How the hotel’s corporate rates work?

Most travelers working for large companies are accustomed to extremely low discounted rates at the world’s largest hotel chains. Discounts vary widely depending on the chain, the specific property, the time of year, and the contract with the company. Typically, corporate discounted rates range from 10% to 70%. Sometimes, obtaining a corporate contract with a hotel chain not only allows you to receive a high discounted rate, but you can often also enjoy other benefits such as free Internet access, room upgrades, free breakfast, access to the hotel business lounge, or late check-out. In addition, other major benefits of corporate rates compared to other types of promotions are related to the cancellation policy: usually, corporate rates can be cancelled without penalty before 6 p.m. of the check-in date (other times the cancellation notice is longer, but this is very reasonable). On the other hand, if you want to get a decent rate at a hotel where you are not entitled to the corporate rate, you will be paid in advance and usually no refund is offered in case of cancellation of the reservation.

Large companies are very good at negotiating discounted corporate rates that are usually chain-wide: this means that any hotel in that particular chain will offer you a certain level of discount, although the level of discount may vary from hotel to hotel. Because the discounts are large and based on how many rooms are sold per year using a particular corporate codes, the larger companies that sign these contracts will push all of their employees, suppliers, contractors and consultants to use these corporate codes. The more rooms sold with a corporate codes, the better discounts the company’s travel team can negotiate for the following year.

For hotel chains, offering significant discounts to corporations allows the chain to have higher occupancy rates and allows many people to book rooms directly through the hotel (or using the hotel’s website) rather than using sites like Expedia, Orbitz or Booking.com that charge the hotel a high commission. Most booking sites are unable to offer corporate rates and you have to use the hotel website that applies the corporate codes in the booking search form. This is not the hotel’s details because they will push you to their own website, not the travel site, which charges them a 10% to 25% commission on each booking. So at the end of the day, everyone gets a very good deal: you get a low price, the company uses their corporate codes to sell another night, so there is a good discount for next year and the hotel saves money because you are directly on their website. In addition, if it is the company itself that pays for your stay, directly or indirectly As a business traveler and experienced negotiator of corporate deals, I always advise my friends and colleagues to be fully aware of the corporate rates they may receive as an employee, consultant, contractor, client or supplier of a large company. The benefits are tremendous for everyone and people should not be shy about taking advantage of this opportunity.

This blog is about corporate travel and teaches people how to get corporate discounts on hotels that they may be entitled to but don’t know about. I have met many employees and clients of large companies who are entitled to discounted hotel rates but don’t use them because they don’t even know they exist or they don’t have access to the corporate codes to access those rates.

Have a safe trip!