So if you can find this lower fare and a third party website that guarantees that they have the “lowest prices”, you can book the cheaper fare, cry foul to that website and essentially get that room for free.
What sort of website would do that? Triprewards, for one has a best rate guarantee, and I’m told they’re quite disciplined about reading and responding to claims.
And how do find the cheapest rates out on the market? Well, I’d start at the Best Rate Guarantee blog, where a generous member of the travel community has an ongoing list of BRG valid deals. Make sure you read his introductory posts that tell you exactly how and when to book your hotel rooms, and you’ll be on your way to free rooms in no time!