Booking travel can often be a stressful process — and this is especially true if you’re looking to get a good deal. Between different hotel chains, online travel agencies, sales and credit card portals, how are you supposed to know where to go?
One of the places you may end up on your search is Booking.com. An online travel agency, or OTA, Booking.com offers something unique: a price match guarantee. The Booking.com price match may be able to help you save money on your vacation, even at the last minute. Here's a look.
There are plenty of ways that companies try to gain your patronage. They may offer special perks to those who book on their website, or a loyalty program designed to reward you for repeat business.
Others offer a price match guarantee, which operates as it sounds — the company guarantees that you’ll find the lowest publicly available prices on their website. If this turns out to be false, they’ll offer to match the price you found elsewhere.
Many different hotel chains do this, including Hyatt, Hilton and Marriott. Plenty of online travel agencies, like Priceline, Orbitz and Hotels.com do, too.
So, does Booking.com have a price match guarantee? It does, but it differentiates what it offers with extra lenient rules.
Price matches usually work like this: First, you’ll book a hotel room on your preferred website. After searching other sites and their offerings, you may see that the hotel room is cheaper elsewhere. If so, then, you’ll submit a claim for the price difference for your original booking.
The claim will be reviewed, and if specific criteria are met, you’ll receive a price adjustment to meet the competitor’s pricing. Some sites may even give you an additional discount or bonus points to sweeten the deal.