Corporate Travel Panel
Demystifying the negotiated
rate loading process
Moderator : Ms Elaine Luey
Regional Director, Greater China
Global Sales
Marriott International

Panelists
Ms Rosalind Low, Program Manager, Asia Pacific
Travel Management Services – GE
Mr Roland Jegge, Vice President, Asia Pacific –
WORLDHOTELS
Mr Christian Binting, Business Development Director,
Distribution Marketing, Asia Pacific
– InterContinental Hotels Group

Demystifying the Negotiated Rate Process
IATA Numbers??
PCCs?? Help!!!!!
Rate Access Codes??
Group POS Code??

Agenda
Rate Loading ‘Back to Basics’
Panelist Best Practise
The Future of Negotiated Pricing
Panelist Feedback & Challenges

Back to Basics
There are 2 predominant types of connections
to the GDS. The connection determines the
booking and rate loading process.
Direct Connect
Seamless

Direct Connect
GDS CRS PMS
Travel Agent
1. SHOP
2. LOOK
3. CHECK 4. BOOK
Hotel Booking
Confirmation Confirmation No.
Pseudo City Code (PCC)
IATA / TIDS Number
2-Way Interface
1-Way Interface
Viewership Availability Manual
Availability Rates
Rates Room Types
Rate Descriptions Confirmation No.
Room Types
Confirmation No.

Seamless
GDS CRS PMS
Travel Agent 1. SHOP
2. LOOK
3. CHECK
4. BOOK
Hotel Booking
Confirmation Confirmation No.
Pseudo City Code (PCC)
IATA / TIDS Number
Acts as a
Gateway
2-Way Interface
1-Way Interface
Manual
Availability
Rates
Room Types
Confirmation No.

Galileo Negotiated Rate Loading Process
CRS opens
Viewership
Group
CRS creates POS
Neg Rates
in GDS
Hotel loads
Neg Rates Galileo
into Individual
CRS PCC
PCC
Hotel CRS
PCC
Hotel PCC
Contracts
Corporation

From the Customers’ perceptive
Ms Rosalind Low, Program Manager, Asia Pacific
Travel Management Services – GE

Best Practice
From a hotel perspective – as we know
Understanding the basic needs of each partner is essential.
The TMC has obligations to their clients
The Customer has obligations to its travelers
The Hotel has an obligation to both the TMC and the Customer
The GDS companies have obligations to the TMC
No singular entity can function successfully and seamlessly without the other.
The continuous evolution of technology needs to be taken into consideration
As does the evolution of how we conduct business now and in the future –
dynamic pricing

Best Practice
Combined effort and Dedicated Focus
Knowing the importance of this segment to any hotels business, it is essential
that it be acknowledged as such.
It also needs to be as seamless and efficient as possible,
Liaising with Clients, TMC’s and GDS providers, is vitally important in being
able to achieve solutions which will meet the constantly changing needs, be it
technology or style of business
With a board portfolio of hotels, finding a best practice solution to cater to
such a large and varied portfolio is necessary, as well as meet the needs of all
our partners.
Solution:
A dedicated Negotiated Rates Department

Best Practice
Hotel or Account Manager
submit details via a global
account management Connection
system – Structured format checked
between GDS
Regional dedicated and CRS
Negotiated Rates systems for
Department receives accessibility
automated notification
Connection is
initiated with
applicable GDS
system or systems

Best Practice
Benefits and enhancements
Dedicated professionals – with expertise in all key aspects pertaining to all
relevant systems and processes
Less lag time experienced between initiation and inception of any new
connections
Improved accuracy of initial loading
Regular audits to ensure compliance
Problem solving resolutions in a timely and efficient manner
New:
Currently the loading of rates into the CRS and the initial connection request
are two separate steps, WORLDHOTELS is almost complete in the automation
of these two steps into one, to further improve efficiency

IHG Checklist
1 Rates loaded where appropriate
2 Identify any problems early by calling or going out to see an Agent
3 Rate display and sell strategy / pricing
4 Hotel descriptive data
5 Monitoring your performance
Action:
1. Rates 2. Communicate 3. Rate Display 4. Description 5. Monitor
(Shop) (Shop & Look) (Look & Check) (Check) (Book)
Check iRFP daily Familiarise yourself Request a copy of your Request a copy of your Monitor and benchmark
Participate in the RFP with how agents make sell strategy and GDS GDS HDD from Asia your GDS bookings
process. Many hotels bookings room type table display Pacific Distribution through your PMS
miss out on sales by Use IHG GDS Quick through Asia Pacific Services TravelCLICK
not responding Reference Guides; Distribution Services Review and update your Hotelligence reports
Load key negotiated click here for guides Ensure the pricing you HDD descriptions at also enable you to
rates across all GDS Check to make sure display makes sense least twice a year with benchmark and more
(local negotiated rates agents can view and Review and update, if Sales & Marketing input importantly prospect
where appropriate in sell rates necessary, the Rate and Remember these are comp set accounts
required GDS) Ask for feedback on Room Type descriptions displayed to over You can also
Negotiated rates booking IHG through in HOLIDEX Plus with 500,000 travel agents benchmark against IHG
include corporate and their GDS with Sales and Marketing and 140 million Internet and Industry figures
travel agent preferred particular emphasis on input users
programs your hotel and
negotiated rates

