InterContinental Hotels & Resorts’ decision to eliminate all
meeting cancellation and attrition fees has raised expectations
among travel agents and meeting planners, who expect that others
will soon follow suit.
However, as this story went to press, no one else had emulated
InterContinental’s move.
InterContinental’s policy applies to properties in the Americas
North, South and Central. Book through April 30 and schedule the
conclave through Dec. 31, 2003 and the fees are forgotten.
“We recognize the uncertainty many have in booking meetings and
committing funds,” said Jeff Senior, the hotelier’s brand vice
president for North America. The American Society of Travel Agents
thinks the move is timely. “If the hotels want to avoid having
empty rooms, as we get close to what appears to be an unavoidable
conflict, they’re going to have to do something to encourage
consumers,” said Paul Ruden, ASTA’s senior vice president for
industry and legal affairs.
And one of the things they can do, he said, is reduce risk.
Ruden believes InterContinental was “very smart” to ax the
penalties. That way, meeting planners are “encouraged to go ahead
and book now for future dates, dates where they have some
concern.”
While ASTA has no indication that other hoteliers will do away
with fees, prior to the actual start of a war, Ruden said, “These
types of practices do tend to be copied.”
Maybe, but there’s certainly been no wholesale rush. At least
not yet.
“We have not come out with any position on this matter,” said
Jeanne Datz, director of brand communication for Hilton Hotels. She
said Hilton will wait to make a decision “until something happens
if it should happen.”
“Unfortunately, we have not yet reformulated cancellation
policies at this point and time,” said Mark Ricci, a spokesman for
Starwood Hotels and Resorts, the company which owns, among others,
Sheraton and Westin. “I’m sure we’ll address it if and when it
becomes an issue.”
“We’re reviewing our cancellation policies,” said Marriott
spokesman, Roger Conner.
Unlike some observers, John Hawks, president of the Association
of Retail Travel Agents, thinks that other hotel companies may not
do away with cancellation and attrition fees at least not before
the outbreak of war.
“Down the road, it’s going to be hard to re-institute fees,” he
said. “Individual properties doing it is one thing, but when it
becomes a companywide policy, it’s tough to take that back, once
you’ve offered it.”
That doesn’t mean ARTA isn’t in favor of InterContinental’s
initiative. “Some of the properties, like InterContinental, had
almost gotten out of hand with some of the cancellation
requirements and penalties,” said Hawks. “We see that in planning
conferences for ARTA ... and we’re hearing it from our members as
well.”
Kevin Mitchell, Business Travel Coalition president, said that
InterContinental’s initiative has made travel agents and meeting
planners more hopeful.
“The travel managers I work with are pleased by
InterContinental’s move,” he said. “They’re expecting policies like
this.”
He said hoteliers “need to do everything they can to encourage
travel.” That means “removing any barriers that exist in the
decision process” barriers such as cancellation and attrition
fees.
Some individual hotels aren’t waiting for corporate policy to
coalesce before moving to calm customers. They’re taking initiative
on their own.
Witness what’s happened in San Diego. For business that hadn’t
already been contracted, for meetings about to be booked, a number
of San Diego area hotels are cutting clients some slack. The San
Diego Convention and Visitors Bureau is promoting an effort that
will run through June, called “The Hassle-Free Meeting Guarantee.”
A key component of that guarantee states that 18 area hotels
including the San Diego Marriott Hotel and the Sheraton San Diego
Hotel and Marina will employ “flexible contracting conditions,”
said John Reyes, the CVB’s vice president of sales.
That doesn’t mean these hotels will necessarily do away with the
fees altogether, but it could mean they’ll reduce them on a
case-by-case basis.
It’s a matter of flexibility, said Reyes. “And the hotels will
define what that flexibility is,” he said. What’s important is that
“they will look at attrition and cancellation differently than
during normal times.”
And these are anything but normal times. BTC’s Mitchell believes
that in contrast to the first Gulf War, the coming conflict if it
happens could depress business traffic for some time. At the very
least, through the end of 2003, he added.
ASTA’s Ruden begs to disagree. “I think we might be surprised at
how brief the war turns out to be,” he said. “I think there’s a
huge amount of pent-up demand that has piled up behind all these
government warnings... People, at some point, are going to want to
start traveling again.”
Until they do, initiatives such as InterContinental’s can’t
hurt.
