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Dressing Up Dynamic Pricing: Hoteliers Continue To Meet Corporate resistance To Floating Rates.

Article Excerpt
With corporate travel buyers reporting little acceptance of dynamic pricing for hotel programs, hoteliers are trying new tactics to make the controversial pricing model more palatable. Some analysts, however, said the time for a dynamic pricing groundswell has passed.

The Association of Corporate Travel Executives at its Global Education Conference in Miami this month previewed a white paper it will release this summer confirming buyers' eschewing of the pricing model that allows for floating rather than fixed negotiated rates. Preliminary results--based on more than 200 responses, although ACTE now is working to increase that sample strength through further in-depth interviews--show that more than 75 percent of buyers indicated they have not entered into a dynamic pricing agreement, according to Leslie Anne Palamar, principal of BTE Tourism Training and Consulting, who conducted the study along with Victoria Edwards, vice president of strategic development for Buckhiester Management U.S.A. Of that minority that has dynamic pricing agreements in place, it represents only a small portion of their hotel program, she said. Buyers' attitudes toward dynamic pricing the study ranged from lukewarm to hostile.

"This is definitely a hotel-driven, buyer-resisted pricing model," Palamar said....