Maybe instead of jumping through all those hoops, get someone at your company to review the Concur rules to see if adjustments are needed. There are some companies that consider their image if their staff has moved from Marriotts to Choice properties. Programs change from time to time and it's appropriate for someone to evaluate if their rules need attention.

+1 - This. If you aren't talking to upper management about this stuff, it's just kvetching. FT is full of people talking about snarky emails they've sent through their chain of command, pointing to $1 savings on airfares they could have achieved. But, how about actually pointing to positive issues which are easily fixed?

If your employer really doesn't care, you then have a choice and it's not great. But, not many people leave otherwise good jobs over hotel choices.

No, I'm pretty sure the decision to not spend unnecessary money on canceled room reservations is a conscious one. I don't think our firm is so superficial that moving people to Choice would create "image" problems. However, the presence of Hyatts, Fairmonts (I saw one of those today), the occasional HH/SPG, and other full-service boutique hotels is enough to convince our travel department that enough acceptable choices exist. We won't end up at Motel 6...we just won't earn Marriott points anymore.

Private vs. Gov't
 

I can tell you don't work for the Gov't. This is not a good or bad thing, just an observation. These "issues" are not easily fixed, but I don't need to bore you with details.

And again, I can tell you that if I had to give up Marriott/Hilton, and select Choice/Holiday Inns, I would absolutely consider a non travel job. I can switch my job every two months if I so desire and not lose any seniority. I have 25 years state service and the beauty of state service is you can park behind one desk for 30 years or have 30 jobs in 30 years...it's really up to you.

And yes. "Concur" is a dirty word in probably 80% of the state offices that travel. The reason is because of how hard it is to make changes. Right now, you can just go on SWABIZ (or even call SWA for that matter) and change your flight home. You can no longer do that with Concur....we are required to contact Concur telephonically. That alone makes travel folks feel like we just traveled back in time 15 years (we all have cell phones, but we rarely talk on them anymore--ha!). It's probably change in general too, but the lack of the ability to make changes to existing reservations is probably the most pressing issue.

Have a great day....

:)

Realize when you say you have to call Concur to make changes, you don't. You have to call your travel agent to make changes. Your travel agent has poor staffing. That is unfortunate. Other travel agencies may not.

Correct....
 

Yes, that is true. I said that in an earlier reply, but didn't want to say the name of the travel agency.

But yes....I'm not calling "Concur." But I know the state wide direction for Concur is to contact the travel agency directly to make changes. I'm sure it has to do with saving a couple dollars (spend $100 to save $5).

Thank you for clarifying.

Dawn

Why would you go through all of this trouble and not provide the TA's name? Especially if it's serving a public agency.

Not necessarily. HH and others who have gone to the "day before" cancellation policy seem to come up just fine, but for some reason Marriott doesn't.

There is a problem when a "corporate preferred" hotel (ours have our company logo displayed next to the property) comes up as a possible violation tells me something is loaded into the system incorrectly, especially since many of us seem to be having the same issue.

Not to take this thread OT, but using "beauty" to describe such an HR practice is very telling.

Huh?
 

I have no clue what you are implying but that is the way the government works (federal, state and county). And it has always and will continue to be an asset, perk, beauty because it's not about to change. Thank goodness.

If you love your job and you don't want to venture out and do anything different, aren't interesting in promoting, love your life and love your job, you can stay put and occupy the same desk/space for 30 years.

Conversely, if you want to do something different, perhaps another program, perhaps promote, maybe your department gets absorbed into another one or maybe eliminated all together (boards/bureaus get sunseted at times), you still have to apply for positions, you just don't lose the 5, 10, 15, 20, etc. years you already have into retirement (actually, many private companies work like this too....can you imagine the paperwork for retirement plans, health insurance paperwork, separation paperwork every time someone promoted. That's funny).

So "beauty"? You bet. I've had some awesome jobs in state service since January 1989 and I'm a pretty happy state worker. I'm also a dedicated, hard worker and very grateful. But I doubt I will travel in my job(s) for the rest of my career (15 years maybe)....but I won't be kicked to the curb and be required to start over from day one. I still have to apply for these jobs though and my investigation experience has greatly aided me in getting the last couple jobs. I seem to stay in jobs around 4-6 years. A really long time by some of my peers. But again, that's the beauty of working in an organization, like the state (pretty sure other states are run in this manner).

Also, the name of the travel agency is not necessary because it doesn't hurt anyone else. A non state worker wouldn't have to go through the steps we are required to do while the bugs are being worked out. They just pulled out this new way of state travel without having all their ducks in a row. We'll get through it. ;)

That's what I was wondering. If folk from different companies are having similar issues, then perhaps there is a problem.

Cheers.

Wonder if that's because Marriott did it vocally at the systemwide level.

With HH and SPG, we still get a scattered list of properties in our booking engine that are same-day cancel. It's a minority of total properties, but it makes me wonder if they left it up to the individual properties. (e.g., If the default in their systems was no-change, and the property had to opt to change.)

Or maybe they phased their changes so as not to attract media attention? I don't really know...throwing darts here. :)

Just thought I would update this thread. I've been able to book Marriott lately on our Concur system. Whatever bug was in the system seems to be fleshed out.

We also use Concur and I can book Marriott properties.

--Jon