NBTA Releases New Hotel RFP

The National Business Travel Association's hotel committee has released its 2008 standard request for proposals form, the association announced today.

Changes from the 2007 version are mostly minor language clarifications, according to NBTA spokeswoman Courtney Leigh Beisel. The biggest change was the addition of a budget tier to the existing luxury, upscale, moderate—renamed midprice in the 2008 version—and economy tiers in the document. The changes came at the suggestions of corporations, hotels and third-party vendors, according to NBTA.

NBTA releases its model hotel RFP in the first quarter each year in an effort to standardize the process and make negotiations more time-efficient and data-rich. Jennifer Granskog, vice president of business development for Colville, Wash.-based hotel RFP provider Lodging Logistics, said NBTA's form is widely accepted as the industry standard.

Significant changes could be in store for the 2009 hotel RFP, Beisel said. The committee is considering adding dynamic pricing options, providing international standardization and creating an optional shorter form of the RFP, she said.