GBTA's Hotel Rate Freeze Advice Ignites Controversy

The Global Business Travel Association is endorsing a postponement of the 2020 hotel request-for-proposals process until 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic, and "encourages hotels to roll all 2020 rates for 2021," the association announced last week. The response in the business travel industry has been mixed, not just regarding GBTA's position to roll rates over, but also that it offered a position at all.

GBTA normally does not get involved in the hotel RFP process other than providing a template of suggested questions buyers can ask suppliers, but "we made a special exception this year … [and] got involved at the request of top travel buyers and the top 50 hotel brands," said GBTA CEO Scott Solombrino in the announcement. "With so many people furloughed or laid off, and with so much uncertainty about when travel can truly restart, buyers and sellers have neither the resources nor the knowledge right now to develop a mutually beneficial hotel RFP."

While no one BTN spoke with for this report disagreed that the travel and hotel environment is challenged at the moment, some thought GBTA's announcement was premature given that the typical RFP season doesn't get going until August or September, when the hotel landscape might look different. Some also noted that GBTA is not an advisory organization.