NBTA Hotel Committee White Paper Addresses Rate Loading

The National Business Travel Association yesterday released a comprehensive white paper on hotel rate loading at Corporate Travel World in New York. The NBTA hotel committee acted in response to buyers’ chronic problems getting negotiated rates loaded accurately and in a timely fashion in global distribution systems.

"The paper provides a process map so buyers can work with their preferred hotels effectively to improve their success getting rates loaded properly," said committee chair Brian Nichols, hotel and ground transportation manager for Deloitte. "Buyers who are most successful start discussing rate loading when they start their request for proposals process as early as August of each year."

With the growth of the use of online tools, rate loading has become more complicated since buyers have to be sure a correct rate is loaded separately for this channel, Nichols said.