Hotel RFP season: Has your programme done its homework?

September. The children are back at school, the out-of-office replies are disappearing and, somewhere in procurement, a spreadsheet has just been opened.

Hotel RFP season is back.

Sharpen the pencils. Find the calculator. Try to remember why we negotiated that hotel last year.

Because perhaps the biggest question this RFP season isn't:

“Can we get another £5 off the room?”

It's:

“Is our hotel programme actually working?”

A corporate rate of £150 looks marvellous next to a public rate of £175. Gold star. Well done everybody.

Well done, that is, until the traveller takes two taxis because the hotel is miles from the office, pays £18 for breakfast and discovers the cheaper rate is non-refundable.

That saving has now eaten breakfast and ordered an Uber.

The room rate is a number. The cost of the stay is an equation.

This is where Meon gets out the red pen, because we believe a hotel RFP should start with the data, not last year's spreadsheet.

We ask: Where are your travellers staying? Where has volume increased or disappeared? Which preferred hotels are being booked — and which are being avoided with the enthusiasm normally reserved for double maths?

Then we can help identify where your buying power really sits and where a negotiated programme makes commercial sense.

Because negotiating 20 preferred hotels sounds impressive. But negotiating the right hotels is rather more useful.

Then comes the bit everyone forgets:

You can negotiate an excellent rate. But can your travellers find it?

And, more importantly, will they book it?

Through our booking tools, hotel searches can bring together in-policy and corporate-rate properties with criteria including location, distance, hotel chain and facilities.

That's important. Because a beautifully negotiated rate hidden somewhere nobody looks isn't really a saving. It's a souvenir from RFP season.

Meon's role doesn't end when the hotel says yes. We can help connect the sourcing strategy with the booking environment, policy and reporting — so the programme designed in the boardroom has a fighting chance of surviving contact with the traveller.

And ROI isn't only £££

Of course, savings matter. Hugely.

But a strong hotel programme can also support compliance, traveller experience, sustainability, reporting and duty of care.

Imagine an incident occurs at 10 pm. Nobody's first question is: “Did Sarah save £14 at the Holiday Inn?”

It's: “Where is Sarah?”

Keeping hotel bookings within a managed travel programme provides greater visibility of where employees are travelling and staying — something that becomes considerably more valuable when disruption occurs.

So, what's your hotel programme's report card?

This RFP season, Meon can help businesses ask some more demanding questions, such as:

Are we negotiating in the destinations that actually matter?

Are travellers booking our preferred hotels?

Are our negotiated rates genuinely available?

Are we measuring room rate — or total trip cost?

Does our programme support traveller wellbeing and duty of care?

And the big one:

For every pound invested in the hotel programme, what value are we getting back?

At Meon, our job isn't simply to help you buy hotels cheaper.

It's to use your travel data, supplier relationships, technology, policy and traveller behaviour to help you buy hotels better.

Because September may be back-to-school season. But there's no reason your hotel programme should submit the same homework as last year.

Ready for your RFP report card? Meon will bring the red pen.