lonelycrowd

Cornell's 43-page University Policy Statement 3.2 was last updated in August and makes no mention of Concur as a university-wide requirement. I would not be surprised at all if certain administrators and/or departments are strongly encouraging its use and/or are trying to mandate it locally, however, especially if it reduces their own workload. My former department was on the miserly side and definitely held us to the University's dreaded "frequent flyer program memberships must not influence your selection of flights" policy, but AFAIK they have not started requiring Concur.

abaheti

Must use Concur, but also must use government rate for hotel. Prefer Hilton HHonors. I look on Hilton website and see the government rate. In Concur, won't show it, so am getting ordered to book (more expensive) Marriott even though the Hilton rate is actually cheaper... but I can't see it in Concur. Thought about calling Concur each booking, but that apparently generates a $20-$25 charge, so negates the rate savings.

Any advice on how to make Concur actually see the cheaper hotel rate or government rate with Hiltons?

Often1

Concur isn't a TA or even a place to call. It is simply compliance software which works as an overlay to assure that the corporate (university) travel policy is being followed. It can be programmed to show anything (or not). Think of Concur as a series of switches which turn features on and off. Hilton, First Class, refundable, and so on.

If you are not seeking Hilton on your website, then whoever is responible for travel at your organization has flipped the Hilton switch to "off", likely in error in light of the policy.

The starting point here is not the software vendor which could care less, but rather the CFO or whoever handles the travel policy in the first place. Somebody there needs to flick the switch. (Maybe permit you to fly F at the same time !)

BThumme

Sounds like Hilton shows, but rather not the government rate isn't showing. Same advice as above though - I would think when being used for the govt, that govt rates would be the default search.

Does the marriott show govt rates then? Could be an overlap. Have you used it in the past for Hilton/Govt rates and had success?

abaheti

Correct. Hiltons show up, just not the govt rate (although available on Hilton sites). Marriott does show govt rates.

So, is this an issue with Hilton not showing the special rate to outside services or is this a configuration issue with Concur? Seems weird that Concur would show govt rates for some hotels but not for others, or would show the expensive Hilton rates but not the cheaper ones.

It would help if I had the specific wording to use when asking the corporate Concur people -- who likely aren't total experts in Concur. Or could I email Concur support asking for an explanation?

Thanks!

abaheti

Slight clarification (spoke to my wife who is having the issue).

Hiltons will show up sometimes, but not in every city. Hiltons will sometimes show up with govt rate, usually not, even though the website shows plenty of govt rate inventory. Hilton will also often just not appear at all -- this can happen with Marriott too, but very rarely, mostly Concur Marriott tries really hard to push towards a city that is 100 miles away.

She tried to book a hotel this afternoon and verified multiple Hilton properties in multiple adjacent cities had govt rate, but Concur would not show any of them.

Often1

I will use the term broadly because this will vary widely from business to business, but there is some office in an enterprise which is responsible for overseeing travel policy. That office either handles making changes to the Concur interface or directs a corporate TA to do that.

Why not simply call that individual and flag the problem.

abaheti

Ah, there's a certain amount of corporate culture (and often lack of knowledge by the person who may now be in charge of an inherited job/system) here as with any large organization. Before making the call, wanted to check with FT brains to see if this is a common problem with a known solution so the call could be more along the lines of "hey there's an issue, here's how to fix it, takes five minutes" vs "here's an issue" which will likely get the response of "use whatever hotel shows up, we're too busy to worry about this". Based on the responses, this could be complex or any number of things, so my theory didn't work this time -- I like knowing the vocabulary and key phrases, just like learning on FT what magic words/codes help a gate agent get you what you need.

BThumme

ding ding ding. it's a fruitless battle to fight in these situations if you are an employee at the mercy of others and can't call your own shots.

Often1

If that is the culture at your wife's organization, tell her to forget it and move on one way or the other.

Either call her head hunter and find another job or accept that at her organization she will be staying at the places her organization's travel people choose to have displayed for her use.

People like that don't change. It's lucky they have hotels.

abaheti

To be clear, no one has rejected a help request yet, I am just used to dealing with large organizations so like to know in advance what a possible solution would be before raising a flag. This is not the hill to die on, certainly. As I said, I was hoping something like this was a known issue/bug/configuration issue in Concur where someone on FT would say "Oh, that! Here's how you fix it or get around it."

seawolf

Since you are looking for a government rate at Hilton, use Concur to book the lowest available refundable rate, call hotel up and switch it government rate.

abaheti

I thought the same thing. My wife says that when she does that it still shows up on her Concur reports as having booked the higher rate. I need to verify that. Thanks.

NeGourmand

Concur, when booking with a personal cc, seems to pass on appropriate categories FYI. Had to save desired cc in profile prior to selecting flight, otherwise defaulted to corp cc. Booked P2 airline on CSR and charge is showing as the airline.

ORD-TGU

My company will switch to concur. Are the hotel bookings at a discounted rate, not eligible for points, as if booked through OTA or regular points eligible?