CNG Travel Group has launched a payment service aimed at
increasing agents’ hotel commissions through a global
distribution system by 40%.
Senior vice-president Tim Wright said travel agents struggle to
collect hotel commissions as no formal payment structure
exists.
He said agents only receive commission from up to 60% of hotels
on the GDSs. Wright said agents can spend up to four days a month
chasing hotel payments, with some even employing staff to do it.
This can lead to agents wasting time tracking down payments that
can take up to six months to arrive, if they ever arrive at all, he
added.
CNG Travel Group’s Prompt Pay system covers 30,000 hotels
on the GDSs and guarantees up to 9% commission, which is paid
within 30 days of the client checking out of the hotel.
Wright believes the system could increase the amount of hotel
commission received by agents by 40% and lead to time savings of up
to 70%.
The company – which claims to offer the only
commission-chasing system that sits on the desktop and can be fully
integrated with the GDSs – charges 70p per booking, less than
1% of average commission payments, according to Wright.