"Negotiating a tariff is all very well. Enforcing it is better": this is essentially the message sent by HRS and the GBTA Foundationin their latest joint publication. The two business travel specialists have analysed more than 23,000 tariffs negotiated by 32 companies multinational clients of HRS, from a portfolio of 350,000 hotels worldwide, between April and May 2016. The findings are clear: monitoring is too sporadic to be effective. In fact, just 2 % of companies carry out weekly checks on hotel rates. In 7 % of cases, checks are carried out once a month. One business in three (33 %) only checks rates when it registers.
In half the cases (48 %), this check is carried out manually, internally, while 40% of buyers rely on travellers to inform them of incorrect fares. The business travel agency (TMC) is used in 30 % of cases, compared with 19 % for the hotel service provider.
" Travel buyers spend a lot of time and money negotiating room rates and services with hotels. But this investment is only worthwhile if the rates and services negotiated are actually accessible to travellers. "reminds John Baird-SmithDirector of HRS France. " The results of this study show that it is important to control tariffs, even if most companies are not yet aware of this. ".
The HRS-Foundation GBTA study points to more or less regular rate differentials. For example, 33 % of companies found price differences at a significant rate, in more than 20 % of cases. For 37% of purchasers, these discrepancies are nevertheless limited to a relatively low frequency - 5 % of cases - but would nevertheless merit more regular checks.
