WillSkiGT

You're going to go through a lot of external consultants then...

Have to imagine the switching costs between one consulting firm and another mid project are a lot more than $10-15 per person per night being paid on Marriott stays.

When you're paying $500+ per hour of a consultant's time, $10 doesn't even move the bottom line.

Admiral Ackbar

2500 nights and no clue that a huge merger with another loyalty program may change things?

I barely get to 30-60 nights a year but know how most of the programs work (Marriott was the exception in letting OTA bookings get benefits), they are all (well Hilton and Accor for sure) the same on this point.

You have been presented with easy solutions (get your corp TA to book the correct rates) don't know why you are getting so worked up at people here trying to help.

Duke787

Plus it might not even matter to the bottom line. When I was in the consulting world, our expense pool was negotiated as part of the contract (either a fixed amount or a certain % of the overall deal) -- so ultimately if we exceeded the expense pool, we were picking up the tab not the company who hired us (or rolling it into a new expense pool for add-on work). And the consulting firms know that they aren't going to keep people who have to travel every week if they go cheap and force people to fly BE and book hotel rates that don't accrue status

arlflyer

So perhaps I have missed it buried somewhere, but it looks to me based on a reading of the OP's first post, where they state that they are not permitted to use their personal card (seeming to imply that the company pays directly, e.g. not via an individual corporate card), that the bigger issue is that the OP is not the one paying. They could use any rate through any channel and if they're not paying, the points and benefits aren't theirs.


This. Good firms have bigger fish to fry than arguing over nickels and dimes on pass-through travel expenses. They bake it into the SOW as a % and get on with it. This makes life easier for all involved.

warakorn

Typically we never pay USD-equivalent of 500/hour to external consultants.
Sorry, we are not located in the USA, but in the very center of Europe. And at the end "formal errors" (lets say overcharging us) are perfect "excuses" to get rid of certain consulting firms.

Again, we are not in the USA.
Our consultants usually stay in comfortable but generally in non-franchise hotels. We are so much into "brands" in our country.

Often1

This is 100% OP's employer. It has chosen to use a corporate TA and instructed that TA to use various bulk rates which result in substantial savings to the customer. The problem here is that the traveler is not the customer. Whether the savings are material, make sense, or anything else, is irrelevant. We also do not know whether OP's employer has its own arrangement with Marriott by which it receives a rebate or equivalent in return for foregoing the benefits OP craves.

OP has the following choices:

1. Make the business case to the employer that the savings are not worth it in view of perks such as breakfast which might be included. Doing this means obtaining access to the rates paid by the employer.
2. Calling one's head hunter and taking a position with an employer which will pay more for your room.
3. Lumping it.

But, this is far from a Marriott issue and would be brought to a head of if OP rather than traveling on his employer's funds were self-funded and could thus make these decisions himself and either pay for them or not as he chooses.

WillSkiGT

Your location is irrelevant - generally MBB and the Big 4 have fairly harmonized engagement and billing practices globally.

The way consultants typically bill is not a line by line expense report, so there is no "overcharging".

There is an expense pool that is typically a percentage of the overall bill, and a certain number of resources allocated to the project either on an hourly/daily weekly basis, depending on the firm.

So, the contract would be something like:

$1MM for an operations improvement with an anticipated cost savings of $5MM with a $100K expense pool. 8 week initial engagement with X associate consultants, Y senior associates, Z engagement manager, etc.

You can see that:
A. You would have no visibility into what sort of hotel or airfare bookings are being made by the consultant
B. It would be very expensive to change consultants (you would basically waste $500K - $1MM)
C. It would be a silly level of micromanagement to worry about what your consultants are spending on hotels (if you did have visibility somehow). Are you also going to follow them to lunch and dinner to make sure they buy the cheapest possible sandwich? The goal is the $5MM in cost savings.

You must be a very small company.

craigthemif

I completely agree with you for the bigger deals.

However there are many companies out there, big and small, who love to screw over their external consultants. Not the big consultancies necessarily - who they need to remain on good terms with - but freelancers, boutiques, etc. Many would love to find an excuse to not pay the agreed fees and petty expense item stuff is one way to do it.

Often1

While this may make sense for your particular operation, it is equally senseless for others. The term "consultant" is simply the professional term for a "contractor":. Could be anybody from someone providing true consulting advice to a receptionist to an HR clerical.

In the same way, a contract could be all inclusive, could allocate some amount to disbursements or could bill those separately and those which are billed might be billed according to policies established by the vendor or the recipient or both.

Even if an expense is not reimbursed by the recipient, the vendor could nonetheless choose to incur the expense and not be fully reimbursed. I know plenty of places where the top people fly domestic F or international J when the contract only reimburses Y/PE. Their employer, e.g., the vendor, reimburses the "consultant" the F/J ticket (or pays for it directly) and the client is billed the Y/PE amount.

In the context of this thread, the issue is between OP and his employer. If there is a client being billed and the rates which would generate perks for OP exceed what is reimbursed, that is an employment issue for OP.

escapefromphl

Also quite frequently these days a "low cost" contractor from another country.

Often1

Which puts pricing pressure on the traditional operations. If the LCC (Low Lost Consultant not Carrier) can get away with housing its people in doubles at the likes of Red Roof Inns, the pressure not to stay at premium rates is on the traditional operation and if the LCC can provide high-quality work, it is even greater.

hhdl

Part of the conditions the hotels tend to put on the deeply discounted rates is generally that the buyer commits to paying a penalty of substantial portion of rack if they fail to buy a minimum number of room nights per year. Generally if one/one's company is willing to agree to similar conditions, the hotel sales department will gladly give you the OTA rate with elite benefits.

Hell, in that scenario, the individual hotel will very likely treat you better than any Ambassador regardless of your Bonvoy status.

azepine00

There is a better world outside of marriott walls. The limited benefits you get after overpaying and often begging are not worth it.

Just book a better hotel in a more convenient location anf you wont have to see the smirk of FD agent sending you to generic room on higher floor with "you ve been upgraded" note or count rejected expired SNAs.

OUTraveling

Money. They get the companies money that is has a 12% charge applied to it eating into their profit, such they barely make any money for OTA bookings. Now you want them to throw out the red carpet you with room upgrades, lounge access, and breakfast...all of which cuts into the hotels bottom line. Most of use here, who book using the regular Marriott rate, consider it a good thing when we get an upgrade to a suite. It is not hard to imagine that Marriott saves these perks for those with loyalty status using traditional rates.

CO-PLAT

I have and have reported on it in two other threads.

It all depends on how your company has set up their agreement. If I book a "TripSource" rate through Concur, I get screwed.