How to Control Corporate Hotel Program Compliance (Hotel Compliance 4 of 5)

Most organizations control their corporate hotel program compliance - or at least try to influence it - by setting up the following 5 pillars that together provide the appropriate infrastructure to manage travel and control spend and compliance:

• Comprehensive travel policy
• Mandate the use of a global corporate card
• Mandate the use of a designated travel management company (TMC)
• Implement an online booking tool
• Generate consolidated reporting and dashboards

Travel policy

Almost all of the organizations with a travelling population has some form of a travel policy. A travel policy could be a simple document of 2 pages, or a rather complicated policy with more than 20 pages. It really depends on the nature of the organization, and how it would like to control its travel.

A good travel policy should include enough information for the travelers to lead them to be compliant. Although, having a good policy does not automatically mean that the organization would end up having high compliance ratios. What I mean by enough information to comply would include information about at least the following - from Hotel perspective (not including air, car, and meal):

• Who is the travel manager
• How to book hotel (corporate TMC, online booking tool)
• Where to find preferred properties (corporate directory, TMC, online booking tool)
• What to do in case no preferred property was available (lowest logical fare)
• How to pay for travel (authorized form of payment)
• How much to spend (per diem, lowest logical fare)
• How far in advance the traveler need to book (if possible)

Corporate Card to capture spend

Nearly all of the Fortune 500 organizations have a mandated corporate card that is used to capture all company and travel related spend. However, in reality, not all of them actually mandate the use of the cards for travel, which is really surprising.

Some companies do not aggressively force their employees to use the corporate card, and allow - even unofficially - the use of personal credit cards and other forms of payment to pay for business travel. This kind of lack of discipline could effectively render any compliance measurement or control diluted and ineffective. All spend that is not covered by the corporate card becomes invisible to the Travel Manager and is out of any reporting structure. Hence, the reported compliance ratios and spend level could be artificially high (or low) if significant spend is not captured on the corporate card.

The organization would lose, as well, great opportunity to gain better pricing at hotels if significant spend goes without appropriate tracking. For example, if the organization spend at a certain property $1 million, but half of that spend is not tracked on the corporate card, the Travel Manager may not be able to prove to the hotel the actual amount of spend at the property and end up getting a much lower deal than would be the case if he/she was able to prove the $1 million level.

Some companies may rely on expense reports to get a more realistic level of spend, but that in my opinion a lost opportunity. Until now, expense reporting - in many cases - are manual, less accurate, and prone to human error than what many corporate card companies are offering in terms of spend reporting accuracy. So, if your organization has a corporate card program in place, I strongly recommend that you mandate the spend through the card.

Having said that, we need to acknowledge that for global companies that could be difficult to attain across the board. In many cases, there could be some limitations to the use of corporate card in certain countries or regions due to coverage issues, financial systems, or even to cultural differences. Remember that what works in the United States does not have necessarily to work in China or Chile.

Travel Management Company

Hiring a Travel Management Company (“TMC”) is the third pillar for any organization to manage travel and control its travel and entertainment spend. A TMC could be any of the mega agencies recognized globally (like America Express, HRG, or BCD Travel), or it could be a more regional, smaller scale agency. It really depends on the organization and its travel patterns to determine what size and type of TMC it needs. However, all TMC’s serve the same purpose, that is, to help the Travel Manager in executing the travel strategy of the organization.

Typically, TMC’s could help organizations with the following:

• Booking travel
• Providing support to corporate travelers at home and on the road
• Supporting in the hotel program RFP, and sourcing room nights
• Rate audit (making sure that preferred rates in the GDS systems are accurate)
• Providing reporting on booking

Organizations may choose to go with a large global TMC, or with a smaller regional TMC; however, I strongly recommend, especially for global corporations to consolidate their travel business as much as possible. It is easier and more efficient for the travel manager to handle, it would provide a more efficient way to control travel spend, and conduct proper reporting. In many cases I have seen strong reporting coming from USA or Canada for example, and fragmented reporting from Asia Pacific region. Naturally, you will end up having a stronger program in the regions providing strong reporting, and more challenges in those markets with fragmented travel providers.

Online booking tool

Online booking tools are key to enable your travelers to comply. Not only you can control what properties and rate the travelers see when they are actually booking, but also, you can insert relevant messages pertaining to your travel policy that would aid the traveler in making appropriate decisions to enable him/her to be compliant.

