As the meeting volume increases and we move into hotel RFP season, organizations are looking for ways to ensure that they are receiving the lowest hotel room rates. Whether static or dynamic rates are used, many organizations want to know the lowest published hotel rate and some organizations use contracts that require the lowest rate be charged to the traveler. Even some meetings use the lowest transient rate. In today’s economy, organizations place a high value on knowing that they’re charged the best hotel rate. With technology advancements, gone are the days of searching through every travel website to “check” for lower rates – a task that every travel manager has done in the office, back room or at home.
Recently, a client said to me, “I feel as if I’m always being “taken” on hotel rates. How do I know if I’m getting the lowest rate? Why do web rates always seem to be lower?” To assist my client, I decided to test RateTiger’s real time technology (RTCorp) which compares the contracted rates with real time posted web rates. My client agreed to provide a sampling of their contracted rates to RateTiger for comparison purposes.
As a result, some of the client’s hotel rates were 12%-23% higher than the web rates posted. Recognizing that my client also negotiates free high speed Internet access (“HSIA”) and that the negotiated amenities and savings should be taken into consideration during a comparison, the hotel web rates were still 6%-15% lower than the client’s contracted rates.
The benefit of using RTCorp by RateTiger is that the tool benchmarks your contracted hotel rates real-time against the lowest published rates on the web providing you with a tool to confront your suppliers with solid research when these published rates are lower than your contracted rates. This type of benchmarking is valuable, not only during hotel RFP season, but also ongoing for the duration of your contracts with your hotels and can be used pre-trip, or pre-meeting, so that the adjusted rates can be requested from the hotel.
Debi Scholar, CMM, CMP, CTE, CTT
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Debi has the following designations:
· Wharton Aresty Executive Education/National Business Travel Association (NBTA) Global Leadership Professional (GLP)
· Meeting Professionals International Certificate in Meetings Management (CMM)
· Convention Industry Council Certified Meeting Professional (CMP)
· NBTA Corporate Travel Expert (CTE)
· Six Sigma Green Belt
· Chauncey Certified Technical Trainer (CTT)
Debi was selected as:
- Meetings Management Mover and Shaker by Corporate and Incentive Travel Magazine (2010)
- Top 20 Changemaker who influenced the meetings management industry by Corporate Meetings and Incentives (2008)
- Best Meeting Practitioner by Business Travel News (2007)
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