This week BTE reports on an apparently successful meeting of industry figures with the EC where they put their case for GDS de-regulation with the appropriate safeguards and on more views on the controversial issue of dynamic pricing.
The latest opinion of this topic is from Trevor Elswood, commercial director of BSI, one of the UK's largest online hotel booking agencies. Mr Elswood believes that if managed properly with readily available back ups, dynamic pricing can work for corporates. If corporate have negotiated rates which are underpinned by rate caps and have alternatives hotels to use, they can mix and match their hotel programme to their best advantage.
The danger he says is where corporates stick with their chosen global chain and their preferred hotels where they become more prey to dynamic pricing.
But he admits - and corporates and some hoteliers will agree on this - that the worries start when global chains attempt to force dynamic pricing onto the clients. This is where the fall outs are likely to be and the breakdown of the crucial relationships between hotels and corporates - as outlined by Yves Galimidi last week.
This seems to be the problem that needs to be ironed out – and its solution depends very much on the attitudes of the hotel chains themselves.
* BTE apologises for the late arrival of the newsletter last week. We were hit bt technical difficulties which caused us some problems.
Stanley Slaughter
Editor
Business Travel Europe