Marriott to guarantee Best Available Rate

Marriott International announced today that the company will launch Marriott's 'Look No Further' Best Rate Guarantee on January 1, 2004. The guarantee will ensure that customers will receive the best available room rate at approximately 2,500 hotels when booking through any Marriott reservations channel: Marriott Worldwide Reservations, Marriott.com, or directly with the hotel.

If a customer books through Marriott and finds a lower publicly available rate within 24 hours for the same hotel, room type, and dates anywhere on an Internet travel site, through a travel agency, travel management company, or even Marriott, the hotel will match the lower rate and give an additional 25 percent off.*

Marriott's research shows that travelers spend as much as half a day shopping to find the best room rates, and that the majority of travelers do not make hotel reservations on the Internet.

Marriott's Look No Further Best Rate Guarantee is a holistic approach that ensures all customers have equal access to the best available room rates.

The Marriott guarantee reinforces the company's single image inventory principle to offer customers the same rates and availability information across Marriott reservation channels. Single image inventory also ensures travel agencies, global reservations systems and travel management companies have the same access to Marriott's best available rates. This supports Marriott's long-standing philosophy "to sell the way customers wants to buy."

Marriott's Look No Further Best Rate Guarantee will be offered globally and will apply to the following Marriott brands: Marriott Hotels and Resorts, Renaissance Hotels and Resorts, Courtyard, SpringHill Suites, Fairfield Inn, Residence Inn, and TownePlace Suites, and Marriott Vacation Club International resorts.

*Marriott's Look No FurtherSM Best Rate Guarantee will be subject to terms and conditions. For example, the guarantee will not apply to third-party "opaque" providers (e.g., Priceline and Hotwire) of hotel rooms that do not identify the hotel brand name, special negotiated volume discount rates, or package rates, and claims will have to be filed at least 24-hours in advance of guest check-in.