Hotel benchmarking and rate reshopping specialist TripBam has announced its latest version of Smart Sourcing for hotels.
The company has upgraded its RFP tool with input from major hotel chains, including Marriott International, Hyatt Hotels and Accor, to make it easier to work with their global sales organisations, even when requests are targeted to specific properties.
TripBam, which launched Smart Sourcing as a standalone product for corporate travel buyers in 2020, expects the new functionality to launch in April.
The tool tracks market rates and automates discount proposals based on buyer volume. At the same time, TripBam's rate-assurance functionality and auditing has enhanced transparency, and according to buyers, has kept hoteliers on their toes when it comes to providing competitive rates, especially as local markets fluctuate.
However, the first version of Smart Sourcing did not loop in hotel global sales organisations into the proposal process, but this has now been changed.
Hyatt’s vice-president of global sales Gus Vonderheide told BTN: “That toggle switch, which was not available in phase one, now gives the customer options to send the RFP directly to the property as well as to the global sales organisation.
“Allowing my team to communicate the process to their customers will keep everyone connected and involved.”
TripBam’s collaboration with hoteliers also represents a welcome change in what has sometimes been a contentious relationship.
Vonderheide added: “We both exist because hotels exist. It's not the other way around and we both have the responsibility to bring value to the properties.
“TripBam, in allowing global sales to be involved from the very beginning and to work alongside each other in completing the RFP process, will result in a win-win for everyone involved.”
David Mollov, TripBam’s executive vice-president of hotel solutions, added: “When we first launched Smart Sourcing, it solved a major resourcing issue of Covid by allowing buyers to send property-level RFPs while account managers were furloughed.
“But now, with the co-operation and feedback of Marriott, Hyatt and Accor, we’re able to deliver even greater flexibility for buyers to source in the most efficient way possible and capture quantifiable savings unlike more traditional processes.”