Feature

John Melchior
business travel consultant

• Don't commit yourself to one price for the whole year.
• Consider working three months at a time. Hotels might have said no to this approach before, but now you can set the terms, particularly with independent and smaller hotels. This will also keep hotels on their toes.
• If you use a TMC, use one with a dedicated hotel department.
• If you have a deal with a TMC or HBA, contact the hotel anyway. It's good to get a relationship going and you may be able to get more favourable treatment.
• I would not normally advise negotiating directly with individual hotels. The big chains, in particular, are very restricted outside the guidelines laid down and individual hotels do not have much flexibility.
• Look at the exchange rate. If you can get a price tied in, make sure it's in the right currency.

Caroline Strachan
international travel manager, Yahoo! and chairman, Institute of Travel Management

• If you negotiated your hotel programmes in the summer, consider re-negotiating them now. Hotel occupancies were significantly hit in October, so there might opportunities to get better deals.
• Go to hotels armed with data. Look at the financial results of the major hotel chains to find out their latest occupancy levels and revenue per available room (revpar). Use this information to negotiate.
• Do not just set the rate and then sit back. Savvy buyers will keep track of what's happening on a monthly basis, in order to negotiate a better rate.
• Remember, it's a two-way partnership. Some buyers have agreed to stick with hotel partners which have given them the best support in the last fi ve years, even if they are not able to give rate reductions
• In the current climate, hotels will be putting tactical offers out in the market, so be prepared for travellers to come to you and say they have found a cheaper deal on the internet.

Matthew Roberts
head of business sales, Hilton UK and Ireland

• Reward suppliers that load your rates correctly and make your negotiated rate available, even if they are not necessarily the cheapest.
• Make the RFP worth completing and completing well. Sometimes RFPs request more information than the buyer needs.
• Make sure RFP response time lines are reasonable so that hotels are not forced to make a hasty and less considered response.
• Consult the various stake holders within your company as you are pulling the hotel programme together to understand what their specific requirements are. This will encourage compliance.
• Do not be entirely price led, as this will also lead to lower compliance.

Fiona Vandersluys
director of global sales and marketing, Chambers Travel

• Time spent on research is never wasted.
• Consider properties out of the area if the communications are good.
• Use the discretionary spend items to leverage your position - for example, breakfast.
• If your hotel spend is small, consider a 'best buy on the day' approach.

Niels Pedersen
Supranational Hotels' managing director

• Behave fairly and honourably, and don't be greedy - everybody has to meet again next year and hotels have to pay their bills, too.
• Don't appear too eager. Wait for hotels to get worried that they are being overlooked.
• Secure your basic arrangements in second-choice (but acceptable) hotels before tackling the more difficult negotiations with your preferred venues.
• Explain to hotels how you will apply peer pressure to ensure executives use that property.

Gary Povey  managing director, Omega World Travel

• Tailor a clear and concise programme to your company's culture and strategy.
• Streamline the number of hotels to ensure higher market percentages.
• Look for new hotels that may be struggling with capacity.
• Have access to accurate information.
• Ensure you have clear benchmark and local market information.

Jean Squires
director of business development, Hotelscene

• Hold out for last room availability. It is the bedrock of a preferred partnership. Without it there is no incentive to support the hotel.
• Make sure there are no 'hidden' charges. Get guarantees that there are no minimum length of stay restrictions and no early check out fees applied to the contract.
• Put the onus on the hotels to be creative with their offering and show what additional benefits they will include in the total package price.
• Check how much inventory the hotel is actually making available to you at the offered rate to determine just how many hotels you are going to need in the programme.
• Make sure nothing has changed compared with last year. For 2008, for example, we found that a number of hotels in Spain had conveniently removed 7 per cent VAT from their offered rate, making it look more competitive - until you do the maths.

Wayne Pollard
director of sales, Business Travel Direct

• Ensure you are getting the right choice of content from your supplier, including access to 'best day rates' and non-GDS hotels to increase compliance.
• Review your hotel programme frequently. Market changes are happening all the time and in today's climate, hotels are likely to need your business.
• Always try to negotiate added value such as free wifi or car parking into your rates to make significant savings in the long run.
• Have a back-up plan if negotiation is not going well to ensure that there are other hotels or chains that you can approach.

