The entire State of California is supposed to migrate to Concur by now. I do not like Concur, but that's because of the limitations--which could be only within the State of California state travelers.

I've been having a sneaky suspicion that something may happen with hotels though. We had an all staff meeting about Concur and for some reasons, the instructors pointed out that MARRIOTT is by far the MOST EXPENSIVE brand of hotels in California. I thought it was an odd comment because we get $120 (most counties) and either they have state rate or they don't. However, when I see the list of hotels that auto populate, I see a lot of hotels well below the state rate and I have a sneaky suspicion that we may be headed in that direction. I don't know how they can make you stay at a hotel FAR below the union set per diem, but I didn't think they could force us to use Concur for our airline/car and hotel reservations either.

Seriously....if I have to forfeit Marriott (or Hilton) and start staying at really cheap properties because they are less than state rate, I would be okay with a, dare I say, office job. Sorry...a little spit up just came up because the thought of an office job day in and day out nearly makes me want to jump off a bridge, but I would definitely consider it because it's why I travel.

I see a few changes coming down the pike with Concur (currently, we can't make changes on airline coming home from trip--which happens all the time--there are still bugs in the program so we have to CALL someone at Concur...last time I did this in January, I was on hold for 43 minutes). Yeah, that is a very efficient system--NOT!

Dawn

I pay no attention to the auto populated hotels. I go to the super chain, unselect all, then select Marriott, the manually view the rates for each available Marriott. Many times they are in policy, but just weren't the first ones to come up. Other times they are out of policy, but only require to enter an explanation. Every organizations use of Concur will vary of course.

This is all about people complaining about their employers' travel policies. It has nothing to do with Concur, which is merely a piece of software. Concur will let you book full F, stay in suites at 5-star hotels and so on, unless your employer chooses not to allow it.

If Concur differs from your employer's policy, that is because it has been improperly programmed.

Exactly. But some seem hell bent on blaming Concur instead of their companies travel policies or whoever programmed those policies into Concur if there are mistakes. Concur is just a travel and expense management company, they don't book any travel, they forward what you pick to your companies travel agency.

I don't really think anyone is actually "blaming" Concur, but Marriott can probably thank Concur for making a lot more people aware of the cancellation policy change (and maybe they're happy about that)...

This was never about blaming a program. Not sure where that became the focus.

But I am curious for other entities that use Concur.....if you are out in the field and you want to change flight home, can you log on to Concur and change flight home?

Company uses Concur. Never tried that, much easier to just call Balboa (our travel agent).

Unless you have hours or days to have the request processed, I'd go to the booking agent directly. From what I've read Concur does not do the booking. It's just a filter that applies customer defined rules to present allowable selections and then pass that data on to the appropriate agent for actual booking. Heaven only knows what happens if availability dries up by the time the agent gets around to booking.

No, all changes are by calling in, but agent picks up immediately.

For same day changes, why not just call the airline? Going through a travel agent is likely to result in a ticketing fee.

Corporate policy.

One would think, right? Unfortunately, we are required to contact the travel company that our Concur is booked through. What happened is they didn't fully staff the office and the reason we have to wait for quite some time on hold (or leave a message because often you can't wait on hold), is because they have ONE person for most of the State of California offices and that is just beyond ridiculous.

So unfortunately, "Concur" is a really bad word in many state offices and it is because folks are used to being able to make changes in a New York Second on SWABIZ...but we aren't allowed to use SWABIZ anymore.

I just don't want to have to select non Marriott/Hilton properties because the other properties are so much less. It's almost like it doesn't matter if they have state rate...is seems to be how much can you save if you go with "x"?

The people that run our specific Department's travel section don't have a clue anyway, which is typical (in a training, they were going over making a hotel reservation in Concur....came upon an Embassy Suite and it was $229 or something like that....instructor said, "and see here there is a rate of $229 because the description is a ONE BEDROOM SUITE and they are out of standard rooms at that hotel" oy vey....).

First world problem....I know.

Concur can be programmed so as to enforce rules by prohibiting "illegal" bookings, by requiring an explanation when an "illegal" booking is made or simply logging the "illegal" booking. Again, up to the employer which option it chooses.

If Concur is a dirty word in your office it's because them what are saying them things don't understand the system.

FWIW, I heard on the news that the chains were changing their policy because some pleasure travellers book a room, and cancel it last minute allowing them to grab it using one of the online sites that gets discounted rooms. Or something like that. Sorry if this is a double post.

Marriott has completely disappeared for us as well. Last year, they were our #1 chain, as we had (and still have) a corporate rate with them across the U.S., one that works at *most* Marriotts. But it's now a 1-day cancel, and that makes it an out-of-policy booking. We're a midsized company with a moderate amount of travel...I fully realize that Marriott does not care about our plight one bit.

Oddly enough, we still have a random mix of Hiltons and Starwoods, plus quite a few Hyatts. Our HH and SPG negotiated rates were always kind of random, so I suspect we had the 6PM cancel negotiated at the property level. (So we have maybe 1 out of every 4 or 5 urban Hiltons, for example.)

I'm probably going to end up a mid-tier with Hyatt this year, simply because I can't be bothered to continually ask for out-of-policy Marriotts. However, I do start most of my business trips with an early-morning flight, so as soon as I land in the destination city, I guess I can always do a quick Marriott check to see if our rate is still available... Either that, or I'll just find a couple Hyatts that I like...

Frustrating that we're being forced to jump through hoops that didn't exist before.