Contract Negotiations

favorable terms. best rates. maximum protection.

Experienced Housing Professionals

cmr's hotel contract specialists are seasoned experts who will professionally represent your organization and its strategic goals to establish your ideal hotel mix of room inventory. We annually negotiate 500,000+ room nights within a vast hotel network ranging from national chain hotels to independent properties. Our goal is always to negotiate favorable contracts for our clients that contain the best terms, offer the best rates, discourage around-the-block bookings, and eliminate or minimize exposure to potentially costly attrition situations.

Accurately Predict Inventory Needs

In addition to carefully analyzing the hotel rate environment of a particular marketplace, we thoroughly analyze each group's unique housing needs to help develop the most efficient inventory strategy:

• Review group's historical pick-up data
• Determine preferred citywide and individual hotel room flows
• Analyze attendee and exhibitor sub-groups
• Assess housing participant demographics
• Forecast reservation, change and cancellation patterns based on historical pace reports
• Evaluate special block needs

Establish Clear Policies and Procedures

To ensure room block accuracy, liability protection and policy consistency for our clients, cmr's contract specialists meticulously review each contract to make sure that critical issues are clearly defined:

• Housing service fee structure
• Firm cut-off and room block review dates
• Room rates (both before and after the cut-off date)
• "Best Rate Guarantee" protection (to prevent the hotel from selling non-block rooms at a lower rate)
• Form and frequency of data transfer (reports and rooming lists) with each hotel
• Deposit, cancellation and refund policies
• Block management after the cut-off date
• Cancellation/attrition policy
• New reservation process
• Change management process
• Rules on name changes and cancel/replace permissions
• Complimentary credits and staff room rates
• Oversell policy
• Procedures for relocating guests due to overbooking

Our contract specialists are available to negotiate directly with the hotels on your behalf, or to provide expert consultation services and ensure that your hotel contracts satisfy your housing requirements, are attractively-rated, and protect your interests.