At the Negotiating Table for Next Year's Rates

The question this fall is whether the rates negotiated now will stick or whether they will be renegotiated and renegotiated again, as they often were over the last year.

At the moment, according to travel management company executives and other industry experts, companies have the most leverage over hotel rates, since the supply far outstrips demand in many business travel destinations.

But, the travel managers say, companies have far less control over airfares, particularly those set by American carriers, which have significantly cut capacity and, along with it, much of the wiggle room in negotiations.

What is still on the table with the airlines, the travel managers say, are allocations of elite frequent-flier program status or upgrades, which can lead to a waiver of fees for baggage checking and other services.

Whatever rates are negotiated, corporations are expected to manage their employees' travel expenditures even more stringently next year. A forecast of 2010 costs, issued last month by the National Business Travel Association, a trade group of corporate travel buyers, found that 71 percent of the group's members planned to reduce nonessential travel next year.

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Source - New York Times

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