Key Corporate-Centric Strategies for Hotel Booking
Corporates handle a lot of employee travel plans every day, so building up strategies and plan of action in booking efficient hotels would become an extra task.
However, what they neglect is a proper course of action that these strategies offer:
Enforce Centralised Booking System
Handling & overseeing multiple hotel bookings from different platforms affects the coordinated business travel plans. Since businesses oversee each travel, they monitor individual hotel bookings too.
An effective strategy would be to centralise this step. A centrally controlled platform for hotel booking streamlines the entire process and offers:
- Compliance with company’s travel policy.
- Prevents the spending limit to exceed.
- Bulk negotiations on price with hotels.
- Simplified tracking & oversee on the deals.
Engage Negotiations with Hotels
Some offices schedule a specific meeting or conference at the same location. The date and time can vary but mostly, it is fixed. Since businesses will need accommodation for the same period, negotiating prior with the hotel’s dedicated team about the permanent booking on the same date is also a smart strategy.
All that is needed is identifying frequent cities, business travel hotels near to the venue, and then you can begin negotiation for the frequent booking.
Opt Group Bookings to Avail Discounts
For corporate meetings, & other events like training programs, mass hiring, etc., companies need places where they can accommodate their entire staff attending such events. Though, a last-minute communication might make it difficult to arrange the required rooms.
So, negotiating from the hotels for the required number of rooms in bulk at the earliest is a strategic way. What's more, hotels offer a discount on price in such deals & bookings as well.
Select Hotels Offering Business Amenities
Employees leaving to attend official events & meetings are not always on holiday. They work during their off-hours or sometimes they need to connect in case of an urgency. So, the hotel booked must offer amenities that are favourable to corporates:
- High-speed Wi-Fi Connectivity
- Meeting & Board Rooms
- Business Centres inside Hotel Vicinity
- Flexible check-in/check-out facility
- Airport transfers & connectivity
- Transport Availability
- Parking Spot (if needed)
These strategies would allow corporates to find & book hotels more efficiently. However, it isn’t the only thing that should be your concern, as you still have to pay. So, is there a way to cut costs on all the bookings? Well, here it is.
Smart Cost-Saving Techniques for Corporates on Hotel Booking
Not just hotel booking, but even costs can also be influenced with effective techniques. Not only, it will give you proper accommodation but also offer you affordable hotel deals.
So, let’s see the techniques that can help corporates save booking costs:
Always Book the Hotel in Advance
The prices in hotels fluctuate but not random. It depends on how quickly you need the room so the close the date, the higher the cost. That is why, the simplest way to optimise cost in hotel booking is to book the accommodation in advance.
Since the date would be a bit far from your booking date, the prices would be less. It’s an easy approach to save cost in hotel booking.
Establish Long-Term Alliance with Hotels
Long-term alliance with hotels is actually a smart technique for corporates to avoid the need of booking hotels for every business deal. Instead, you can directly get into a deal allowing you to negotiate the price for the rooms.
For instance, if the hotel’s offered price is ₹8,500/room, you can place a deal with a booking of ₹6000, saving ₹2500 in every deal.
Benefit from Hotel Utility Program When Booking
Each hotel offers a utility program; it's the same as earning shopping points but in this case, you don’t shop frequently, you stay at the hotel repeatedly. These consistent transactions earn you points to later utilize as discounts, and other complimentary benefits.
Now, companies can monetize these points for additional services or directly cut the costs on hotel booking. However, you have to enable this option when you book so hotel can list your head under the loyalty program.
Examine Hotel Price Trend Fluctuation
Price never stays at a constant position; it keeps changing & evolving. It’s quite fragile and dynamic in nature and aspects like demand, seasons, & any other factor can change it. So, it is what corporates have to investigate for best hotel rates.
Instead of booking in blind, follow the trend during the specific duration. This would allow you to make an informative and predictive decisions, allowing you to avoid situations with high pricing.
Quick Hotel Booking Tips Corporates to Consider
Now, after strategies & cost saving techniques, handling business travel becomes an easy action to execute. However, it’s never wrong to initiate with precautions so let’s look at the tips and suggestions helpful for corporates:
- Finalise the hotel close to your business venue making it easy to commute even during the peak hours.
- Employ policy on employees to book company-preferred or approved hotels to avoid the chances of poor management & oversight.
- Add a limit on hotel booking amount to reduce the overspending percentage on individual bookings.
- Make sure to implement a 7–10-day prior booking cycle for lower prices on booking.
- Before booking luxury & budget hotels, check and confirm the amenities offered by the hotel and if they are available in the price.
- One of the most important parts is to check the cancellation policy of the hotel. Even when you are shortlisting hotels, do confer on this area for further clarifications.
- Monitor hotel expenses & spending to identify frequent destinations & spending trend to find opportunities to negotiate prices.
- Book hotels beforehand for the events occurring every year on the same destination.
- Ensure enforcing a centralized platform to oversee all the travel plans & hotel bookings for informative negotiations.
- Consult with trusted and know travel partners to get assistance with consolidating data related to hotel bookings and better cost cutting techniques.
Blueberry Travels: Your One-Stop Solution for Corporate Hotel Booking
Managing hotel bookings can be daunting task and putting in extra staff & resources for a task could impact the overall smoothness of the business. Therefore, taking help from an expert in this matter can actually solve a lot of issues including the cost cutting ones.
Such an expert is Blueberry Travels, where businesses find solutions with their travel challenges. With our service catalogue that includes:
- Corporate Travel Expertise covering all elements of business travel
- Wide Hotel Network based & categorized on locations
- Personalized Booking Support allowing connectivity around the clock
- Cost-Effective Packages offering flexible & corporate-friendly prices
- Seamless Travel Management delivering end-to-end governance
Backed by these services & offered in the most apt way, Blueberry Travels doesn’t just provide you with simplistic solutions but emerge as a ‘One-Stop Solution’ to all your issues.
So, connect and transform your business travel experience in a click.