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Just a quick collection of posts I saw that were interesting, as well as a short experience with the Hilton Best Rate guarantee.

Via Doctor of Credit, there’s a great Amex Offer currently running right now, where you can get $50 of $100 at AirBnB, including gift cards. Please read the follow-up post with all the details you need to know about the deal! If you are are buying gift cards, here are the key things you need to know:

  • You need to login to buy a gift card, and you can’t send one to yourself. You can use a second AirBnB account (though technically against the terms) to send it to yourself though. Better alternative is finding a friend that you can send it to (or trade gift cards with)
  • Gift cards redeem to your account balance and are used before any credit cards. You must redeem within 90 days to an account otherwise the card is cancelled and the balance returned to the sender.
  • If you don’t send it to your friend’s email, you must forward the email with the Accept Gift Card link so they can redeem the gift card. Just the code will not work, as AirBnB will error out and say the gift card seems like it was meant for someone else.
  • You may not get the usual email from Amex confirming that you have used your offer as the charge will come in pending as Braintree payments, but should post as AirBnB

Via Points, Miles, and Martinis, Amazon Prime members can get one free new release eBook each month. Check out the 6 books you can choose from this month. If you aren’t a Prime member, the service is $1.99 a month (but who doesn’t have a Prime account??) I know what I’ll be reading on my flight.

Earlier today when I was checking out of the Hilton Bogota, I tried to get them to uphold the terms and conditions of their best rate guarantee, which says for hotels outside the US, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, the final charge will be adjusted by $50 or the local currency equivalent upon checkout. But the hotel staff had no idea what I was talking about, even after I showed them the terms and conditions page in Spanish. I ended up letting them charge the full amount, but will be taking this up with Hilton later. It might be something that is done from the Hilton side, not the hotel side.

Interestingly, for my stay, I booked 2 different reservations, 1 King room and 1 Double room and submitted a Best Rate Guarantee for both because the 3rd party with which I was attempting to claim with wasn’t super clear on the room type for the King. They rejected my King Room claim, which was more expensive ($63.90 a night) and approved my Double Room claim ($48.52 a night) as I had submitted multiple claims, but said they were able to verify the rate.

But actually, they applied the best rate guarantee on both reservations! I saw this, and stupidly I cancelled the cheaper reservation for the Double room in favor of the King room. I should have kept the Double room and saved $30…