I think one of the most disappointing outcomes from contract negotiation is that between corporations and TMCs. You can practically guarantee that one side or the other, or in time both, are not enamoured with the end results. The corporation wants total priority and service delivery at the lowest unit price whilst the TMC spends its time trying to figure out how to comply whilst clawing back profitability elsewhere in the deal or through caveats.
Last week I delivered an NBTA training course to Delta Air Lines. The workshop was geared to Delta’s global corporate sales team, and naturally we had some good give and take about trends in airline RFPs. Three things puzzled me, and so I throw these mysteries out to you, valued reader, for your insights.
I’ve consulted for few clients on travel agency selection process, and I must tell you …There are many agencies out there who would inflate their claims of how wonderful their agency is. It is really difficult to differentiate true claims to false ones.
The National Business Travel Association's Technology Committee had some fun today spicing up the otherwise dry topic of request for proposals templates for corporate online booking with a live "
Family Feud" game show. Based on a survey of 100 travel managers, the panelists dinged and buzzed the crowd to online booking enlightenment.
[UPDATE: Mary Ann McNulty conducted a fascinating interview with IHG SVP Stephen Powell on this topic.
See it here if you're a subscriber to
The Beat. Thanks for Stephen Boggs for helping arrange...]
InterContinental Hotels Group last week issued a press release and then declined to set up a phone interview for one of our reporters to discuss it with an executive. While other companies have done this, they usually don't also do what IHG's press contacts did next, which is to argue with us about why we're not willing to provide questions by email. An "interview" (duh!) is conducted in real time. Yes, reporters may sometimes ask questions by email, but for us that's normally just a matter of fact checking. It's not an interview. All of this makes me wonder what IHG is hiding after a press release (which is not posted to its Web site) indicated that the company is pushing "preferred business accounts" in the Asia-Pacific region to adopt dynamic pricing, which it said provides an "alternative" to annually negotiated rates.