For example, if a traveler is booking a trip to New York city, the online booking tool would highlight preferred properties along with the type of room the policy permits. If the traveler is selecting a higher rate room or a more expensive property when there is a lower preferred rate available, the online tool would highlight to the traveler that he or she is out of policy, and he or she needs to enter an explanation for the non-compliant choice. The Travel Manager could control these explanations by a set of drop down list of acceptable reasons.

Another benefit from implementing an online booking tool across the organization is to standardize the booking process through out the company, and make sure that all employees receive the same information pertinent to the preferred hotel program of the company, as well as, the travel policy alerts. This would help the Travel Manager tremendously in global organizations, as he or she would leverage a single enterprise solution to communicate travel policy and control travel booking.

Consolidated reporting

All of the aforementioned pillars would be incomplete and ineffective unless the organization has a robust reporting regime that not only would report spend numbers and compliance ratios, but also would provide meaningful intelligence, and actionable information.

Before the Travel Manager designs the reporting structure, it is imperative to understand the limitations of the collected data by each of data sources, for example:

Travel data from the TMC would have valuable information about how much the booked room rate was excluding taxes, but we need to realize that the total spend and room night figures are actually “booked” figures, and may not truly represent the “actual” figures. For example, I may book 1 night at a certain hotel, but end up staying for 3 nights. TMC data would show only 1 night booked, and hence, the Travel Manager need to rely on another data source to capture the remaining 2 nights. Another limitation of the TMC is that it will not capture any booking that is done outside the TMC. As much as we like to assume that 100% of employees would book through the incumbent TMC, reality shows otherwise.

Spend data from Corporate Card provides a better picture of how much spend the organization has on travel and hotel. Historically, more people are inclined to use their corporate card to pay for company expenses than they are to use the incumbent TMC. Hence, corporate card data offer a clearer picture of how much spend there is. So using the above-mentioned example, the traveler who stayed for 3 nights, would charge the total amount to the corporate card; hence, card data would give us the evidence that the travelers stayed for 3 nights as opposed to one night. However, card data gives us the total spend, not only room rate. For example, a $1,000 transaction by a travelling employee, would include room rate including taxes, as well as, other spend at the property including breakfast, food, video rental, and other auxiliary expenses. To capture what we call “transient spend”, which is the spend attributed to the room rate only, the Travel Manager would use a multiplier to make educated assumption. For example, industry standards show that between 70-90% of the amount spend at a hotel would be attributed to room rates (depending on the property and market). So, in case the traveler spend $1,000 at a hotel, then we would assume that only $700-900 of that amount is really attributed to the room fare.

An important limitation of card data is that it does not tell how many room nights the traveler actually spend. This is why it is a better practice to merge pertinent data from TMC with Card. So, you can get the room rate from TMC data, and integrate it with the calculated “transient spend” data from card, to come up with the actual room nights at the property. This merged data is of paramount importance in reporting for compliance, as well as, for strategic sourcing of hotel room down the road, as it tells you exactly how much you spent at each property, how much you had been charged in terms of room rate, and how many room nights you had.

Folio data; is now increasing in popularity, and more chains and card companies are offering folio data in North America and eventually, in other places around the world. Folio data offers tremendous value for reporting spend, as it itemizes the spend per hotel transaction. For example, if a traveler spend $1,000 at a property, folio data would show how much exactly the traveler spent on room rate, food and beverage, business center, telephone and any other item.

A new practice is emerging to report the room rates charged by hotels (although you can run the report from TMC data as well) and compare it to the accepted preferred rates. If actual charged rates are higher, then that could mean one of two things; either the traveler has upgraded the room or the hotel has charged the wrong rate. If further reporting indicated that this overcharging is repeated by the same traveler then the Travel Manager could alert the travelers that he or she has been consistently non-compliant, or if the repeat offense is coming from the same hotel with different travelers, this could mean that the hotel is over charging the travelers, or the appropriate rate is not visible to the booking agent, and so on. Sometimes, a lower than negotiated rates would be reported, and in few cases my clients had actually gone back and negotiated lower preferred rates at these properties


In conclusion, the above-mentioned 5 pillars, if structured appropriately, provide the Travel Manager with excellent infrastructure to control and monitor compliance with the organization.

How to Measure Corporate Hotel Program Compliance (Hotel Compliance 3 of 5)

There are different ways to measure corporate hotel program compliance. The most common way is the direct compliance ratio, which is basically the percentage ratio of spend at preferred properties over total spend. In addition, there is a number of other measures that could be tracked in complement to the direct compliance ration, the most important of which are compliance measure by geography, business unit, and folio data review to detect non-compliance.

