August 22, 2019 Owner & Franchise Communications

Guidelines for Sports Rebates and Concessions

Franchise Management Companies | The sports segment is an important and valuable segment to a hotels’ mix of business. As an industry practice, sports tournament housing companies have been accustomed to receiving commission on actualized group rooms and an additional rebate per room that supports the group’s business. When working with these business opportunities, encourage your hotels to adhere to the following:

Guidelines

Rebates should not be added to offset commissions.
For intermediated group business, the seven percent (7%) commission should only be paid if the group has a valid IATA (or other accredited industry) number. Refer to the Group Intermediary Participation and Compensation Brand Standard for further information.
The rebate must be clearly disclosed in the Hotel’s sales agreement. For additional information, please reference GSA Clause 3-2 (Request for Portion of Room Rate) in the Library of Group Sales Agreement Clauses.
Rebates may be delivered to the intermediary identified in the GSA for collection purposes only but must be made payable to the end-user identified in the GSA. If the intermediary is the contracting party and isn’t identified as agent for the named end user, then the rebate should be paid as instructed in the GSA.
When a rebate is requested, consider the following questions to determine whether to offer the rebate, “What is included in the rebate amount?”, “What makes financial sense for the hotel?”, “Are there other concessions being offered?”
Additional Fees (e.g., housing fees, Passkey, transportation, booking fees, agency fees or other ancillary fees) should be discussed with the deployed Account Manager.

Concessions

Marriott Bonvoy Events – ensure points/miles do not exceed the standard award levels (no double or triple points, unless there is a specific promotion over the booking dates).
Complimentary Rooms – Sellers may receive a request for the value of unused complimentary rooms to be credited to the Master Account or given to the tournament director. It is recommended that hotels decline such request(s).
The customer may occasionally request other concessions such as complimentary breakfast, no attrition and no cancellation. Sellers should carefully review these requests with sales leadership, as there should be a focus on the Hotel’s profitability.

Continue to encourage your hotels to evaluate each opportunity based on past performance (e.g., contracted versus actualized rooms), total concession package and overall customer relationship. For additional information, visit the Affinity-Sports page on MGS. Should you have additional questions, direct them to asksales@marriott.com.