Choice Hotels Europe has introduced a new on-line guarantee to ensure that the best room e-rates at its Clarion, Quality, Comfort and Sleep hotels are available on its home website.
The new Best Choice e-Rate Guarantee is effective at all 500 plus Choice Hotels in Europe from 5 December 2003.

If within 24 hours of making a booking on www.choicehotelseurope.com the guest finds a better rate at a third-party website and it is at least 72 hours prior to arrival at the hotel, the guest can then submit a ‘Best Choice e-Rate On-line Guarantee’ form posted on the Choice Hotels website. The original booking is over-ridden and the new cheaper rate awarded to the guest, with an additional 10% discount by way of a thank you.

In making this announcement, Choice Hotels joins other hotel chains who are largely focused on driving customers to their own branded Web sites, which currently remain the lowest-cost distribution channel for hotels. Effective January 1, 2004, Marriott will guarantee the lowest room rate to any customer who books a Marriott room directly from the chain on the phone or on its Web site. Starwood,  Starwood (HOT ), which operates the Sheraton, W, and Westin chains, and Six Continents, which runs the Holiday Inn, Inter-Continental, and Crowne Plaza chains, made a 10% price-improvement offer for rooms booked on their Web sites.
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