Direct Compliance Ratio

This is the most straight-forward method is to divide how much spend at preferred properties by total spend. For example, if you have about $10 million of spend, where $7 million occurred at preferred properties, this would yield a compliance ratio of 70%.

Most of my clients prefer that method as it is straight-forward, easy to calculate, and easy to explain to senior management.

Compliance measurement by geography

In many cases, global companies have travelers come from different facilities and client sites around the globe. Hence, it might be advantageous to measure compliance by geographical location. This could be in one of the following two methods:

1. Measure compliance based on the traveler’s home base: for example you have a compliance ratio for US employees, and another ratio for European (or let’s say UK) employees for example. This measure will let you know which region is more compliance, and which region(s) is(are) less compliant. As a manager, you may want to consider replicating what you are doing well at high-compliance regions in those regions with less compliance rates
2. Measure compliance based on traveler’s destination: this is very useful when you are embarking on new RFP/Sourcing project. For example, the manager under this method would like to know that all the company’s travelers have 80% compliance ratio in London, UK, but they have 15% compliance in Paris, France. This indicates that Paris represents a good opportunity to source more coverage, and gain more savings down the road.

Business unit

Many organizations like to measure compliance at the business unit level. There could be many reasons for doing so. The size of the organization could be too large to derive any meaningful conclusion for a general compliance ratio. A major company with multiple businesses like manufacturing, financial, and consulting businesses could be interested in measuring how each business is doing in terms of compliance and procurement practices. Another organization with multiple cost centers pertinent to multiple products, would be interested in measure how each product division is tracking.

Another reason could be a financial decision to attribute savings/cost to certain cost centers, and as such, the organization would be interested in measuring how each cost center is doing in terms of compliance, which could impact the future budgets, rewards, and/or targeting of more strict control measures in the future.

In some cases, organizations tend to give certain business units - or functions- certain level of ‘flexibility’ not extended to other units within the organization. For example, in the consulting or pharmaceutical worlds, organization could show more leniency when flying a high-profile client or a medical doctor and allow their special travelers certain exceptions not available to the average employees. Such organization might be interested in tracking such travel and booking separately.

Folio review to detect non-compliance

A more complex way to measure compliance - although I have seen it gaining more popularity recently - is to measure the folio level of spend. For example, the organization would pull folio spend data from hotels that would tell them exactly how much John Smith spent for the room rate, food and beverage, and on other amenities. Then the manager would compare the rate and amenity inclusions to the preferred rate provided by the property. If the actually paid rate is higher than the accepted preferred rate, then this could mean one of two things: either John had upgraded the room (against policy for example), or the hotel is charging more than the preferred rate. In both cases, the manager has to investigate further to reach a better conclusion. Was there no available standard room, and John had no choice but to upgrade? Or did John actually book a standard room, but the hotel charged a higher rate? Or it could be simply the hotel uploaded the wrong rates to the GDS system, and so on.

This is the value of reviewing and monitoring the folio data, as it could potentially reveal many issues that could be impacting compliance and spend patterns the high level compliance ratio cannot possibly provide

Why is Corporate Hotel Program Compliance Important (Hotel Compliance 2 of 5)

There is a number of reasons why corporations monitor their corporate hotel program compliance metrics, and strive to retain them at high level. The top reasons include:

• Credibility with vendors
• Best practice procurement
• Generate potential savings
• Avoid conflict with strategic partners
• Other issues like safety, consistency, brand, and equity

Credibility with vendors

High compliance metrics are typically a good indicator that the corporation is following best in class practices in managing its procurement and hotel program. Such indication is extremely useful when the company is sourcing new business or renewing its existing contracts. High compliance is often used as a proxy for corporate credibility with suppliers.

On the other hand, a company with poor compliance record may find it difficult to negotiate better deals with suppliers. When I manage on behalf of my clients RFP programs for their hotel, often the suppliers would ask about the client’s compliance record, especially when there is a new relationship forming. I find it very difficult to gain great concessions from these suppliers, when my client has a poor compliance record. Why is it that important for suppliers to know that the sourcing company has a strong compliance record, is because it would be harder for the suppliers to measure the size and value of the opportunity at stake. I may say that my client spends $1 million dollar on average at the supplier’s market, but if I add that the client compliance ratio is in low 20%, this means that being a preferred vendor does not really guarantee a business of nearly a fraction of the potential opportunity.

