<B> Bass Imports Sales Plan</B>
By Amon Cohen
<I>Atlanta</I> - Bass Hotels & Resorts, the former Holiday Hospitality, this summer will roll out a multinational corporate sales program in North America that it already has successfully implemented in Europe.
Ann Shutte, Bass's director of corporate and agency sales for Europe, said the company devised the new-look program as a result of reorganizing its sales team by market segment last year. Since Bass is preparing to name a North American vice president for corporate sales--to be based at corporate headquarters in Atlanta--within the next few days, Shutte took BTN through the model introduced on her side of the Atlantic to offer an idea of the program American travel buyers can expect to see.
Corporate clients have been grouped into three categories. At the bottom are occasional users who have no regular relationship with Bass. These are targeted by Bass's marketing department.
Next up the triangle are corporate accounts that produce between 100 and 1,000 room nights per year, who are dealt with by local sales offices. They qualify for a corporate discount, varying between 10 and 33 percent, according to the property and the projected yield on any given date. In return for this flexibility of discount, Bass guarantees these buyers last-room availability at the corporate rate.
At the top of the triangle are multinational clients, who can participate in what Bass calls its Gold program. Qualifications include a minimum of 1,000 room nights a year plus a spread of business across national borders. In addition, said Shutte, "the client must have a travel manager who not only has the authority but also has the desire to move business to a smaller number of suppliers."
Gold members receive an extra 5 percent off the corporate rate. In exceptional circumstances, if the client puts an unusually large number of room nights into a particular property, it is possible to negotiate an even deeper discount. Conversely, Gold members do not automatically earn their additional 5 percent across the board. "Even if they are a large key account, if they only put in one room night at a property, they will only get the corporate rate," Shutte said.
The program will not initially include Bass's most recent acquisition, the Inter-Continental Hotels and Resorts portfolio, though European vice president for worldwide sales Jos Weesjes said the company is aiming to incorporate Inter-Continental into its sales plans before 1999 contracting starts in September or October. "Clearly, what our clients need is one-stop shopping," he said, promising that "it will be possible for next year to talk to just one person."
Buyers in Europe have responded favorably to the program. Piet Stokman, European manager of purchased travel services for 3M, for example, said that Bass is one of five groups with which he has tied up a pan-European deal, the others being Radisson SAS, Hilton, Accor and the reservations service SRS.
Stokman said he is "happy with" the Bass program's differential discounting. "It has to be seen as part of the total package," he noted. "Some of the hotels are giving us rock-bottom prices but there are others where they have better deals with companies that give them more business."
On top of the basic structure, Bass formulates a business plan with each client in an attempt to meet its particular needs. Examples can include allowing early checkin or even negotiating discounts for late checkins. "If the client's guests are arriving late and leaving early, maybe they don't need all the facilities we offer," said Shutte.
The business plan also stipulates what Bass is looking for from the client, particularly in terms of market share commitments. Bass is working on ascertaining this data through its Holidex management information system, but clearly clients who have their own authoritative data are going to be prime candidates for Gold membership. Stokman said he culled his hotel data from expense management reports, global travel agency Carlson Wagonlit Travel and long-standing local contracts with individual Holiday Inns and other Bass properties.
The difficulty of obtaining reliable data is one reason that hotel chains have as bad a reputation as airlines for their inability to put together pan-European deals. However, Stokman said he found the process relatively easy, probably indicating both his pioneering work with carriers and a growing willingness on the part of hotel chains.
"It is not too difficult to strike a deal with the major chains as long as the fit is good," he said. "There is no point in putting a European deal together if you are not staying in the areas where the properties are."
Stokman quickly discovered that one chain could not satisfy all his geographical requirements. "If a company has locations all over Europe, it cannot choose just one chain," he said. "Each chain therefore has to accept that it will have competition. In 3M's case, they all realized that and it was not a problem."
3M travelers know where they can stay thanks to a simple but effective marketing tool designed by Stokman: a credit card-sized brochure giving details of each preferred property. The list also has been put on 3M's Lotus Notes database.
Other clients with which Bass has successful pan-European deals include Phillips and Honeywell. Shutte believes the secret to success as a supplier is openness. "We do not promise what we cannot deliver and we are realistic about our good and bad points," she said.
An example is what Bass terms its quality failure index. Corporate guests are invited to fill in a questionnaire, which Bass analyzes more for where points are not being scored than for where it is doing well. The survey is used as part of a drive towards brand consistency that has led to some under-performing properties losing their franchise. Shutte claims the information also is used to exclude individual hotels from the Gold program if they are deemed inappropriate for the particular client. "If we identify the service needs of the traveler and know a particular hotel is not up to it," she said, "we will not include it.