Quick PSA: Marriott sometimes hides the best price in search results

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This post is just a quick PSA that may be a reminder for some or totally new to others, but I just ran into the issue again this morning and thought it could possibly help someone save a few bucks. Here’s the deal: when you search for rates at Marriott properties, it’s always a good idea to actually click on individual properties to look at room types rather than relying on Marriott.com to show you the best rate in the main search results because the headline rate shown in search results isn’t always the best rate.

a balcony with a view of a grass field and a sunset

This just happened to me today, but I’ve seen it many times before. I input a location and dates and got a list of available hotels and what are presumably their “best rates”. On the main search results page, it said that rates at this particular property were starting at 234 Euros per night.

a black square on a white background

However, when I hit “continue” on this property and clicked through to the page listing room types and prices, I saw that 234 was the standard rate. There were “package” deals available from 209!

a screenshot of a hotel room

That’s a difference of 25 Euro per night — which makes a difference of more than $130 on this particular stay.

This will obviously vary from one situation to the next. You won’t always find better prices after clicking through on a property. However, I’ve seen this happen quite a number of times before. Sometimes I might use the AAA rate and the search results page will show the AAA rate even though there is an even cheaper flexible rate (which I wouldn’t know unless I click through).

I decided to post this because if you were comparing this property to another one that costs 220 Eur per night on the main comparison/search results page, you wouldn’t know from that search results page that this property is actually cheaper for the dates entered unless you clicked on it. Again, I wouldn’t say that this is common, but it’s happened to me enough times that I now know to only use the rates in the main Marriott.com results list as a rough estimate. I always click through on each of the properties around my price range to see if one has unexpected savings in store.

Also keep an eye out for best rate guarantees. I’ve noticed rates on my bookings fluctuating pretty significantly lately. I just saved about 28% on an upcoming 5-night stay thanks to monitoring Marriott.com for price drops, but I’m also keeping an eye out in case rates drop on any third party sites in the coming days.

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