Best practice procurement

If you are a manager, you would like to see your compliance ratio in the 70-90% to be in the bull-park of best practice corporations. Low compliance ratio is frowned upon, and could mean that the corporation is not following best practices in procurement, or program management, or it implements a poor sourcing methodology. If you have a sound strategic sourcing process in place, then your compliance ratios should represent that with high percentages.

Generate potential savings

High compliance leads to satisfied preferred vendors, which consequently, leads to stronger relationship and partnership with them. Potentially, this will lead to better deals and favorable pricing down the road, with additional value and amenities to your travelers.

Avoid conflict with strategic partners

This is the opposite of the previous point. If you promise your vendors $10 million in hotel spend in 2011, and most of that spend leaks through to non-preferred vendors, you would be in a tough situation when it is time for your 2012 hotel program RFP.

In some cases, you would hear from your suppliers during your quarterly review, and some of them would withdraw their preferred rates or amenities since you are not fulfilling your part (sure there has to be legal document to allow them to do so, and many don’t do it to maintain good relationship with the client).

Other issues like safety, consistency, brand, and equity

This could be listed as an intangible value for compliance, but it is equally important. When travelers follow the policy and book at preferred hotels using preferred booking process, the company will be able to keep track of its employees. In many cases, the manager would specify certain safety elements at the properties her/his travelers stay at, especially in cities with lower safety standards. If travelers are non-compliant and stay at hotels that have not been checked by the manager or are not up to the corporate safety standards, this could put the traveler and the company in a risky situation.

Equity is another important matter. If a corporate policy states that employees must stay at budget or moderate tier properties, it would be unfair for a few travelers to be non-compliant and stay at upscale or luxury hotels, and still get the company to pay for their expenses.

Corporate Hotel Program Compliance (1 of 5)

Compliance is a measure of how much the buyer’s behavior is aligned with the corporate policy. If the traveling employee (the buyer) is following the corporate travel policy, and is staying at preferred hotels, then this buyer is compliant. If she or he is staying at non-preferred hotel (provided the availability of a preferred hotel at the destination city), and/ or is not following corporate travel policy by booking a suite rather than a standard room (for example), then this buyer is non-compliant.

One of the critical components of any corporate hotel program, or procurement best practice, is compliance. A procurement or travel manager (manager), when dealing with compliance issues, is primarily focussing on three things: how to measure compliance, how to control it, and how to improve compliance moving forward.

I have put together four articles that shed more light on the topic of corporate hotel program compliance. You can click on the hyperlink below to check them out:

• Why is compliance important
• How to measure compliance
• How to control compliance
• How to improve compliance

The Evolving Role of Procurement in Modern Organizations – How Vendors Should Adapt to the RFP Process

We have witnessed historical events, and colossal changes in the last ten years. From the burst of the tech bubble in the late nineties, the tragic events of September 11, two concurrent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and finally the meltdown of the financial markets that has led to the recent recession. Probably the contribution of this past decade alone, will keep historians busier than ever documenting and analyzing every single second of its time. How is this relevant to a blog that mainly focuses on the business world? Well, as everything around us is changing, the role of procurement in modern organizations is evolving and changing as well.

The catalyst for that change is the introduction of Sarbanes-Oxley a few years ago, which requires corporate officers to be responsible and accountable for establishing adequate internal control structures and procedures for financial reporting. Naturally, the procurement role and the decision-making process for allocating public companies funds have become more visible and tangible.

Companies now need to go through a more rigorous procurement processes for many reasons. David Hannon, in his article “Is Sarbanes-Oxley a burden or blessing?” referred to four key areas where procurement can help drive compliance as stated by Deborah Wilson, a procurement consultant: (* link to article below)

- Procurement can help by automating the bidding process and creating records of how bids were awarded and to whom

- By documenting approval for purchases, procurement can create a clear audit trail for each transaction

- Implementing tighter controls over processes for valuing assets on the books starts with procurement’s valuing of such assets

- By having documented all spend clearly, procurement can make it much more difficult for post-procurement accounting problems or scandals where expenses are made to look like assets

I like to say that enacting sound procurement practices acts as a layer between direct buyers and sellers – in a way like the sun block cream, it does not prevent you from enjoying the sunshine, but it protects you from UV rays and overexposure.

