Travel management companies are signing up to a new online request for proposal system allowing quicker access for purchasing hotel rooms.
Since independent provider Lanyon launched its RFPControlCentre, business travel giants Hogg Robinson Group and BCD Travel have registered for access to the 35,000 hotels available worldwide.
The system allows TMCs and travel managers to communicate online with hotel chains and manage the selection and negotiation of rooms and facilities.
Lanyon’s European managing director Roland Tanner said he is in talks with other TMCs and thinks the system is essential.
He said: “We have 2,000 fields for one hotel – this system provides so much information and will save TMCs a lot of time”.
“We have been doing request for proposal longer than anybody else. RFPs have often been thought of as the stepdaughter of the industry – everyone is talking about both online tools and self-booking tools.
“Without Lanyon’s technology the RFP process for corporations and TMCs is often a mixture of phone calls, e-mails and spreadsheets.”
Features of the system include an online hotel directory and selection process as well as a rate negotiation facility.
Tanner also said Lanyon is working on providing carbon reporting with the hotel chains.
“These days people want to find out just how environmentally friendly a hotel is and what its carbon footprint is like,” said Tanner.