You may have all the tools you need to keep your hotel program in line – if you know where to look
You would be surprised how much auditing or even just reviewing hotel data can uncover. Hotels loading corporate rates in GDSs as if they were a preferred hotel and had an agreement with the company, can your hotel program’s performance if you’re not paying attention.
While thinking about this topic, my mind drifted back over 20 years or more, pre-OBT – (Wow, it has been that long!) – back to when I was that agent taking calls and booking reservations for countless numbers of different companies, applying the many different hotel policies assigned by each one of them. Invariably we would run into a destination which may have had a preferred hotel, but I could also see other area hotels which had loaded rates as if they were preferred. Many are probably left over, former preferred hotels that the rates have never been removed.
Yes, it was long time ago but still possible today. Even today in my role overseeing a large preferred hotel program, every now and then I see a hotel sneaking in a rate. Again, much of it is the failure to clean-up of lingering former preferred hotels rates. The difference is now there are a few ways to catch or recognize it.
Regular rate audits by your TMC and reviewing regular hotel booking reports or expensed hotel reporting can expose incorrectly loaded rates or rate squatting. Some RFP tools have features to identify . Newer TMC booking platforms may have the ability to display only your TMC loaded rates with corporate rate agreements.
Even with these, I still review a lot of detailed reporting regularly. If you are using a post-booking hotel re-shopping tool there is valuable data there. What hotels were booked and what was the actual rate was applied? Was a consortia rate booked over my preferred? What were the alternative room types, rates or properties booked or offered?
Does the re-shopping tool need to be “tuned up” for the upcoming year? Depending on the performance of the tool, I review the tools settings with the vendor and TMC representative at least once a year – more often if the goals/performance of the tool are not being reached.
The extra attention I can pay to booked/expensed hotel reporting and traveler feedback at times can make me question my own decisions on hotels or hotel strategy in an area. Maybe there is a reason a non-preferred hotel or a hotel squatting the rate is still being booked. How many nights has this squatting hotel got and at what rate? Maybe the decision I made on a preferred hotel is wrong. Maybe the property I chose in an area has aged and not the same as the previous years.
Even more frequent now, maybe there are new hotels and new brands to choose from. What actions can I take? Does the overall trend of the hotel program warrant a change in hotel policy, tweaks to the online booking or re-shopping tools, and/or communication with travelers? All time-consuming work that extends well beyond the RFP season.
Reviewing data, questioning myself and not being afraid to at least consider changing strategy has helped me win so far. Paying attention is the name of the game in achieving hotel program success. If not, your program can slowly slip away from you.