How Hotels Kill Business Traveler Loyalty with Overcharges
USA Today’s Gary Stoller writes that “business travelers may be overpaying for their hotel rooms by a half-billion dollars a year, the result of mistakes in billing.”
Hard to believe? Yes, but there it is, in two separate studies.
One, by Wichita-based Corporate Lodging Consultants, shows that billing errors resulted in overpayments of $11.35 a night. Projecting that to 1.4 million rooms a night gets you to $500 million a year–from your pocket to hotel coffers. (Maybe they use that money to offset the cost of loyalty marketing? )
A 2004 Study by American Express of business clients showed that room rates quoted by central res systems differed from negotiated rates 56% of the time. Now let’s see–How much did hotels spend last year on relationship marketing? Maybe we need a cost-benefit analysis on ‘innocent’ overcharges. Can anyone help me sort this out?
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Ref. USA Today, July 12, 2005. 8B
