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Mid, smaller cos. drove deeper hotel, car discounts.

Article Excerpt
As was the case last year, companies with midsize hotel and car rental programs this year continued to turn the sputtering national economy to their advantage. Despite the fact that many travel buyers' volumes are down, in some cases significantly, hotel and car rental suppliers across the board are more dependent on their midmarket business than they were previously.

In the lodging industry's banner year of 2000, for example, buyers complained they had trouble gaining national account or global account status from the major vendors. By contrast, midsize programs last year and again this year were much more likely to be granted this status--and the personal attention that accompanies it.

"In this regard, the situation really hasn't changed year over year," said Kevin Maguire, travel manager at Austin, Texas-based Tokyo Electron America, a midmarket company with $4.5 million in U.S. booked air volume. "The rather free-for-all atmosphere we experienced last year continued with hotels calling unsolicited with offers to renegotiate rates--or to get into our program in the first place. The change certainly came as something of a shock last year and, for those of us who were in the business through the boom time, the turnaround still seems a bit unreal."

The one proviso, of course, applies in strong as well as weaker economies: Vendors need assurances that the room night or car rental bookings promised, in fact, will materialize before they will put forward their most attractive rates. "Travel volumes definitely are down at midmarket companies, as they are at companies generally, so hotel companies are less interested in your...

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