cost saving

The art of locking in low hotel rates

It's that time of year again to begin renegotiating your supplier rates for 2010. Your Travelcorp Account Manager can assist you with your hotel tendering and negotiations for 2010 and 2011. Here are a few tips for negotiating a hotel program:

We recommend you secure negotiated rates for 2years, as it is still a buyers market.

Most hotels will offer two rate options - Dynamic and Fixed pricing. Fixed pricing offers peace of mind, but you will not be offered last room availability, while dynamic pricing can deliver considerable cost savings while hotel rates remain flat, but you run the risk of paying high prices during peak times.

When deciding what value adds you would like to include in your room rate, you need to take into consideration the traveller's behaviours and only bundle what they will use. This could be a combination of bed-and-breakfast, bed-and-internet access or bed-and-parking.  By analysing what your travellers have paid for in the past, you will drive your travel dollar further in negotiating what you actually use.

Consolidate your preferred hotel listing. Limit the number of hotels and/or chains you select to be included in your program.  Ensure compliance on your hotel travel policy is maintained during and beyond the contract period.

Your Travelcorp Account Manager can provide hotel reporting to help analyse past hotel spend to optimise future spend.   We will look at things like room nights used by day of the week, hotel locations, hotel class and ancillary services purchased.