The evolution of the role of procurement does not only impact the buyers, vendors of services must adapt, as well, to the new dynamics, and change their paradigm for winning business. Now, vendors need to deal with a more rigorous procurement process in order for to sell their services and win business in the new environment.

We have seen, recently, many “new economy” and “think-out-side-the-box” type of organizations, where the founders are the current managers and final decision makers; resort – when procuring services -to go through the RFP process from a procurement lens.

As the procurement role is evolving, vendors’ approach to RFP must evolve as well. The key ingredients of any RFP process revolve around the following four stages:

Before RFP 
This it the time, when the vendor is expecting the RFP to be produced by the Buyer in the near term. The vendor must capitalize on this time by preparing for the RFP, assembling the proper team to manage the RFP, and focusing on the proper opportunities.

Some RFP’s require certain expertise or capabilities that the vendor must acquire as prerequisite for winning the bid. A smart vendor should anticipate his/her deficiencies and invest the time before the RFP in addressing the lack of certain aspects that could hinder its ability to win.

As people make decisions, not organizations, vendors must assemble qualified teams to handle the prospect clients during the process of the RFP. There has to be a balanced team that includes people-persons, who can effectively communicate and “charm” the client, and technical people, who can actually act on the technical requirements of the RFP. So many times we have seen great vendors, assigning their top technical people to manage the RFP to the demise of the entire bid, due to lack of inter-personal and effective communication skills. This is not to suggest that technical people are not effective communicators, but just to stress a point.

Finally, vendors must focus on the proper opportunities. Sometimes the aggressive growth targets, and the desire to win market share cloud the judgment of vendors, and suck them to participate in RFP’s that either cannot be won, or if were won, would offer a lousy ROI. Vendors must understand that the RFP period requires attention and resources that should be invested prudently on the proper opportunities. Therefore, it is imperative for vendors to assess the opportunity before they commit to the RFP, and participate only in the proper opportunities.

RFP Analysis 
Once the vendor’s team decides to enter the bidding process, and receives the RFP documents, it is now the time for due diligence and proper RFP analysis. This stage encompasses learning as much as possible about the client, meeting with key stakeholders, and identifying the true decision makers. In nutshell, the vendor who wins the business is the one who properly assesses the need of the client, and effectively communicates that back to the client.

You can learn about your client by meeting with the stakeholders and decisions makers; furthermore, you can learn about the client from analyzing the data provided, information about their business, and surely from the scope of work included in the RFP itself. However, quite often the information provided raise more questions than answers, and here comes a true differentiator, a vendor that asks the right questions – would know the client much better, and will be able to communicate that back to the client by drafting the better RFP response.

RFP Response 
This should be a very straightforward stage; however, many vendors fail at this stage, because they simply ignore the instructions. They may offer the best service, but do not communicate that as instructed by the client. Vendors must fully comply with the instructions provided (for example, use of certain procurement portal, inclusion of certain documents, etc). Their compliance indicates that they are focused on the client and the client’s needs. Finally, vendors must pay close attention to pricing. This could be straightforward as well, but we have seen many bids come with vague pricing schemes. This would put vendors at extreme disadvantage if there happens to be a strong competitor with clear pricing model.

Simply put, answer the questions as instructed, and say how much this is going to cost.

Post RFP 
Finally, once the RFP process is over, a strategic vendor would run a post-RFP protocol – whether they have won the business or not. This protocol entails debriefing the team and the client (if possible) on the process, and on what went well, and where there is opportunity for improvement. This will help the vendor in developing a proposal knowledge base that will be extremely helpful in winning future bids.

In conclusion, the RFP process is the dating period between vendors and buyers. Everything could be going right, yet, for one issue, or for one stupid mistake, it could be over.

While I attempt to be as generic as possible in my blog, I understand that not all of my above-mentioned comments would be applicable in all cases. Please feel free to share your views and experience with me and with the readers.

Source:
* David Hannon Article: “Is Sarbanes-Oxley a burden or blessing?” Purchasing. Thursday, February 3 2005
http://www.allbusiness.com/company-activities-management/operations-purchasing/6236767-1.html

Why Global Corporations Must Source Their Hotel Spend And Run A Reliable Global Hotel Program?

Recently, you may have heard that some corporate travel managers – of global corporations - are having second thoughts about going through the usual annual RFP process for their corporate hotel programs as they have been finding better rates, when booking online, than their corporate negotiated rates. A few have gone to state that they would consider giving up their entire RFP program for 2010, and rely solely on online booking portals and travel agencies.

