Updates to the service make it available to non-rate auditing customers to source with TRIPBAM and introduce batch RFP feature and “current market factor”.
DALLAS – TRIPBAM, the global hotel shopping, benchmarking and analytics provider, announced a new release of its Smart Sourcing product that makes the solution available to any corporation or consultant, regardless of whether they’re an existing TRIPBAM client or using a TMC reselling the TRIPBAM rate auditing service.
Smart Sourcing empowers travel managers and procurement professionals to secure hotel agreements in just a few clicks leveraging data collected from daily rate auditing. In recent months, new demand from consultants and buyers not already using TRIPBAM for daily rate auditing led TRIPBAM to make Smart Sourcing available as a standalone product.
In addition, this new release also boasts a new batch RFP feature, which allows corporates to easily send out multiple bids at once to thousands of hotels around the globe, as well as a new discount factor to account for difficulties in applying historical data to a post-COVID marketplace.
“We’ve adjusted our offering based on the realities of COVID-19,” said Steve Reynolds, Founder and CEO of TRIPBAM. “Making Smart Sourcing available to corporates who don’t currently use our rate auditing solution, adding the new batch RFP feature and adjusting our discount recommendations to reflect current market conditions are ways we’re working to help travel managers adapt, stay flexible, and explore alternatives to legacy sourcing processes in this new environment.”
The new launch of Smart Sourcing is now available directly through TRIPBAM or via its network of TRIPBAM Certified Consultants and agency resellers. The implementation process only requires that corporations or consultants provide 12 months of booking data in any format and the client’s current hotel program.
Additional details on the batch RFP feature:
TRIPBAM developed this new capability following the launch of Smart Sourcing at BTN Innovate 2019, where the solution earned Judges’ Honorable Mention. The offering also won the Peoples’ Choice Award at the Business Travel Show in London in February 2020. Originally designed to work with one hotel at a time, travel managers can now bulk upload hotel targets for a larger sourcing effort. Additionally, corporates can use the feature to easily convert existing static hotel rate agreements to new static or dynamic agreements to account for ongoing market volatility.
Additional details on the Current Market Factor:
In order to address lower market rates across the board and the lack of usable historical data to calculate the current value of negotiated rates, TRIPBAM has created a new method to help corporates adjust previously negotiated static and dynamic rates to fit current market conditions and easily determine whether a deal is weak, average, good or excellent.
In addition to its new features and availability, Smart Sourcing still delivers the same value proposition to users, making it easy to secure agreements at recommended rates based on company room nights and volume and historical hotel behaviors. Travel managers can select a dynamic or flat/static rate, avoid blackout dates and room category restrictions, and other request amenities such as cancellation policy, WiFi, breakfast, commission, parking, among others. The predefined bid is sent directly to the hotel via email using TRIPBAM’s recently curated list of hotel contacts. Once details are reviewed and bids accepted, rates are automatically loaded, and TRIPBAM immediately audits and tracks hotel performance.
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
