Cendant Hotels Rolls Out Rate-Loading Technology

Cendant Hotels Group this month said it is rolling out new technology across its more than 6,300 properties to enable franchisees to more quickly and accurately load hotel rates for corporate clients. While many corporate hotel program managers currently are occupied with the task of negotiating contracts for 2006 rates, the tool is expected to be in place across Cendant Hotels' brands for this year's rate-loading season, which begins this month and typically lasts through February.

Cendant is using WizCom's EasyAccess Plus RateManager tool "to initialize, populate and manage" rate data in global distribution systems. Cendant Hotels joins Prime Hospitality, Peabody Hotel Group and Accor in leveraging the technology, which was designed by a division of Cendant Travel Distribution Services. Richard Wiegmann, COO of Trust International and WizCom International, which are part of Cendant Travel Distribution Services, said the tool replaces a manual process and potentially months of lag time in loading rates with an automated tool that takes a minimum of seconds and a maximum of 24 hours to load rates into the four major global distribution systems as well as other channels.

"This is where the aim of RateManager really started. We need to have something that speeds up this process, that is taking the data that is available in any database—a central reservation system, a request-for-proposals system—and extracting it through the XML interface, then shooting it out to as many channels as possible," Wiegmann said, adding that, in the past, whomever was responsible for loading rates—be it the hotelier or travel buyer—would have to load them manually into each GDS.

Deficiencies in rate-loading timeliness and accuracy have plagued the travel management profession for years. While such automated tools as Rate-Manager and Lanyon's RatePublisher can streamline the process, many of the problems do not necessarily stem from technology, according to National Business Travel Association white paper on rate loading issued last year.

"Many rate-loading problems are a result of process, timing, and data integrity—not technological issues," the white paper said. "Some of the most common causes of rate load failures and failed resolution attempts are incorrect rate-loading codes, confusing rate-loading instructions, ineffective communication with hotel suppliers, late acceptances, incorrect rates that do not reflect negotiations and insufficient rate audit information."

Sam Schisler, vice chair of the National Business Travel Association's hotel committee and global hotel program manager for Limited Brands, said automation can add efficiencies to the process, but rate-loading effectiveness still comes down to many issues outlined in NBTA's white paper. "When you're looking at the Hiltons and Hyatts and Marriotts, they all have very intense and expensive systems in place to make sure rate loading is done properly," Schisler said. "The issue with rate loading is when they get the information. A lot of times they're bombarded on Dec. 1 by thousands of companies and thousands of rates that just bogs up the system."

However, by loading rates through a single source in an automated fashion, Wiegmann said hotels and buyers see more consistency among negotiated rates displayed through the GDSs.

Wiegmann said that in addition to its ability to interface with major automated RFP providers, the tool also is compliant with the NBTA RFP, which is the dominant submission form for corporate negotiations.

"We're looking at optimizing across the value chain of a reservation," Wiegmann said. "It's about delivering the best content, fastest time to market and the highest accuracy of data."

Cendant Hotels Group has been trying to speed the corporate-contracting and rate-loading processes. In addition to launching a new franchisee intranet page, where the company will house the RateManager tool, the group earlier this year partnered with Arlington, Texas-based travel RFP provider Lanyon Inc. to replace a paper-based process and leverage a system that automatically reviews RFPs and displays pricing. Cendant said the system will "complete 90 percent of the response and forward the nearly completed form to franchisees to complete the remaining 10 percent, which allows them to control the process and ensure they provide up-to-date submissions."

Cendant's brands include Days Inn, Ramada, Travelodge, Howard Johnson, Knights Inn, Wingate Inn and AmeriHost Inn.