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Showing hotel use becoming more critical: as most buyers begin 2007 hotel contract talks, challenge greatest at cos. without mandates.

Article Excerpt
Driving traveler compliance in booking preferred hotel properties is a difficult task for corporate travel managers in companies that do not mandate traveler behavior, but even more important than usual in the current tough hotel market. In companies where employees are under stringent directives to reserve specific hotels through prescribed booking channels or risk nonreimbursement or disciplinary action, travel managers don't need to devise strategies and implement effective ways to persuade travelers to use preferred suppliers. The rest find them more essential than ever.

For most business travel buyers, now is the moment in the negotiating cycle to sit down with hoteliers and negotiate 2007 rates. At this time, it is more incumbent on buyers than ever to demonstrate that they have significant volume they can shift through corporate policy. In this seller's market, the more effectively they have been able to drive compliance, the better their chance of ameliorating increases.

Having a mandated hotel program facilitates easier negotiations with preferred vendors, but many companies--perhaps as many as 50 percent--remain nonmandated, according to Maria Chevalier, BCD Travel's vice president of hotel relations and travel procurement services. Further, hotel compliance...

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