Revamped Sabre Hotel Tool Aims to Simplify Negotiations

Sabre Corp. added capabilities to its Sabre Hotel RFP solution aimed at simplifying the hotel negotiation and request for proposal process for travel agencies and corporate travel managers.

Sabre Hotel RFP is an online marketplace that helps corporations solicit bids and negotiate rates and amenities with hotels. It also audits the actual hotel rates received.

It is integrated with the Sabre GDS, allowing users to search more than 130,000 hotels, manage hotel bids and pull data from reports and exports, including a negotiated rate benchmark. Users also can create custom reports.

Features
The new version includes:
•    An easy-to-populate data capability that enables users to automatically see the hotels within a certain radius of a location they request.
•    An updated Hotel Directory that allows users to display hotel rates by market and policy level.
•    New navigation and structure that, in tests, increased the likelihood of hotels’ response to RFPs.

Cost-saving opportunity
Sabre said its Hotel RFP users negotiated for nearly $81 million in corporate transient room night expenditures last year, an increase of more than 5% over 2012. Buyers also increased the amount of business awarded to hotels by nearly 10%.

In addition to its self-service online solution, Sabre is offering hotel program consulting services to travel buyers to assist with managing implementation, gathering industry rate trends, negotiating corporate hotel programs, and other associated tasks.

About half of business travelers’ hotel room nights are booking outside the managed travel program, representing a significant opportunity for corporations to cut costs, according to Sabre.