In my opinion, that would be a mistake.

First, given what we have seen in 2009, I do understand their rationale, as most of us went through a lengthy RFP season during 2008 to secure negotiated rates for 2009 that, some of which rates, proved to be higher than what the economy dictated. As the economical situation continued to deteriorate early this year, hoteliers found no alternative to combat the hostile environment and gain market share except to cut their rates significantly. We have seen rates dropping to 2006-2007 levels in some cases. This enticed many business travelers, looking for bargains, to bypass the negotiated corporate programs, and book directly online. In some cases, travel managers, who realized that some of their negotiated rates were far higher than what the hoteliers were actually willing to accept, have returned to the negotiation table and re-negotiated their rates with the hotels.

As the world is still waiting for a decisive financial recovery, and all signs are indicating that the economy will not be turning around any time soon, business travel prospects for 2010 is still dismal. This environment is positioning both suppliers and buyers in a potentially confrontational situation. On one hand, suppliers are hesitant to lower their rates further, as they have reached low levels not seen in years. Any further drop in rates would not only jeopardize their profitability, but survival. On the other hand, corporate travel buyers are sharpening their knives for more rate cuts and aggressive negotiations during this season.

Other corporate buyers; however, are flirting with the idea of taking a different approach this year away from the normal hotel sourcing rituals. They are considering saving the time and effort (and money) usually spent during hotel negotiation season, and go online to procure travel directly. They believe that since the economy is not kind to travel vendors these days, hoteliers have no choice but to lower their rates during 2010. Hence, by not committing to a negotiated rate, they assume that they could benefit from the price-slashing spectacle they are expecting to see. They are betting that hotel rates will continue to drop as a falling knife in 2010.

As I mentioned earlier, I disagree with that approach. There are many reasons why corporations should have negotiated rates and reliable hotel programs in place for 2010. The following are seven main reasons why you must go through with your RFP this year:

1. Uncertainty. No one knows for sure when the economy will actually turn around. If we follow the analysts, they were predicting oil to hit $200 a barrel in mid-2008, and had no clue when the financial meltdown occurred. However, what we do know is that as soon as the economy turns around, hotel rates will be poised for a rapid increase, due to supply restrictions in 2008 and 2009, and the financial fatigue experienced by major chains. I would also add to the mix the impact of a lower US dollar on inflation in general. You may find online travel portals’ offers to be very attractive in a sliding economy, but they will not be that attractive when the economy rebounds.

2. Leverage. When you book online at a property, you are losing any leverage with that property. You are simply agreeing to whatever they are offering you at that time, and you are no different than Mr. Joe Random who is booking for his next vacation. Leverage will always enable you to get better deals, as you will be recognized by the property for all your business and room nights you are booking at its location.

3. Benchmarking. A critical component of any successful RFP for a hotel program is benchmarking bids and rates. How could you tell if the deal you are getting is actually a good deal or not? You need to go through the methodological process of benchmarking to understand the markets, and how rates are trending in each sub-market.

4. Amenities. You may have a very good rate online; however, negotiating deals with properties would give you the opportunity to include pertinent amenities to your travelers with the rates, like breakfast, internet access, parking, late cancellation, and so on. It is true that you may be able to get very cheap rates online, but if you read the fine print and restrictions, your traveler may end up paying far more than the asking price on a normal business trip.

5. Flexibility. Even though last room availability (LRA) negotiated rates seem to be flat fixed rates, many chains are actually offering dynamic pricing and the negotiated rate is simply a cap rate. For example, a property would offer you a $150 flat rate; however, if the corporate rate at the time of booking is lower than the negotiated rate, they will offer you the lower rate. Therefore, corporate travel buyers will not miss out on any opportunity should the rates fall below the negotiated rates; however, they will be protected should the rates creep higher.

6. Budgeting. Having a solid hotel program with clear and established reporting mechanisms and compliance will enable you to make better budgeting decisions and enjoy a better financial transparency. You need to be able to have room nights and rates projections for the year ahead. Something you will never have should you opt out of regular RFP process.

7. Relationships. Finally, it is always about building strategic relationships with your main vendors. Having a corporate hotel program will allow you to forge and nurture strategic partnerships with hotel partners that could prove to be beneficial during times that favor the sellers.

In conclusion, in a world full of uncertainty, you need to be able to control your second largest controllable expense item - that is T&E spend. The cornerstone of that is to adhere to best procurement practices in sourcing travel commodities.