Definitive Guide: Marriott Best Rate Guarantee

Hotel stays can be expensive, and as a result, many customers look to online travel agents for the lowest possible price for their next stay. Unfortunately, through using an online travel agent, many of the benefits of booking directly with the hotel are lost such as status benefits and other perks.

However, many major hotel chains offer programs to price match these online travel agents, and often, even reduce the price further. Marriott’s Best Rate Guarantee program is one such program, and with some legwork, can be used to significantly reduce the cost of your next Marriott hotel stay.

Let’s look at Marriott’s Best Rate Guarantee program and how you can benefit from it for your next Marriott hotel booking.

What is Marriott’s Best Rate Guarantee?

Marriott’s Best Rate Guarantee program allows customers to price match their hotel stay booked directly with Marriott Bonvoy against a lower rate found through a third-party website or mobile app. This price matching process gives customers the ability to retain their direct booking with Marriott (and the benefits that come with it) in addition to being able to take advantage of the lower rate.

Several conditions must be adhered to when submitting a claim through the Marriott Best Rate Guarantee program:

• The lower price can be found on a website or a mobile app
• The lower price must be for the same hotel, the same dates, the same number of people, and the same room type (identical to the direct booking)
• Must be for the same type of rate (e.g. free cancellation, prepaid, non-refundable)
• Special rates, such as AMA, promotion, package, or other rates do not work

As part of finding a lower eligible rate, customers can choose a reward if the claim is successful. The choices are 25% off the matching rate (meaning a 25% discount on the lower found rate) or 5,000 Marriott Bonvoy points.

The better and more valuable choice is the 25% discount and that should be the reward that is selected for every claim.

Benefits of Marriott’s Best Rate Guarantee Program

The biggest benefit of Marriott’s Best Rate Guarantee is that you can receive up to 25% off your whole hotel stay. If you are staying at Marriott properties for at least a few days, this can add up to massive savings that can free up a big chunk of your travel budget.

Booking directly with Marriott Bonvoy also comes with a variety of benefits, especially if you hold status within the loyalty program, such as Marriott Platinum Elite status. This means that not only can you earn Bonvoy points and Elite Qualifying Nights during your stay to work towards annual status and Marriott Bonvoy lifetime status, but you can also apply Nightly Upgrade Awards and take advantage of other benefits, such as late check-out and complimentary breakfast.

In short, it is always preferred to book directly with a hotel chain as it makes it easier to deal with any changes and also allows you to benefit from and work towards loyalty program status.

How to Submit a Marriott Best Rate Guarantee Claim

Submitting a Marriott Best Rate Guarantee claim involves a few steps to secure your lower hotel rate: booking directly with Marriott and then finding a lower rate elsewhere, submitting your claim, and having the claim successfully approved.

Book the Hotel Room Directly with Marriott Bonvoy

The first step in submitting a Marriott Best Rate Guarantee claim is to book a hotel room directly with Marriott Bonvoy. This can be done either through the Marriott Bonvoy website or the Marriott Bonvoy app.

Make sure to take note of the name of the hotel, the dates of your stay, the room type, the rate, and any special conditions on the booking (such as if the booking is non-refundable). This is key information that will be used in the next step of finding a lower hotel room rate and will give you a better chance of your claim being approved.

Find a Lower Hotel Room Rate

Now that the stay is booked directly with Marriott, the next step is to find a lower rate to be able to submit a valid Best Rate Guarantee claim. Before we cover the best strategy for finding a lower rate, know that you will not always be able to find a lower rate and that finding a lower rate does take a bit of work.

While there are many great third-party hotel booking websites that can be utilized when it comes to finding lower rates, we recommend using Kayak since it acts as a great aggregator across many hotel booking platforms.

Upon searching for the hotel name and dates of your stay, Kayak showcases the best possible deal across all sites, as well as the ability to drill down to see the rates from all sites. This makes it easy to see if there is a cheaper rate available, as opposed to searching manually across many different sites which can be time-consuming.

When you are searching, pay attention to the details to ensure you are matching the same room type and rate type. If either of these differ, your claim will be denied.

Additionally, Kayak is not the only option for finding lower rates. There are other options that work well too, such as searching for the hotel name on Google. This presents a list of available booking options on the right-hand side and can be another great way to quickly filter through all rates to see if any cheaper rates exist.

Once you have found a lower eligible rate, it is time to actually submit the Marriott Best Rate Guarantee claim form.

Submit a Marriott Best Rate Guarantee Claim

When you are ready to submit your claim, the Marriott Best Rate Guarantee claim form can be found here. 

If the booking is tied to your Marriott Bonvoy account, it is recommended to sign in on this page. Signing in will also populate the guest information at the top of the page automatically and will allow you to select the 5,000 Marriott Bonvoy points reward if so desired.

In the “Reservation Information” section, you will need to populate the reservation details for your booking that was made directly with Marriott Bonvoy. The “Comparison Rate” section is where you will populate the details of the lower rate that you found.

There is also a field to enter any comments about the comparison rate that you found. If there are any relevant details that you wish to include that would increase the chance of your claim being approved, this is the place to enter them.

Finally, you will select the reward, and it is always recommended to select the “25% off your hotel stay” option for the greatest value.

Wait for the Marriott Best Rate Guarantee Claim to Be Resolved

Once the claim is submitted, customers can expect to receive an answer in 24-48 hours. The response will be sent to the email on file and will contain information regarding your claim and whether it was accepted or denied.

If the claim is accepted, the rep will quote the new daily rate and you will be able to immediately see the updated price on your reservation on the Marriott Bonvoy site or Marriott Bonvoy app. From here, there is no further action required. It is important to note that if you make further changes to your reservation once the claim is approved, it will invalidate the approved claim.

From time to time, claims may be denied. This can happen if the Marriott representative cannot find the same rate that you quoted, or if the room type isn’t the same. If this is the case, and the savings are significant, you might find greater value in canceling your booking with Marriott and booking with the online travel agency where you found the cheaper rate.

Conclusion

Marriott’s Best Rate Guarantee can be a great way to still benefit from booking directly with the hotel while receiving the lowest rate possible. While it can be a bit of work to go through the process and to find a lower rate, it is absolutely worth the effort as making a successful claim can be a great way to cut the cost of your next vacation.