Forte Hotels has revamped its commission payment system in a bid to cut out lengthy delays in payments to agents.
In future, agents booking through a global distribution system or the central reservation centre will be guaranteed commission payments within 15 days of checkout.
The current system requires agents to invoice individual hotels directly — taking up a huge amount of time.
“It can take weeks or even months if the hotel is outside the UK. I think some agents have given up altogether,” admitted director of UK sales Danny Barranger.
Under the new scheme, which comes into effect on April 1, agents will be sent commission slips automatically from a central point speeding up the process and allowing payment to be made within 15 days.
Business with the travel trade is already showing a 20% increase on the same period last year, according to Barranger. He said he hopes the new arrangement will boost this figure. “I think this will encourage people who don’t book with Forte to switch business to us,” said Barranger.
The move is part of Forte’s ongoing drive to improve business relations with the trade which traditionally have been strained.
Other initiatives in the pipeline include plans to enhance an existing scheme to encourage agents to stay at Forte Hotels in their own leisure time.
Meanwhile, Forte has appointed Joost van Spengler to the new position of general manager of its UK call centre in Brierley Hill.
Van Spengler who joins from Hotel Russell, part of Forte’s London Signature Hotels group, where he was general manager, will be responsible for a total of 400 staff at the centre.
He will be responsible for the daily operations of the centre leaving global reservations director, Didier Dewitte, to focus on strategicmanagement.