Letters

<H1> Letters</H1>Assessing ARC

I look forward each year to the annual Business Travel Survey (<I>BTN</I>, May 27). Again you have provided the industry with a valuable compendium. One major oversight: the Airlines Reporting Corporation.

ARC impacts every sector within the travel industry. Several of its obsolete or onerous practices need dramatic overhaul. Your survey will never truly address the entire industry until you develop a scorecard concerning ARC and its practices, its many helpful changes and improvements, and its share of settlement money versus settlement done directly or by other means.

<I>Norman B. Wilson
State Travel Manager
General Support Services
State of Colorado

</I>Hotels Ask Fair Price

While I enjoyed reading Cheryl Rosen's "Meetings Buyers Face Hotel Seller's Market" (<I>Meetings Today</I>, July 29), I hope travel and meeting managers are aware that they are facing a seller's market only in certain cities and at certain times of the year. Planners have become accustomed to a time when there was excess capacity, and they could call six weeks out and get a price that was in many cases below profit for the hotel. But they should remember that the early '90s was the worst period of time in the hotel industry, and recognize that they are now paying a fair price for product.

If a meeting manager came to me with 200 meetings a year, each with 50 room nights and three meals, I'd be honored to work with them. But if all they need is a meeting room with no food and beverage, few hoteliers are in a position to take that business.

<I>David Crowl</I>
<I>Vice President Of Sales
Four Seasons/Regent Hotels Chicago

</I>Diners: Global player

Regarding "Corp. Card Battle Goes Global" (<I>BTN</I>, Aug. 19), omitting Diners Club does your readers a great disservice.

Your lead indicates that "corporate card vendors are suddenly turning their sights on the unexplored global marketplace." That marketplace has been a longtime focus of Diners Club, and that focus has resulted in Diners Club being awarded contracts to serve a growing number of truly multinational customers like The World Bank and, most recently, IBM.

The Diners Club global proprietary network allows our customers to be issued Diners Club Corporate Cards throughout the world. Their T&E spend can be reported and paid for in the relevant local currency. But only Diners Club can capture that spend and report actual usage information to senior management in the headquarters currency of the corporation.

<I>Walter Sanders
Vice President, Corp. Affairs
Diners Club
New York

Editor's Note: The story reported on new global strategies among corporate card vendors. It is not news that Diners Club is a major player in this market. See </I>BTN<I>, March 4 for story on Diners Club and IBM.