Lanyon, the Dallas-based independent provider of automated request for proposals (RFP) has announced it is launching a more enhanced version of its current communication unit - the RFPControlCentre
The new tool will enable travel managers and not just travel management companies to access a virtual room, after paying for a license fee, where they can access all the information from hotel chains and individual hotels that would normally be found on proposal documents.
Lanyon executive vice president Roland Tanner told abtn: ”We had discussions with a number of travel managers about how they go about their request for proposals procedure and a lot of them send out the forms to the different hotels they are thinking of choosing as their preferred supplier.
”The hotels would then send back, in total, a few thousand discs, paper form and emails and the travel managers would have to construct a spreadsheet showing lots of different bits of information in order to decide on their preferred hotel for each location.
”Our current system allows for travel companies to enter the virtual room and talk to the hotels about what they have, in real time. The system allows for rate negotiation and for information to be exchanged. But the enhanced version means that from December individual travel managers will be able to enter the portal, sift through information and communicate online with the sales director of the hotel chain.
Lanyon boasts travel firms Hogg Robinson Group and BCDTravel among its client lists. It has 32,000 hotels on its database and all proposal information is updated annually. But Tanner stressed that it isn”t just these existing hotel clients who can utilise the system”any hotel in the world can join the programme. Its new system means hotels will only have to fill out their proposal forms once to reach a multitude of travel buyers.
The most recent contract wins for Lanyon are travel managers from Opteva and fashion brand Levi Strauss and its hotel portfolio has been boosted this year with the addition of Preferred Hotel Group and Thistle Hotels.