NBTA, ACTE Unveil 1998 RFP

<B> NBTA, ACTE Unveil 1998 RFP</B>

By Maria P. Vallejo

Unveiling a new version of their electronic RFP for the 1998-99 negotiating season, the National Business Travel Association and the Association of Corporate Travel Executives this month advanced their efforts to wean corporate buyers and suppliers from paper-driven hotel negotiations.

The NBTA hotel committee revised its two-year-old standardized electronic RFP and is preparing educational sessions designed to spread their use.

(For a complete copy of the revised document, turn to the insert following page 18 or log on to BTNonline.com.)

Though still in its infancy, the standardized electronic RFP is maturing, thanks in part to the help and feedback of travel buyers. Weeding through hundreds of suggestions and criticisms by last year's users and observers, NBTA committee members implemented six revisions, ranging from replacing outdated requested data to expanding field lengths. The limited number of changes is expected to increase, if not maintain, usage numbers.

"Because it's so early in its usage, a lot of changes could have a detrimental effect to the people who used the form and those trying it," said Rick Wakida, NBTA Hotel Committee chairman and travel analyst at San Francisco-based Bank of America. "Keeping it consistent and familiar is key to increasing the number of usage."

To combat the somewhat pervasive industry-wide skepticism of the electronic RFP's accuracy, NBTA expects to increase usage to 33-50 percent of travel buyers this year, Wakida said. According to the hotel committee's April survey of 202 corporate buyers, about 16 percent used the electronic RFP in the last negotiating season.

Rather than deleting any of the original fields, the committee replaced obsolete and confusing fields with more up-to-date and clearer questions. This year's RFP asked for e-mail addresses instead of telex numbers; charges for hotel faxes instead of bathroom amenities; and safety chains on doors in lieu of a separate women's floor. The chain affiliation field was changed to a chain code field, cutting the number of characters from 40 to 2. Two other fields increased in length.

Although the revisions were based on travel managers' feedback, one repeated buyer request was not granted: the addition of blank fields for corporate-specific questions.

"The RFP needs to have some level of flexibility," said travel manager Betts DeMott of Oakland, Calif.-based Clorox Co. "If they standardize 80 percent, and give an individual travel manager the opportunity to customize 20 percent, that's perfect. But to think one form is going to fit everybody's needs isn't going to work."

NBTA maintained that more blank fields would defeat the purpose of a "standardized" RFP, converting it back into the customized process it was designed to replace. Officials suggested buyers attach a separate sheet to the RFP if they need to pose company-specific questions. Said Wakida, "This is a standard RFP. Once you add customization, you lose the standard."

To alleviate any possibility of missed data, the RFP contains 420 fields created from the committee's brainstorming sessions. This lengthy list of questions is another source of criticism by travel managers who consider it unnecessary.

Aside from constant demands to include blank fields, obstacles the form faces include a steadfast belief that the current paper process is adequate; a lack of technology resources to send and receive the bids electronically; and a lack of understanding of the new and electronic process, the survey found. The association plans to use the platform of its annual national conference and trade show in August to dispel myths and educate travel buyers and hoteliers on using the process.

"We don't feel real comfortable with the mechanics of how to send it out or how to receive it," DeMotts said. "None of us understands how this magically happens. I've seen the form, but I haven't seen how it tabulates data when it comes back."

DeMott was certainly not alone: About 84 percent of the travel managers surveyed passed on using to the RFP last year. Like DeMott, many suggested the RFP needs more concise and comprehensive instructions and that NBTA should offer educational courses on how to use it effectively. DeMott said she will attempt to use the RFP if the association sufficiently educates travel managers about the process.

The committee will distribute a one-page "Best Practices of Hotel RFP" guideline at their annual convention in Orlando in August. The guide will illustrate a dual timeline for travel managers and hoteliers using the electronic RFP process and provide basic instructional information.

Informational packets also were distributed at this month's ACTE conference. Although many of the travel managers had little time to review the document during the conference, a quick straw poll of 12 travel managers showed that eight were in favor of some form of standardized proposal. Three said they weren't interested, explaining that "one size doesn't fit all," and one was undecided.

Of those interested in a standardized form, one travel manager complained, "I spend too much money hiring consultants to write RFPs for me."

Despite the criticisms, though, many industry players said they do believe the standardized electronic RFP holds great merit. The majority of problems encountered by last year's users resulted from the first-year inexperience of both travel buyers and hoteliers. During last year's process, 59 percent of those surveyed received incomplete data, 50 percent had missing or bad data fields and 56 percent received invalid or incorrect formats.

Still, travel managers are not dismissing the project out of hand. "We'll try again," promised Cynthia Perper, director of travel services for New York-based Colgate-Palmolive Co. "Not everybody was ready to do it. With technology, you're bound by who you're working with. It sort of assumes that we're all on the same level."

With 81 percent of the travel managers saying hotels were unable or unwilling to send back bids electronically, NBTA will focus on trying to get the hospitality industry to comply with the standard. Doubletree, Hilton, Holiday Inn, Hyatt, Inter-Continental, Marriott, Omni, Radisson, Sheraton and Westin already are able to comply with the electronic process. Sheraton, Holiday Inn and Doubletree were the top three chains cited by travel managers for their ability to respond electronically.

As the NBTA attempts to bring the standardized electronic RFP process onto the mainstream negotiating table, it is already preparing to completely replace the current disk-based process with Internet accessibility, Wakida said. He expects to access the RFP through individual sites using a password in three to five years.