<B>The Face Of Innovation</B>
<B><FONT SIZE="+1">Custom Reports Refine RFP Process </B>
<B>Name:</B> Rick Wakida
<B>Company:</B> Vodafone Group/AirTouch Communications
<B>Headquarters:</B> San Francisco
<B>Annual Hotel Spend:</B> $5 million
<B>Innovation:</B> Developing and implementing a system that builds on the National Business Travel Association electronic RFP form
Given Rick Wakida's role as chairman of the National Business Travel Association hotel committee, it shouldn't come as a surprise that he's a staunch supporter of the electronic transmission of hotel data as a way of expediting the lengthy, often complicated request for proposal process.
After all, corporate travel buyers such as Wakida today often are faced with the reality of managing expanding hotel programs that entail increasing numbers of hotels at the same time that they deal with a persistent lack of coverage midweek in many of the destinations where their travelers need to be. As a result, these travel buyers are forced to use their ingenuity and develop more helpful tools to measure the appropriateness of the numerous hotels in the markets they have to choose from.
At Vodafone Group/AirTouch Communications, where he is travel analyst and technology manager contractor, Wakida has risen to the occasion by developing and implementing customized reports of his own that refine and clarify the electronic version of the standard NBTA form, with its 420 fields of information. In anticipation of the 2001 negotiations, Wakida loaded 108 of the 420 fields into his database, and actively will use 80 of those in the reports he generates.
At this year's NBTA conference in Los Angeles in July, and in other forums, Wakida was eager to describe how it's possible to streamline what he said can be a cumbersome procedure.
"Among these several reports is a services and amenities query for the hotel, which includes a simple 'yes' or 'no' response," Wakinda said. "If it's a 'yes' response, it will appear in this report so I can tell at a glance which amenities and services are included with the negotiated rate that the hotel has offered."
Wakida's report is sorted by state or country and then by city. Finally, it is sorted by individual property. "Then, reading across the form, any time you see a 'yes' for an amenity or service, it indicates that it is being offered along with the negotiated rate," he said. In this way, Wakida can do a direct comparison between properties: "We can compare properties within a city, for example, based on what the services and amenities are.
"This is not to say this is the main criteria a corporation looks at in making a final selection of properties to include in its hotel program," Wakida added. "Rather, it's one of several factors that corporate travel managers look at in addition to rate and location. Then there are other items on the RFP form that must figure into the analysis, such as a hotel's security provisions and the cancellation policy in effect."
Certainly, this could provide the travel manager with valuable information in a tiebreaker where two properties appear equal in appeal in all other regards. "Where this could be important--other than in tiebreaker situations--is where a hotel finds itself at a disadvantage for some particular reason," Wakida said.
The hotel, for example, might be competing with a property that's across the street from the client's headquarters building. For the hotel that's farther away from the desired location, such services as providing shuttle service to and from the headquarters location can make a critical difference to the travel manager. "Things such as transportation, if it's included in the negotiated rate, would serve to equalize the distance problem to some degree," Wakida said.
"Another possible area that could be used in negotiations to equalize things is the availability of a complimentary, full, continental or buffet breakfast," he said. In other words, if it's a standard amenity at a national chain and a hotel that's part of that chain offers it as a matter of course, an independent hotel can offer it as part of the negotiated rate as well. It's the independent hotel's way of remaining competitive.
The report Wakida developed addresses these scenarios at a glance. "You can go with different variations," he said. The report is just one way of quickly making sense of a complicated document. "It's just one more way to compare and contrast properties. And for the hotels themselves, it's a way to increase their value to my firm and other corporations. It helps them stand out from the competition.