Room for Savings: Optimizing Hotel Spend - Carlson

Seven steps to optimize hotel spend > Negotiate effectively
Ask for a permanent room allotment.
Some hotels will agree to hold a specific
number of rooms for the company on a
permanent basis, releasing any that are not
required 24 or 48 hours before the check-in
date without charging cancellation fees. This
service is usually provided free of charge and
is worth negotiating when a company has
very large volumes and when room
availability can be problematic.
companies whose travelers often stay longer
than a few nights, for two reasons. First,
longer stays may include lower occupancy
nights such as weekends. In addition, longer
stays reduce the average cost per guest, for
example in terms of check-in/check-out
processes. CWT analyses show that some
companies have significantly longer stays on
average (Figure 92) and can therefore
leverage this fact in negotiations.
Leverage attractive stay patterns. Hoteliers
say they are willing to grant better rates to
Figure 92: Some companies can leverage longer than average stays in negotiations
Breakdown of hotel bookings by length of stay
7
15
30
8
12
17
23
9
8
14
24
7
7
13
26
6
7
12
24
6
9
10
23
7
6
9
22
5
6
10
22
4
5
9
23
4
7
8
17
3
4
7
19
6
8
13
22
5 nights
and more
4 nights
3 nights
2 nights
19
29
40
45
47
51
52
56
57
59
64
67
52
1 night
AF Q AB AO AH F H V AJ AR AS All clients
Company
3.0 2.4 2.5 2.2 2.1 2.1 2.2 1.9 1.9 1.8 1.8 2.3
Average number of nights
Source: CWT Travel Management Institute
Based on transaction data, 2008
99