New Industry White Paper Reveals Methodologies to Measure the Effectiveness of a Managed Hotel Program

The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) today offered a preview of its new white paper, Making Cents of Your Preferred Hotel Program: Methodologies for Measuring the Effectiveness of a Managed Hotel Program. This how-to guide for demonstrating the value of a managed hotel program to key stakeholders will be made available to NBTA members and attendees of the 2010 NBTA International Convention & Exposition in Houston, August 8-11.



The new white paper provides readers with an overview of the methodologies used to validate savings resulting from the Hotel Request for Proposal (RFP) as well as those used to measure and communicate program value throughout the year. These methodologies serve as a guideline to assist travel managers in designing and implementing hotel metrics within their companies.


The paper focuses on six RFP methodologies to begin quantifying savings resulting from the hotel RFP process, which include:


1.Measurement of Common Hotels/Year-over-Year

2.Initial Bid Rate vs. Final Accepted Rate

3.Average Negotiated Rate Benchmarked Against Industry

4.Measurement of New Preferred Hotels

5.Comparison Measurements

6.Amenity Savings and Overall Program Value


The paper also stresses the importance of establishing a set of metrics that will indicate whether a given hotel program is performing as designed -- to optimize savings and value by monitoring compliance, discount utilization and savings on an ongoing basis. Five methodologies are highlighted to determine this, including:


1.Average Negotiated Rates vs. Average Booked Rates at Preferred Hotels

2.Average Negotiated Rates vs. Average Booked Rates at Non-Preferred Hotels

3.Gap Analysis of Compliance to Preferred Hotel Program

4.Savings/Loss Impact of Market Tier Shift

5.Average Negotiated Rate vs. Best Available Rate – Captured at Point of Sale


NBTA Hotel Committee Co-Chair Laurie Kazimer said, “Although there are many elements of a successfully managed hotel program, clear communication of the value of one’s program to one’s stakeholders is an important piece. Tailoring methodologies to meet the needs of one’s audience allows for better communication of the overall value of the process from start to finish, not only during the RFP process but throughout the year.”