So what is the Future of Negotiated Pricing?

Summary of Pricing Platforms
Product Description- Product Description- Product Description-
•Fixed dollar amount, subject to •Fixed dollar amount, subject to •Rate is a percentage off Best
seasonal variations seasonal variations Flexible Rate
•Discount off market rate varies •Discount off market rate varies •Dynamic rates can be applied
to multiple room types
•Rates apply to contracted •Rates apply to contracted
room types room types •LRA ensures access to
negotiated rates
•LRA increases access to •Rate available until hotel
negotiated rates reaches peak demand Benefits-
Benefits- Benefits- •Year round discounted
program
•Predictable travel spend •Lowest priced option
•Fewer black out and length of
•Access to inventory •Predictable travel spend stay restrictions
Characteristics- Characteristics- Characteristics-
•Limited flexibility in travel •More flexibility in travel times •Limited flexibility in travel
times times
•Can avoid peak days of week
•Frequent last minute travel •Frequent last minute travel
•May have many hotel partners
•Need to streamline hotel •Need to streamline hotel
partners partners

Marriott Negotiated Rate Loading Process
Property
Information
(EPIC)
MARSHA
MarRFP Rates (loaded Rates
(central pricing In hotel GDS
intranet) reservations
system )
PGOOS DAILY
Audit
Marriott.com Corporate
RFP is sent out Travel Agency
to account TMC
Intranet

Marriott PGOOS (Property Guest Object Oriented System)
In MarRFP, Sydney Harbour Marriott offers AABB company
January 1 - December 31, 2007: AU$ 235 (ceiling rate)
Initial rate load into MARSHA and GDS
Prevailing Corporate AABB
$300 $ 235
Sydney Harbour Marriott lowers their prevailing corporate rate
Prevailing Corporate AABB
$200 $200
Sydney Harbour Marriott raises their prevailing corporate rate
Prevailing Corporate AABB
$345 $235

The Future of Negotiated Rates
Over the last 5 years we have seen a significant changes in transient
pricing reflected in the ‘Internet Guarantees’ or all major Hotel Brands

Corporate Negotiated Pricing
It’s not as simple as pushing Dynamic Pricing or not
At the same time Corporate Negotiated Pricing has stayed stagnant despite
changes in the way accounts are managed (through procurement managers)
and delivered (through increasing online tools)
Challenge for the industry is to change the way Corporate Negotiated Pricing is
delivered…the Sales process doesn’t change. We still have to answer the
same fundamental questions:
1. Who we sell to?
2. What we sell?
3. How we sell?

Corporate Negotiated Pricing
What we sell
Sales Teams need to change from primarily relationship driven to focus on
selling pricing products.
Pricing Products, What does this mean?
Flat Negotiated Pricing v’s Dynamic Negotiated Pricing
(incl. Seasonal)
Last Room Availability v’s Non Last Room Availability
Rate Cieling v’s Fully Dynamic
No Production Targets v’s Guaranteed Production
No Travel Policy v’s Travel Policy

Q&A

The Future of Negotiated Rates
Dynamic Pricing and the Negotiated Account
Changes to how rate placement and market strategies have evolved over
recent times has the potential to create disparity
Problem:- In the day and age of Dynamic Pricing……..
How can a Negotiated Corporate Client be assured that the rate they have
contracted with a hotel partner maintains throughout the year?
That they continue to see the benefits of securing a preferred partnership with
hotels in exchange for a rate rewarding this partnership and dedicated business
alliance?
Answer: ?

The Future of Negotiated Rates
Dynamic Pricing and the Negotiated Account
Answer: There is no easy answer. However protocols have been established to
help circumvent this growing concern
1:- A rate strategy policy – no dynamically priced public/consumer rate should
be lower than a hotels highest corporate negotiated rate
2:- System enhancements – currently under development, that will allow a
negotiated rate to be flagged to search and verify if a lower rate is available for
the requested stay dates, and automatically offer this rate as an alternative
3:- The future – will all negotiations be linked to dynamic pricing?