Let’s agree that all our friends and colleagues who are in the midst of yet another grueling hotel RFP season should have our sympathies.
You’re dealing with big chunks of invisible hotel spend, crappy data on the visible spend, clunky RFP tools, tedious back-and-forth negotiations, last room availability promises that won’t be kept, and disgruntled hoteliers only too happy to poach your travelers with squatter rates that they’ll offer as long as it suits them. Ugh.
Oh, yes – you’re also facing one of the toughest negotiating environments in what, a decade? Ouch.
Speaking of decades, we know you’ve been putting up with this predictably stressful process year after year, for what, two or three decades? Gag.
Hang in their, friends, for the future is much brighter. I saw a glimpse of it at the Beat Live conference in D.C. last week. But fair warning…you’ll need to grit your teeth and open your minds, as it’s not an easy pill to swallow.
Two pills, really. The first is TRIPBAM; the second is dynamic pricing. Here’s how they get you out of the hotel RFP desert: Continue reading