Neil Armorgie
chief executive officer, WIN

• Prepare before negotiating. Understand your profile, including star rating, locations and volumes.
• Explore the market. Do not just approach one or two hotels, but spread your net wider to ensure you have a bargaining position and to get best rate.
• Benchmark. Compare your rates to those available elsewhere in the market to ensure you are getting best value for your volume.
• Gain buy-in from the traveller. Make sure they know what the policy is and follow it, otherwise you will be unable to renegotiate in year two.
• Manage your hotel partners expectations through ongoing dialogue. If volumes are likely to be down, explain why, and do the same if volumes are greater than expected.

Evert Schuele
regional director of sales, North West Europe, Starwood Hotels & Resorts

• Have open conversations and candid, honest discussions with hotels and partners about realistic volume expectation.
• Share the travellers' needs in the hotels, stay patterns, temporary excepted increases and decreases, to match need periods for hotels as well.
• Use technology to track production and observe competition usage.
• Set up a partnership for a certain period that allows a high level of give and take from both sides, in good and bad times.
• Make use of data provided by hotels through their loyalty programme patterns and tracking technology to see the scope of travel impact and steer business appropriately.

Nigel Turner
director of public sector and industry affairs UK, Carlson Wagonlit Travel

• Scope out your geographical, property type and bed night requirements as accurately as possible.
• Limit your properties to the minimum that will cope with the demand.
• Try to utilise as few different chains as possible.
• Review and amend on a regular basis.
• Publish and communicate your programme as widely as possible.

Richard Lovelock
director of supplier relations, Capita Business Travel

• Never accept the first offer.
• Gain the highest possible support in the company for your programme.
• Negotiate rates inclusive of dinner, bed and breakfast. This helps to control other expense areas and sometimes there is very little increase in cost.
• Always ensure selected hotels or hotel chains live up to expectations.

Brian Garvan
director UK sales, Choice Hotels Europe

• Book through electronic channels such as the internet as it allows for effective tracking of business and will yield cost savings.
• Go to negotiations armed with extensive data about your historical hotel spend and traveller requirements as this market knowledge gives you a distinct advantage when you are buying travel.
• Remember that rate is not everything. Look for added value such as breakfast, meals, internet access, parking, upgrades and so on.
• Remember that no service from an HBA or TMC is free.
• Help enforce your travel policy by mandating booking channels and incentivising your workforce through hotel reward programmes.

Douglas O'Neil
managing director, Inntel

• Be truthful with your volume and spend.
• Be realistic about what your subsistence levels will achieve, for example, Champagne taste and beer money.
• Accept the agent's recommendations. Include all aspects of the cost of stay when comparing rates - for example, breakfast costs.
• Look at available parking.

Paul Tilstone
executive director, Institute of Travel Management

• Give as much data, both historical and about your company's future developments, to gain the most applicable rates.
• Consolidate as much hotel spend as possible.
• Focus on reducing property numbers in key cities to drive better rates and be prepared to move business if rates aren't competitive enough.
• Ensure maximum programme compliance.
• Be flexible about your programme content criteria and consider different property types for different uses, i.e. apartments or budget hotels.

Stewart Harvey
client management director, HRG

• Have a handle on all hotel expenditure, including meetings and conference spend, in order to negotiate effectively.
• Make your hotel programme more visible to your travelling population through internal communications, letting them know what the benefits are for them and for the company.
• Collect data from bookings through your TMC, but also bookings made through other sources.
• Make sure you can deliver what you promise to hotels.
• Take advantage of educational support from your hotel partners. They might be able to host workshops or presentations for your travellers, especially if it will help them tap into your meetings and conference business.

Ian Burnley
CEO,Expotel

• Agree a hotel programme and stick to it.
• Restrict the choice on an online booking tool.
• Focus on fewer hotels to take advantage of volumes available.
• Limit allowances by introducing dinner, bed and breakfast rates.
• If possible, outsource to a specialist fulfillment agency.