UPDATE 2016:
Expedia now requires you to book the room and complete the stay. You receive the certificate 30 days after your stay. The voucher must be used with a $100 stay minimum. Although they changed things, this is still an easy way of getting something you initially wouldn't have.
I love Expedia's Best Price Guarantee! They have a great deal, if you find a room that you booked for a lower price, they will match that price and give you a $50 Expedia online voucher good for a future booking. Expedia has pretty competitive prices, which makes it hard to take advantage of, but that's only if Kayak.com didn't exist.
Two important things to note, you should always book a room with free cancellation and the booking conditions must be identical. That means both Expedia and the site you are claiming that has a better price must offer the same things: Wi-Fi, cancellations, breakfast, room view.
Another thing to note, you are only allowed to receive 3 BPG vouchers each calendar month.
How to get a $50 Certificate:
1. Go to Kayak.com and search for a room anywhere. Maybe somewhere you plan on staying in the near/distant future. The price doesn't really matter. As long as it is cheaper by at least $0.01, Expedia will give you the BPG voucher if you qualify. There is no minimum price to the room you book. You could book a $20 motel, find it for $19 on another site and Expedia will match that price along with a $50 BPG voucher. The example used here is just to show that there are many sites that beat Expedia for this hotel which makes it an easy target.
I find that it's easier to find valid rates outside of the United States. For this example I chose Tokyo, Japan. You only need one valid booking site to have a better price than Expedia, but sometimes that find a reason to deny the Best Price Guarantee claim. That's why it's good to have a backup booking site in case they deny the claim. In this case, we have four sites that will beat Expedia.
Before booking, always make sure there is FREE CANCELLATION.
2. Select the Expedia link from Kayak as well as a site that will beat Expedia. I will pick Booking.com. The verify the conditions are the same.
Expedia.com
Booking.com
Free Wi-Fi is also included in the details on Booking.com
You might notice that Kayak.com shows the Booking.com price at a lower rate. Booking.com cleverly excludes taxes from the Kayak site somehow, so be aware.
3. Book the room on Expedia! Book only one night. There will be a charge to your credit card for the price of the room. But don't worry, the room has free cancellation and you will get that back several days after you cancel.
In the "Who's traveling?" section, you can book a room for anyone. Meaning that friends with BPG vouchers can book rooms for you.
4. Submit an Expedia BPG Claim
Go to: http://www.expedia.com/p/info-other/guarantees.htm
5. Wait for Expedia to get back you. They claim that they'll get back you with 48 hours, but in my experience it's normally within a few hours of submitting the claim. One time they got back to me in 20 minutes!
If they reject your claim, you still have a shot. Research why and check one of the other sites listing lower prices on Kayak to see if those would be valid. Hopefully you will see:
6. Once you have your BPG voucher in your Expedia account, you should see:
7. Once you receive your coupon, you can cancel any bookings you have made (that had Free Cancellation). If you received a BPG voucher for that booking, it will not be taken away upon cancelling the room and you should receive a refund to your credit card within a few days.
Lastly, when using the BPG vouchers, be sure that you will be staying at that hotel. If you cancel any booking made with a BPG voucher, the voucher disappears and is not restored to your account.
8. Using BPG Vouchers
Why is this so awesome? The minimum room rate required to use the $50 BPG voucher is $25. You can find a very nice hotel for $50 in most places around the world, essentially giving you a free night!
The trick here is to book each night individually with each BPG voucher. You are limited to use one BPG voucher per booking. So, just have one booking per night. When you get to the hotel, just tell them to combine it into one reservation so you don't have to check out/check back in. As long as you booked the same type of room each night, you should be okay.
Once you apply the BPG coupon, this room will come out to $5.55 for one night!
Need to stock up quickly on more than just 3 BPG vouchers per month? Have a friend create an Expedia account and start gaining them for you. When making the booking in their account, just be sure that the reservation is under the name of the person that will be staying at the hotel. As long as that is correct, anyone can book a room for you.
Good luck!
Expedia BPG (Best Price Guarantee) is also known as Expedia BRG (Best Rate Guarantee)
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