Submitting Travel Industry Educational Rates
Please remember travel agent/industry staff educational rates do not conflict or have any association with rates targeted at the general public via consumer based channel manager/bar rates.
There is no requirement to conform to rate parity as these rates are for educational use for travel trade employees only. They do not affect ADR as the revenue is considered incremental and resultant from internal marketing activities to the trade to stimulate awareness and country market growth (the same 'principal' as fam trip rates but on a larger and global scale).
Hotels should submit:
1) We suggest a maximum of 3 room category rate levels:
An industry educational lead-in rate: Run of House
(best available room allocated on check-in, solely at the hotels discretion - no guarantees)
Rates for an additional 2 room categories to guarantee specific room category allocation at time of booking, example: Guaranteed Pool View, Guaranteed Sea View
2) 3/4th person rate where applicable based on room categories
3) Child policy
4) Added Value/Bonuses
Get more attention for your hotel and offer added value for travel industry staff such as;
> Discount from F&B purchased locally in resort
> Discount from Spa services purchased in resort
> Space Available Upgrades at hotel discretion on check in
> Late check-out ~ subject availability and at hotel discretion on day of check out.
Rate Basis
Rates are on a "Request" Basis only. Only confirm bookings when you are sure you have empty rooms!
Rates should be commissionable to Staff Travel Voyage at 12%. If you wish to submit net rates, STV will mark them up using the formula rate/0.88 to achieve a 12% commissionable selling rate and will invoice the hotel on the 1st of each month for all previous month check outs. Commission payments can be made by bank transfer or by credit card with no bank charges. Alternatively STV can collect our mark up directly from the industry guests who can then pay the balance directly to the hotel.
The Best Way to calculate and position Travel Industry Staff Educational rates in relation to BAR rate levels:
Staff Travel Voyage 'educational' on request rates always need to be lower than Bar rates published at any time. In general they should always be 20-50% lower than the Bar rate of the day. (Industry staff always make price comparisons with mainstream consumer OTA's such as booking.com and will simply not book otherwise).
The best formula to use to calculate 'educational rates' for Staff Travel Voyage:
For each season or rate period validity:
Take your Bar 1 (or very lowest Bar rate) that could ever be published at times when you have extremely low occupancy and deduct 20%. Make this the selling rate for STV commissionable at 12%
You should find that this rate is still above your CPOR Cost Per Occupied Room/Rooms Division cost, so you will never be losing money. Rooms are on request and you are only confirming the booking if you are 95% sure the room is going to be empty anyway. Hotel running costs and expenses from the PnL do not need to be taken into account in this instance, only actual rooms division costs. In addition ADR is not affected and rate parity is not relevant as this is an in-trade educational activity. There is no conflict with mainstream consumer Bar rates or tour operator agreements.
Remember the primary objective of being featured and promoted by STV is for global and targeted country marketing to travel agents and industry employees, to make them aware and to educate them extensively about your hotel on our website. STV do this for you for free (we cover all costs) and throughout the year, driving 10's of thousands of industry staff to your page on our portal. We provide you with google analytic statistic showing these industry staff page views and from which countries they reside, and can assist by target marketing and distribution of your page to your best performing and the emerging country markets of your choice.
The result is a FREE of charge one-stop direct connection directly to the worlds travel agents and travel trade employees to educate them and create unprecedented awareness for the hotel, enabling them to onwards promote your property to their own clients and all they come into contact with at regular rates. Bookings become a bonus, and rather than hosting and providing FOC Fam trip rooms, you ensure all costs for the industry employee to occupy the empty room are covered, allowing them to experience the service and become even better educated and keen to help you promote your hotel on their return home!