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Difficult market outweighs advances: negotiated 2006 hotel rates loading late despite new tech, procedures.

Article Excerpt
Despite technological advances and efforts by travel buyers and suppliers to facilitate the accurate and timely loading of negotiated corporate hotel rates into global distribution systems, travel buyers still are seeing some delays in loading 2006 rates due mainly to protracted contract negotiations.

Several business travel buyers, hoteliers and travel management company executives said that the rate-loading process is moving at a pace similar to years past, but point to new efforts and technologies that have increased the fluidity of the process and ironed out some key rate-loading issues.

Brian Nichols, National Business Travel Association hotel committee chair and hotel and around transportation programs manager at Deloitte, said higher demand and higher rates have affected negotiations. "Some companies are still negotiating," slowing the process, he said. "They have taken a little longer because of demand. It's more involved this year."

As it stands, the rate-loading process is meeting expectations, according to Nichols. "General feedback is that both buyers and suppliers are following a more structured approach to the rate-loading process that's yielding improved results compared to past years," he said.

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