Choice Hotels Lowest Price Guarantee: everything you need to know

In an earlier article, we briefly compared nine of the best rate guarantees that are offered across the major hotel chains. In this article we look at the Choice Hotels Lowest Price guarantee in a little more detail.

Choice Hotels’ Lowest Price Guarantee says that if you find a lower rate elsewhere, Choice will match it and give you a $50 reward card if you’re in the US or Canada, or your first night free if you’re anywhere else.

What follows are the terms that matter taken from the full published terms and conditions. It’s more detail than you’ll find on the marketing page, but these claims are usually won or lost on a technicality, so it’s worth knowing where the pitfalls lie.

The short version

The basics that apply to every chain

These terms are shared across all the major guarantees. They’re worth knowing before you go any further, because most failed claims fall down on one of them.

• The lower rate must be for an identical booking: same hotel, same room type, same number of guests, same dates, same length of stay, same inclusions, same guarantee and cancellation policies, and same booking conditions. Even the slightest of differences and a claim is likely to be denied.
• Comparisons are made net of taxes, gratuities, and other fees.
• The lower rate must still be publicly available and bookable at the moment the chain checks it, not merely when you found it. This is the term that brings down a lot of claims.
• One claim per stay, and consecutive nights count as one stay.
• Changing the booking after approval will generally void it.
• Opaque and auction sites, unitemised packages, discount-code rates, and rates that aren’t immediately bookable are excluded everywhere.

A difference in cancellation policy is the most common reason a claim gets rejected, and that holds even when the rate you’ve found has the more generous policy. Ridiculous? Yes. But it happens.

The Choice Hotels terms in detail

In summary:

If you find a lower, publicly available rate on a website other than the Choice Hotels website and your claim is approved, Choice will match the lower rate and, if you’re a US or Canadian resident, give you a $50/CA$50 reward card. Guests from outside the U.S. and Canada will receive their first night free instead.

Eligibility:

To be eligible to make a ‘lowest price guarantee’ claim you must:

• Make a reservation using any official Choice Direct channel
• Claim within 24 hours of making your reservation and within 48 hours of a 6pm arrival on the first day booked
• Only submit your claim if you have found a publicly available and immediately bookable rate for the same stay that is at least $1 or 1% lower (whichever is greater) than the comparable rate on the Choice website.

The terms that you really need to know (and focus on):

• Free nights issued to international residents are subject to the following terms:
  • The room rate for approved Bookings that are one night will be discounted to $0.
  • Room rates for Bookings that are more than one night will be discounted to the Competing Rate; the rate for the first night will be $0.
• The Lowest Price Guarantee does not apply to reservations made at WoodSprings Suites or at Vacation Rentals by Choice.
• It also doesn’t apply to all-inclusive Ascend Hotel Collection properties, or to Ascend Hotel Collection properties in Las Vegas that include a casino.
• The online claim form informing Choice of the lower rate must be submitted within 24 hours of the Booking and at least 48 hours prior to a 6 pm arrival on the first day of the Booking.
• The claim must be submitted at least 48 hours prior to a 6 pm arrival on the first day of the booking.
• The comparison must be made in the same currency as the booking.
• Search engines and metasearch sites (Google, Bing, Kayak, Trivago, TripAdvisor) do not count as qualifying third-party websites.
• The guarantee only applies to a defined list of rate types: Best Available Rate, Advance Purchase, Choice Privileges membership, Choice Promotions, AAA, and Senior/AARP.
• Where a third-party site splits its rate into a headline price plus a “fee”, Choice will add the fee back on before comparing.
• If a Choice Direct rate exists that is the same or lower than the competing rate, you’ll get that rate for the booking but you won’t get the reward card or the free night.
• One claim per name or household every 30 days between check-in dates, and a maximum of one reward card or free night per reservation regardless of how many rooms are booked.
• Bookings of 10 or more rooms and bookings made by travel agents or brokers are ineligible.
• The guarantee names the brands it covers: Comfort Inn, Comfort Suites, Quality, Clarion, Cambria Hotels, Ascend Hotel Collection, Sleep Inn, MainStay Suites, Suburban Extended Stay, Econo Lodge, and Rodeway Inn.
• A third-party site only counts if it doesn’t require membership or a login, sells Choice inventory directly, and confirms the reservation at the point of booking.
• Walk-ins are not eligible for the guarantee, although phoning the hotel directly to book is.
• Any change made to the reservation voids the guarantee entirely.
• After a claim is approved the booking isn’t transferable, and the name on it must match your photo ID at check-in.
• Choice Privileges points are earned on the room rate you actually pay at checkout.
• A service representative will contact you within 48 hours of receiving the claim form.

Opinion

This can be a very good guarantee to invoke on short stays outside of the US and Canada as, assuming you can get the claim honored, the “first night free” bonus can be significant (certainly more significant than a $50 gift card which is all you get in the US).

In the list of all nine guarantees that we have looked at, this one ranks as weak for US/Canada stays, good for short stays outside of the US and Canada, and mediocre on longer stays made outside of the US and Canada (the 20% – 25% discount that Hyatt, IHG, and Marriott offer is likely to be more valuable on longer stays).

Here’s a link to the full terms and conditions. Read them carefully before assuming you can make a valid claim.

Related: Nine hotel best rate guarantees compared – see how IHG stacks up against the other eight

Featured image courtesy of Choice Hotels.