If you’ll remember, as part of my recent Indianapolis trip report, I filed a Best Rate Guarantee at the Best Western that I stayed at.
According to their terms, they will send out the $100 Best Western Travel card within 2-3 weeks and today I received mine!
It came via email from BWR Redemption Solutions (BWRredemptionsolutions@bestwestern.com) and said
Dear Best Western Rewards Member,
Thank you for contacting Best Western concerning your Low Rate Guaranteed! claim. We work very hard to ensure that our best prices are always available on bestwestern.com.
We take special pride in ensuring that the consumer experience on bestwestern.com is the very best it can be. Your satisfaction is our primary goal. We want to make bestwestern.com your preferred hotel travel site. With over 4,000 hotels in over 100 countries worldwide bestwestern.com is truly your gateway to the world.
Please accept the enclosed Travel Card with our apologies. Our hope is that you will utilize the travel card and give us another opportunity to restore your faith in our brand. This Travel card can be used at any Best Western Hotel worldwide toward room charges and any eligible service managed or operated by a Best Western Hotel.
We are aware that you have many choices available when selecting accommodations. We are honored that you chose Best Western and we will continue to do our best to be worthy of your selection
Thanks again for your loyalty.
Sincerely,
<redacted>
I also took out the 4 hyperlinks in the email to bestwestern.com because I didn’t figure we needed all those 😀 . Still, this is great. Best Western has a slightly different redemption of a Best Rate Guarantee – instead of just giving you the night for free, you pay for the night, and then get the $100 travel card afterwards. The idea from this would be that most Best Westerns have a regular rate of less than $100, so by “chaining” BRGs, you can get infinite free nights, plus earn the points from your stay.
So in my case, I paid $63 (+$11 tax) for this stay at Best Western. For that, I earned 880 Best Western Rewards points
All Best Western reward members get 10x points per stay, so that was 630 points, plus an additional 190 points (30%) because I am a Diamond member. I also got 60 points for being a “preferred AAA member”, whatever that means LOL. I also paid for this initial stay with my Best Western Mastercard, which earned me another 371 points.I also wanted to point out that I did NOT earn the 1500 bonus points indicated in the bottom of that image, because taking advantage of that rate would have invalidated the BRG (and made me lose out on the $100 gift card which is of course more valuable).
Now what?
So let’s say I find another BRG, that’s exactly the same. I pay $74 upfront, but instead of putting it on my Mastercard, I put it on this $100 travel card. I would still earn the 880 points (assuming I am still a AAA member, which actually I’m not). I wouldn’t earn the 371 points from the credit card, but I also wouldn’t be out of pocket any money.
Then I submit another BRG claim, and get another $100 travel card. So now I have $126 in gift cards, which I can then use to roll up for the next claim. Obviously the cheaper the hotel you can find, the better.
One note is that you can only redeem one BRG per household every 30 days, and it’s not quite clear (at least to me) how the 30 days are measured (30 days between claims? stays? bookings?).
Anyone else used a BRG to get a free hotel night?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
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