Hotel costs can normally eat up a significant chunk of your company’s business travel spending. In this guide, we'll show you how you can cut costs and benefit from some of the best corporate discounts at hotels. Just like other travel service providers, hotels offer their business clientele corporate special rates and discounts. These discounts normally start at 10% but, with a bit of shopping around and negotiating, you can easily get a better deal. It’s in a hotel’s best interest to offer business travelers more attractive rates in exchange for loyalty and a guaranteed high volume of business.   

Hotel corporate rates are generally negotiated beforehand between the hotel or hotel chain and your company, usually via your travel manager. These rates are usually based on criteria like minimum annual stays, a predetermined number of employees, or a partnership agreement with the hotel chain.They can be the same all year round or only be applicable when you book your stay on business days or during off-peak seasons. Getting the best rates all depends on what is negotiated between your company and the hotel. When you book an accommodation through the hotel’s website, you’ll be prompted to insert your corporate code into a coupon or discount code box while making your reservation. Upon check-in, business travelers might be asked to show a company card or identification to prove they’re eligible for corporate hotel discounts. Having good discounted corporate hotel rates helps you stay within your budget and aligned with your

company’s travel policy

. Quite often, hotel corporate rate agreements could include auxiliary perks such as more flexible cancellation policies and loyalty points, which could be exchanged for free nights or add-ons.

If you’re a large company, working with a travel agency can give you access to prime corporate hotel rates. But their expertise comes at a fee. And, that doesn’t leave much on the market for smaller businesses.Here are a few other tips on how businesses of all sizes can get discounted rates at hotels:

While small businesses may not have the same negotiation power as larger corporations, there are a number of ways in which you can still get great hotel corporate rates:

Direct to consumer booking platforms, like

booking.com

or Airbnb, don’t integrate with each other—yet they’re often a go-to booking tool for employees.  This massively complicates consolidating travel data and keeping track of your budget. Why? When employees book through multiple platforms, it can quickly lead to overspending by having employees unknowingly book out of policy. Plus, these leisure-first booking platforms don’t provide tools for tracking and managing your business expenses. In many cases, they also provide perks and upsells your business traveler just won’t be using.A business travel management platform, like TravelPerk, fixes this issue through centralized bookings, easy expense management, and integrated travel policies, all while providing access to a world-class inventory of hotels and apartments. With over 25,000 negotiated rates across 150 countries, TravelPerk offers competitive pricing tailored to your company’s needs. It features a golden TravelPerk rate tag, so you can easily spot negotiated rates when searching for accommodation. These negotiated deals on hotels often include added extras such as free speedy Wi-Fi, complimentary parking, and discounts at restaurants and bars.

Take the time to see what’s available out there. Speak to multiple hotels and chains that match your needs, compare their rates or the offers that they give you directly. Don’t be afraid to ask them to match the best offer you’ve received so far.While this is an option that many companies try, be mindful that it requires a lot of time and effort. This may not be ideal for SMBs who often have limited resources or don’t have a dedicated travel manager on board. 

If you’re staying for more than five nights you can ask for what is known as an extended stay discount. This might not be advertised openly on the hotel’s website but it is common practice to ask for. While a business trip may not warrant your traveler staying with the hotel for five nights, their bookended leisure travel might. It’s a good idea to specify your company’s stance on bleisure in your travel policy—make it clear to employees that the company sees

value in extending business trips for personal and professional growth

. Not sure if allowing bleisure trips is right for your organization? Here’s some stats from our recent

business travel and wellness survey results

found: 

Non-refundable rates provide discounts for travelers who are willing to pay upfront and commit to their reservation without the option to cancel or modify it later. If cancellation flexibility isn’t an important factor for you, you can opt for a non-refundable rate.  Hotels offer these discounts as incentives for clients to pay up-front. In some cases, hotels could offer a discount of up to 25% here. 

Many credit card providers offer corporate or business credit cards. Using these cards to pay for your hotel stay can get you company hotel discounts, the occasional free night, or even some add-ons like free meals. Corporate credit cards usually come at a cost but can be worth it if used frequently enough.Alternatively, some hotels have their own loyalty programs which award returning business travelers with rewards, discounted rates and free stays. 

If you’re traveling to meet with a client, there’s a chance they might have their own corporate codes or pre-negotiated company hotel discounts with a nearby venue. Check with your client before booking anything and see if you can use their corporate code if they do. Just keep in mind, you’ll likely need to prove you’re staying to visit the client, which will be harder to do as you’re an external to the company and won’t have a company ID to show. Make sure you’ve got this cleared up before arriving!

Try to prioritize booking accommodation in advance to secure the best possible deals. Hotels cater to a huge range of guests, from business travelers to leisure visitors, and can sometimes be entirely booked out if there are any events in the area too. Everything from private gigs like weddings and big-number birthdays through to public events like, concerts or expos, can stop you from getting your perfect stay. These aren’t seasonal so you can’t presume a hotel will have space if booking ‘out of season’. While last-minute deals may be tempting, they often come with limited options—or none! Try to book in advance as soon as you know you’re traveling. 

Individual negotiations can be time-consuming, often requiring extensive back-and-forth communication and detailed contract discussions. But, if you’re going to give them a go, here are four things to keep in mind. 

Using TravelPerk for your travel management needs means that you get access to 25,000 negotiated rates in 150 countries—which is hard to beat. We have negotiated some of the most competitive corporate hotel rates for our customers including major hotel chains around the world. Finally, TravelPerk also offers a VAT recovery service which makes it easier to claim your VAT refunds on your hotel spending helping you to save up to 25% on business travel expenses.Take complete control and visibility over your company's travel expenses with TravelPerk.

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