Business Travel Executive, August 2018

36Business Travel Executive AUGUST 2018 COVER STORY Hotel Sourcing Sorcery educate them them to educate you and to achieve a better program Emphasizing Experience So central has traveler experience become to RFPs says Robinson that HRS has customers who say the experience is just as important as saving money and we have to find a way to marry the two FCM offers a SmartSTAY benefit that features additional products and services aimed at traveler satisfaction anything from breakfast to an upgrade according to Ondrus Even if a customer is using only a few rooms a year in a market he says FCM still has the overall buying power to drive these benefits William Sarcona assistant general manager of Kintetsu International a TMC says traveler feedback dictates which amenities and fringe benefits his company will push hotel partners the hardest to include If you dont know whats most important to your client how are you able to satisfy them he asks Its not always about price However travel managers should be careful that the focus on experience doesnt cloud the overall negotiations Nakano cautions Her recommendation Analyze data to see if for instance negotiating breakfast or parking or Internet is valuable Are associates going to Starbucks Disappearing Rates With all the intense effort that goes into an RFP unavailable negotiated rates remain a sticky and problematic issue Robinson explains HRS is working on and will soon be releasing a continuous auditing tool to insure those rates are available Dashboards will let clients know exactly whats going on and will provide productive insights When preparing for an RFP Pouget says companies should determine the average daily rate they have been paying at each property and compare those to contracted rates If the ADR is higher than the contracted rate the hotel may be restricting availability on contracted rooms and closing travelers out And finally she advises make sure to audit regularly The value of a negotiated rate is minimal if youre not checking performance Clear reporting tools can make this simple Negotiated rates are used only about 60 percent of the time Hammond says which doesnt make the travel manager look good Part of the problem is hotels that create many categories of rooms so its difficult to monitor policy compliance If I put that into one word its trust between buyer and property says Hammond so we need better reporting and better attention to existing reports with tools like Yapta and TripBAM making the whole landscape more transparent Among the steps companies can take says Phyllis Nakano director of vendor relations for Balboa Travel is to analyze when travelers arent staying at negotiated properties Her recommendation Talk survey look at booked rates Is there something better or not known to you as to why they are not choosing preferred properties Gaining travelers support and listening to what they experience says Nakano gives you the opportunities to and expensing breakfast even if its been negotiated How many travelers are actually parking at the hotel All of those gives says Nakano increase the rate and if they arent being fully utilized you are paying more than you need to Ahead Reinventing RFPs RFPs are still the way to go Robinson predicts But that does not mean sticking with the traditional process where you get together in July for a destination analysis and begin a march to the death until November when the RFP is completed She notes that businesses themselves are dynamic and the world is shrinking You need to cover all the white spots she adds If you decided on a hotel program in August for a whole year then make a big M A deal what then Pressure may come from unexpected influences Green practices are increasingly being considered and are important to younger generations who can strengthen usage of preferred hotels Nakano says Sustainable practices that may matter to a client include low flow shower heads furniture from sustainable forests and hotels that are in the LEED green building program These elements she says can be part of the selection criteria for choosing the right hotels for your program Jennifer Steinke vice president Global Travel Experience at WHoldings and the webinar moderator concluded the session by saying Hotel sorcery means not doing things the same old way Whether its driving innovation with creative technologies or rethinking strategy its important that we as an industry start to have more creative conversations with hoteliers Steinke says Everybody benefits if we come up with a better system that delivers something attractive to travelers and drives compliance BTE Negotiated rates are used only about 60 percent of the time which doesnt make the travel manager look good