How I Saved Over $250 Using Hyatt’s Best Rate Guarantee

I’ll be honest, I usually don’t pay much attention to best rate guarantees. They always seem like there’s so much fine print that they would never actually work. Well, I am happy to report I was wrong.

I recently took advantage of Hyatt’s best rate guarantee and saved $266 on a 3-night hotel stay. Here are the details on how I did it and how you can use this policy to save money on your next hotel stay, too.

My Original Booking With Hyatt

I had planned a weekend getaway to visit my brother in San Francisco and booked Hyatt Centric Fisherman’s Wharf San Francisco because the location was great and the cost was reasonable.

The room I booked was going to cost $948.54 for 3 nights. It’s a Category 5 hotel, so the standard points cost was 20,000 per night.

I opted not to use World of Hyatt points because I would only be getting 1.58 cents per point in value and I know I can get more value than that at other Hyatt locations.

I planned to pay for my stay with The World of Hyatt Credit Card to earn 4 Hyatt points per $1 spent.

A Lower-priced Option

A few days before the trip, I double-checked the price on Hyatt.com to see if it had gone down. Sure enough, it had. I could now book a room for a total of $891.10. Great!

I decided to look around to see if I could find any additional discounts or portals offering deals before I rebooked. I ended up stumbling onto Capital One Travel, so I checked the price there. Much to my surprise, I could book the same room for only $826.86 — $64.24 less than the price on Hyatt’s own website.

In addition, I still had $300 remaining of my credit from my Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card that could be applied to this booking, but if I booked through Capital One, I’d lose my World of Hyatt elite benefits, wouldn’t earn points on the booking, and I wouldn’t earn elite nights for status.

Since I am trying to achieve Globalist status this year, that wasn’t an option I loved. Not sure what to do, I decided to ask some points and miles writer friends what they would do, and one of them asked if I had checked to see if Hyatt had a best rate guarantee (why didn’t I think of that!). A quick search revealed that yes, Hyatt did offer a best rate guarantee.

Using Hyatt’s Best Rate Guarantee

I found the information about Hyatt’s best rate guarantee online and submitted my claim with the price I found on Capital One Travel. Since the best rate guarantee is only valid within 24 hours of booking, I canceled the original reservation, made a new reservation on Hyatt.com, and then submitted my best rate guarantee claim on that second reservation.

I was excited and surprised to see a response come through my email within about 10 minutes — but I was denied!

The reason I was denied was that the price offered by Capital One Travel wasn’t publicly available. So, I checked other websites and found that the same lower rate was publicly available on Hotels.com.

I responded to the original denial email with a link to the price on Hotels.com and I got approval about an hour and a half later.

When submitting my best rate guarantee claim, I had the choice of either 5,000 World of Hyatt points or 20% off my stay if I was approved.

We value World of Hyatt points at ~1.5 cents each, which would make 5,000 points worth about $75. Since a 20% discount on this reservation would end up being more than $75, I chose the 20% option.

In the end, Hyatt matched the base rate I found on Hotels.com and took 20% off of that price. My bill was adjusted automatically in my Hyatt account.

The hotel stay that was going to cost me $948.54 ended up being only $682.45 — a savings of $266.09 thanks to the Hyatt best rate guarantee!

How To Submit a Hyatt Best Rate Guarantee

You can submit a Hyatt best rate guarantee claim in 3 ways:

• Submit the online form (the easiest option)
• Call 877-247-3909 or 402-593-5445
• Contact your local Hyatt Global Contact Center

During submission, you’ll be able to choose which reward you would like if your claim is approved. You can choose between 5,000 World of Hyatt points or a 20% discount on the base rate of your reservation (calculated after the rate is matched to the lower rate).

Hyatt Best Rate Guarantee Requirements

There are specific requirements the lower price must meet to qualify for a best rate guarantee, and your claim must be submitted within 24 hours of booking to be considered.

The lower rate needs to meet these specific criteria to qualify:

• It needs to be publicly available and immediately bookable
• It needs to include only the room rate (no vacation package rates)
• It needs to be for the exact same room, dates, and number of guests
• It needs to have the same cancellation policy
• It needs to be at least $1 lower than the rate booked through Hyatt

Hyatt’s best rate guarantee only applies to select Hyatt brands:

Bottom Line: Hyatt offers a best rate guarantee on lower rates for the exact same room, dates, and reservation specifics made within 24 hours of booking. If your claim is approved, you’ll get either 5,000 World of Hyatt points or a 20% discount (off of the lower matched rate) on your hotel reservation.

Final Thoughts

Any time you pay for a hotel in cash instead of points, it’s a great idea to periodically check the price to see if it goes down. It’s also a good idea to check prices on other websites to see if there are lower prices offered elsewhere.

If you find a rate that is identical and publicly available, try submitting a best rate guarantee request online. It’s a great way to save some money on your hotel stay and maintain your elite benefits. Hyatt’s best rate guarantee is only valid within 24 hours of booking, so you may have to rebook your original room first, but it could be worth it depending on how much you could save.