revenue management

After a few subdued years due to COVID, Canadian government travel is returning back to normal levels. The federal employees and contractors are authorized to spend at higher levels than previous years, as well. For 2023, their authorized amounts for travel will likely be even higher thanks to inflation.

The above seems is common knowledge for most Canadian hoteliers and other professionals. What is not common knowledge is that federal employees and (more importantly) the travel agents that work with the Canadian government have access to a directory of hotels for Canada and around the world. This directory consists of listings created for each hotel, along with pricing information.

For a lot of hotels outside of Canada, this is likely an opportunity for added exposure and more revenue, because a lot of major cities do not have many hotels listed for them. For example, Paris, France, has only seven hotels; Hong Kong, China, has 10; Berlin, Germany, has two. A lot of government workers rely on the directory to plan their business trips, but may also try to use it for personal travel as well.

Directory Information

To learn more about the directory, click through to the main page. Below will be some more links and information about getting added to the directory, how to price your hotel rates, and how the program is managed.

One important note about the program is it is renewed annually. There is a set fee to be included (it is fairly minimal in Canada) and the hotel rates have to be submitted each year within a set deadline. The deadline to be added for 2023 is September 21st, 2022.

Get Added to the Directory

In order to be added to the directory, the hotels have to be added to the Cvent Business Transient RFP platform by contacting the administrator of the Canadian directory. Hotels can do that by sending an email to: [email protected]

While waiting to be approved, it will be worth looking at your competition listed in the directory. Thankfully, the directory is open to the public. It is viewable at this link: Accommodation – 30 days or less. The directory will open up a listing on Lanyon, the Cvent portal. From there, you can do a search by city, filter by distance from the city centre, or pick a different outlying area (i.e. the airport or nearby city).

Clicking on a hotel will bring up its profile with a lot of details, including the rates, photo gallery, policies, and amenities of the property. The directory also allows you to compare multiple properties at once, which is a nice added feature. This will let you get an idea of how your competition is marketing themselves to these workers, and also their rates by season.

Setting Rates

Besides using the public directory to determine how your competition is pricing itself, another important area to look at is the per diem section of the directory. The City Rate Limits vary by each city, and will include a rate for hotels outside of the main cities. For Canadian cities, the directory has grouped surrounding areas into the heading for the main city (i.e. Cochrane, Okotoks, Airdrie, are included with Calgary).

The limits are only a suggestion of what will be reasonable for government travel. Any rates above the limits, may still get booked, but any rates significantly higher will likely not be booked.

Management

As mentioned previously, the directory is updated on an annual basis. If you miss the deadline date, the hotel will not be listed in the directory for the following year. After submitting the hotel information and rates through the Cvent system, the Government official will send an email to state if the hotel is approved or not, and the instructions to load the rates into the GDS for travel agents to book.

One other requirement of the program is hotels have to supply an update for the bookings they have generated through government travel. It will be important to have a separate rate code for the Government rates to track it. The reports are submitted online after each quarter and at the end of the year.

Otherwise, as long as the rates are loaded properly, and no government guests submit complaints to the program director, there will not be any ongoing management.

A small tip that can be provided after several years of entering the rates, take the time to explore the Cvent RFP platform and update your hotel information. There will be a lot of saved time from having to enter in all the policies again, updating photos, etc. You will only need to update the hotel rates, and then the RFP will be complete.

To learn more about the directory and program, please visit the official website. The deadline to be added for 2025 is September 20th, 2024. Act quickly.

Read More »How to Capitalize on Canadian Government Travel by Getting Listed on the Accommodation Directory of Canada