The corporate travel world’s opinion of Marriott is bipolar. Travelers love the loyalty program, but that can work against corporate program compliance. Many industry professionals respect the company’s success but get discouraged when it takes a hard line on various issues. Travel buyers like the idea of a consistent, high-quality product from a world-renowned brand…
It’s tough to know if you got the cheapest hotel rate. A lot of that has to do with timing. Published hotel rates, like airfares, fluctuate. Availability changes based on occupancy. Corporate rates aren’t always as accessible as many program managers would like. Some big chains also are more actively favoring direct bookers. They offer various enticements,…
[UPDATE, June 16, 2017: Marriott International on June 15 introduced a new 48-hour cancellation policy at all hotels across all brands in the Americas, except Design Hotels, effective immediately. “Guests will now be required to cancel their room reservation by midnight 48 hours prior to arrival to avoid a fee,” according to a company statement….
It’s another tough negotiating cycle for corporate hotel buyers. Healthy demand and tight availability mean some hotels are even declining to bid. But it’s not the same story in all markets and there are several ways clients can attempt to mitigate rate hikes. Buyers should have more leverage in markets that are adding lots of new rooms. New York still is…
CIO Magazine announced Aug. 1 that Marriott International earned a “CIO100” award for its application programming interface platform, created in 2014. Marriott senior director for B2B e-commerce Geoff Heuchling earlier that week gave corporate travel professionals an idea of why APIs matter to them. He made them sound pretty huge. Enabling new ways to integrate internal applications, distribute data externally, service customers…
Concur executive vice president of supplier and TMC services Mike Koetting will take direct responsibility for travel management company relationships as the firm says goodbye to Cindy Allen. Allen, who has served as vice president of TMC services, joined Concur upon its 2013 acquisition of GDSX. On Tuesday she informed TMCs by email that she plans to depart at…
Marriott’s plan to offer free Wi-Fi on direct bookings by loyalty members will cause channel conflict for many in business travel. Yet, it’s an oddity as the recent trend points to greater rather than reduced hotel content access for managed travel programs. As of 2010, each of the three major global distribution systems listed between 80,000 and…
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