BT (Business Transient) Booking Cost to Take Effect at Former Starwood-Branded Hotels
Many of Marriott’s B2B customers are moving to centralized travel programs with duty-of-care, procurement oversight, and technology solutions. This marketplace shift is driving an increase in the number of accounts interested in centralized Business Transient (BT) pricing.
Marriott’s U.S. Area Sales team is organized to support centralized BT pricing with the volume and scale of growing mid-market and prospect accounts. Our customer-centric model supports all Marriott-branded hotels—those that participate in the Area Sales program as well as “non-participating hotels” – that are included in Marriott’s BT pricing process. To account for this support, in 2018, former Starwood-branded hotels in the U.S. and Canada will begin incurring monthly BT booking costs, described below. Currently, all Starwood hotels are considered “non-participating” because they do not participate in Area Sales. Following sales integration (anticipated sometime in 2018), Starwood hotels that continue to be “non-participating” will continue paying BT booking costs, while hotels that participate in Area Sales will have these fees covered by their Area Sales costs.
| Tier 1 | 0-400 room nights | $1,300 ($108.33/month) |
| Tier 2 | 401-1,300 room nights | $2,200 ($183.33/month) |
| Tier 3 | 1,301+ room nights | $3,100 ($258.33/month) |
Under this cost structure, there will be three tiers of production based on historical business transient room night production. One year of actual production is used to determine which tier and associated cost the hotel will incur for the following year. Hotels that do not have production data for the prior year – including all former Starwood-branded hotels – are included in Tier 1 and therefore will pay the minimum of $1,300 annually ($108.33 monthly) in 2018. Each hotel’s 2019 BT tier will be determined based on 2018 actual production.
For additional information regarding these changes, please visit MGS.
Marriott International’s Sales Organization also includes multiple sales channels designed to drive group business to hotels. Hotels that transact business through these group sales channels will incur costs for leads booked. All leads are optional, and costs are only incurred if a lead is accepted and actualized. The information below summarizes the cost structure that is currently in place for business booked through these group sales channels, for all hotels.
- US Account Sales/Area Sales/Convention Resort Network (CRN): Non-participating hotels incur 10% of 90% of the contracted group rooms revenue at definite status. Participating hotels receiving leads from another US region incur 6% of 90% of original definite contracted group rooms revenue.
- National Group Sales (NGS): All hotels and brands incur costs on booked business at $2.60 per booked room night and $105 per booked catering opportunity as assessed at definite status.
- Starwood Small Meetings Line: Business generated by this former Starwood group incurs 4% on actualized revenue.
- Team HOT: Former Starwood hotel-to-hotel lead referrals incur 5% on actualized revenue.
- MAR HOT: Leads sent between former Starwood and Marriott brands incur a 10% cost on 90% of contracted revenue at definite status.
Booking costs for the US Account/Area Sales/Convention Resort Network (CRN) and MAR HOT programs above are capped at $30,000 per booking (1 contract = 1 booking), and are refunded in the event of a cancellation.
Should you have any questions about the above sales channels, their associated cost structures, or BT Booking Costs, please let us know.
