Amoco Enhances Hotel E-RFP

<B> Amoco Enhances Hotel E-RFP</B>

By Maria P. Vallejo

<i>Chicago</i> - BP Amoco's corporate travel administrator Malcolm Teixeira, an early proponent of the electronic hotel request for proposal, now is enhancing a customized version that he began implementing nearly two years ago.

Teixeira, who earlier used the electronic format of the National Business Travel Association and American Hotel & Motel Association, developed his version in FileMaker Pro.

"There was too much information in the NBTA format and I didn't need all of it," he told the audience at BTN's Corporate Travel World in New York last month. "I customized the database for the information I needed so that it was seamless and efficient and fit our needs."

While cost savings is a big attraction of the electronic RFP, customization does add cost for hotel company respondents. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, for example, spends about $3,000 to complete a customized electronic RFP, said Fran Linton, director of corporate travel for the North America division.

With that in mind, Teixeira held meetings to solicit comments, recommendations and, most importantly, support from hotel vendors. He met with representatives of Bass Hotels & Resorts, Hilton Hotels Corp., Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, Sheraton and Wyndham International. In all cases, the hotels encouraged him to proceed with the customization, he said.

Amoco's hotel directory includes about 250 hotels worldwide, with two or three properties per city. That number is expected to double as the recent merger of British Petroleum and Amoco results in the full consolidation of the two companies.

Teixeira's first stab at an electronic RFP, sent out on e-mail in 1997, required that vendor data be manually downloaded into the company's database. Much of the information in the database was amassed prior to the electronic process and manually input from paper bids, he said. He improved the process last year to automatically download the information.

"This year I didn't need to have a temp or reams of paper," he said. "It's so fast. All I had to do was show the hotel reps the process and they could do it. They are doing all the groundwork, so I don't have to do RFPs for the program again."

The project was expected to reduce costs and expedite the bid process, and became crucial in August, as the two companies merged their directories. In actuality, the RFP process, which used to take two months to complete, with the aid of two temporary employees, took only one week. And it eliminated 10 large binders full of a year's worth of paper bids.

In all, Teixeira has spent six years on the RFP project, which now runs on File- Maker Pro's latest 4.0 version. The new version adds the ability to send a miniaturized version of itself in an e-mail attachment--a crucial component to BP Amoco's electronic process.

Once the program was ready for use, Teixeira spent only four working days to write the RFP, and to e-mail it to 10,000 properties worldwide as an attached miniature FileMaker Pro program.

Once opened, the attached file launches the program, which is found on the hotel company's C drive, allowing it to access and input data without having FileMaker Pro installed.

"The beauty is that since it sits on the C drive, the hotel can revise it any time," Teixeira said. "It's clear and simple, and I don't have to wait for the RFP season."

The RFP requests information on last room availability, number of room blocks, advanced notice of cancellations, amenities, blackout dates, closest airports and restaurants and proximity to BP Amoco's office. It automatically verifies whether the preferred rate offered is lower than the American Express agency rate; if not, Teixeira attempts to renegotiate a lower price.

The RFP is divided into geographical regions to simplify the process of uploading the information onto BP Amoco's travel Web, which also is similarly arranged.

Any questions or concerns from the hotel can be addressed directly in the RFP. Each section includes a help box that hotel representatives can click to send Teixeira a short message. When bids come in, sections including requests for help are flagged.

Once accepted, bids are uploaded to BP Amoco's travel Web page. Information about services and amenities are instantaneously converted into icons for easy viewing by the company's 32,000 frequent travelers. The hotel companies' Web addresses also are listed on and linked to the page, and maps of each property are available.

The success of the automation project has BP Amoco ready for the next step--and indeed, the e-mail version may become obsolete by the time negotiations roll around for year 2000 contracts. The company plans to launch a "Cold Fusion" project that will allow national hotel reps to access their own information on BP Amoco's Web site at any time, using a distinct pin number--opening the door to possible mid-year negotiations. "That will free up their desktop by allowing them to access the Web page through the Internet," Teixeira said, "and if there's softening of hotel rates, they can send me a bid anytime.