The RFP Process

Many large corporations send out annual RFP invitations or "Request for Proposal". These corporations will send RFP's out to selected hotels via email or through a program such as Lanyon.

They will provide you with a basic account summary of their business, contacts and in most cases they will provide hotel spending information within your market.

Some of them require that there is a participation fee to be listed if you are accepted. Even opportunities to up sell your property with additional advertising opportunities. Some of them require commission, some do not. On some occasions, the fee is included in your franchise fees. Whatever the case, they are important and reading the whole
invitation and information provided is very important. If there is a fee, then the Owner, General Manager, Director of Sales or Controller should be notified.

You do not want to complete an RFP with an investment from your hotel and then the RFP client produces next to nothing. That is not a good investment and if you take a look at it, an RFP is an investment and you should get return.

Check under their Key Company Data to see if they have a mandated travel policy in place.

• Do they mandate the usage of their preferred hotel?
• Do they measure the results?
• What is their percentage of compliance?

The RFP usually notes the maximum number of Black-out dates that your property is allowed. Black-out dates can be very inconvenient to the travelling guest. If you have too many, you will not be selected. I advise that you keep good track of the area trends and how many times your property sold out. With this being a volume account, it is worth not putting any black out dates in. Black-out dates are very well known to the consumer and we can thank the Airlines for this knowledge.

When you are submitting your bid, be sure to review their Projected Market Volume Report for the potential number of annual room nights in your city. If your city is not listed, it may be included in the totals for the
closest metropolitan area or it may be a new destination for their company. It is best to qualify the account prior to deciding on a rate to offer.

• Are they requesting a net/non commissioned rate, or will it be commissioned? Note that some may require as much as a 30% discount on your rack rate.
• How will this discount affect your ADR?
• Will you have any displacement?

These are all things that you should consider before quoting your room rate.