director at FRHI Hotels and Resorts. “When it comes to corporate travel programmes, we are focusing on the value of the stay, location and the safety component that comes into play with certain areas – duty- of-care is still top of mind for travel buyers.” FRHI also commits to high-rate integrity. “If we end up negotiating a rate in January or February because occupancies are lower than anticipated and the corporate rate is a bit higher, we adjust that to match best available rate of the day and use it to encourage people to take advantage of this,” Stavroulakis says. London’s Athenaeum hotel includes soft drinks and complimentary snacks in the minibar as well as free wifi through- out the hotel. This also helps alleviate the perception problem. “We have removed
The one area in which luxury properties can – and should – excel is service
charges, following feedback from business travellers and travel buyers, to ensure the basics of luxury travel and hospitality are part of every stay and experience,” says general manager Jeremy Hopkins. “And this helps business travellers maintain budgetary restraints.” Kempinski Hotels also consulted clients at a recent showcase. “As a result we will
be launching a number of brand initiatives to benchmark us against the competition,” says head of global sales Eleanor Booker.
MUTUAL BENEFIT The one area in which luxury properties can – and should – excel is service, which provides both efficiencies and reassurance, allowing guests to focus on their business, according to Corinthia’s Duckworth. Such levels of negotiation mean good
relationships are key and hoteliers and buyers alike invest a lot in developing and maintaining these. This pays off for both parties, ensuring improved occupancy rates and satisfied travellers, who are benefit- ing from well-located properties, greater comfort and outstanding service levels, all of which oil the wheels of business.
HOTELS: BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS
THE NEMESES OF MOST TRAVEL MANAGERS are the online travel agencies (OTAs), whose use by travellers represents the worst of non-compliant booking, with untraceable, out-of-policy spend. From the property’s point of view, it is unidentifiable as corporate business.
“It is human nature for hotels to pick up on an email address or frequent-guest card, and OTAs do allow businesses to put in a business address – but where rogue travellers book through an OTA, they
78 BBT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2014
might be more comfortable using a personal email address so that loyalty points go into that address,” says Gill Brown, hotel operations manager for Statesman Travel Group. However, CEO of HRS, Jon West, disagrees. HRS has two incarnations:
hrs.com is an OTA, which makes hotels available to guests (leisure and small businesses) who would not necessarily identify themselves as a corporate; and
hrscorporate.com, which has 40,000 corporate clients and provides hotel
solutions, including sourcing accommodation and negotiating rates. “We do identify the
corporate customer and we actively encourage the hotel to have a relationship with the customer,” says West. “We do this because the hotel determines the price it will give the corporate according to how much it trusts corporate customers’ commitment to the volume of business they will return. “To encourage the relationship, we charge no
fees on corporate negotiated rates: the hotel does not pay commission and the corporate does not pay any fees.”
However, because
negotiated rates cannot be the best available year- round, HRS’s OTA site offers business tariffs, which are available to corporate customers only and are “lower than the lowest internet rate”, says West. “They can register as a business and see that rate.” These rates are commissionable.
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
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