TRENDING
OUT
THE GOOD , THE BAD AND THE OPPORTUNITY IN LONGER ROOM CANCELLATION POLICIES .
By BARBARA BOHN , MANAGING EDITOR
Moves by Marriott International and Hilton Hotels to implement a 48-hour deadline to cancel hotel room reservations are a strike against “ business interrupters ” taking advantage of the lack of a guaranteed room , says Chad Crandell , managing director and CEO at CHMWarnick , which manages 69 U . S . hotels with Marriott , Starwood , Hilton and IHG flags . They also are mitigating “ bad practices ” such as last-minute discounts , he says . The changes were met with outrage from some business travel groups and relief from owners and operators .
“ By and large , we ’ ve not seen any negative trends , negative guest satisfaction issues , people communicating to us that they ’ ll never stay at our hotel again ,” he says . “ We ’ ve seen none of that .”
Crandell says he ’ s watching for an impact as commercial travel picks up . “ I don ’ t anticipate that there ’ s going to be , even from the corporate customer , a lot of blowback on this . I think people understand that the policy we had was too favorable in one direction .” He adds , “ we ’ ve got to see a trailing 12 months on this cancellation policy to see if it does begin to show improvement in ADRs in certain markets .”
LOOKING FOR LOOPHOLES “ People are still assessing their data to really see what impact it will have to their company ,” says Greeley Koch , executive director of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives ( ACTE ), which advocates on behalf of corporate travelers but doesn ’ t take positions on issues .
According to a survey in August by HRS of 100 global corporate travel managers , 5 % of corporate bookings are cancelled within 48 hours . That might not seem like much to a hotelier , says Suzanne Neufang , HRS ’ vice president , Americas , but “ 5 % to a corporate travel program might completely eat up whatever savings they ’ ve committed on the procurement side to their CFO , so it ’ s a very significant number for all of the customers that we ’ ve been talking to .” HRS provides hotel program management services for about 3,000 multinational corporations and last year sourced more than 12 million room nights .
That 5 %, she says , is a “ gnawing gap ” in the relationship between hoteliers and corporations . Nearly 59 % of managers expect costs to increase as a result , according to the survey . “ An even greater portion said that if all things are equal , when the results come in from their sourcing negotiations , they would
10 hotelsmag . com November 2017