halls120

RogerD408

There are lots of reasons why they want to go this route. Even some non-gov rates (i.e. corporate) are monitored by both the chain and the company to see if they can negotiate a better rate or bake in some extra benefits. One we would get at particular heavily used properties was shuttle service to/from the office which most often eliminated the need for a rental car just sitting at one location or the other. Another major perk may be run of the house rooms so no matter how many rooms have been booked, if there is an empty room, it's available at the negotiated rate. Including a breakfast credit may also be in there. I don't know if any of these exist in the FedRooms program, but they may be in the works for future editions. Gotta gather data to determine what the starting point is.

Michilander

Things could be different now, but in the years I traveled a boatload for the government they only cared about what rate you booked when you were asking for reimbursement. As far as I know, the decision to let government employees book government rates for personal travel was totally up to the hotel. Some allowed it, some did not. I know I did book a lot of them at Marriotts back when, but not infrequently found senior rates better.

dayone

Those who book the last three or four available rooms often do.

DenverBrian

You'd be surprised. @:-)

Zelucifer

Crowns is or at least was the European system and Northstar Travel Media used to use them as well. My assumption is the material is just outdated.

Often1

The requirement that government travelers use the channel seems to be extremely limited and he may simply be unlucky. If in deed the leadership of a 50,000 person agency is looking at travel arrangements and is requiring memos to justify booking channel when rate is not affected, sounds like a good complaint for waste or abuse to the OP's Inspector General.

But, as to the specific, Marriott is quite aware of every booking channel under the sun as well as the various frauds pulled by various users. If it found it profitable to work through this channel, it would.

The key is not the government rate, but the fact that this channel requires what amounts to "last room" availability. That runs contrary to supply and demand concepts. While it is true that while room rates are low, the government rate may be quite attractive. But, during high demand times, the government rate may be a pittance.

MD/DC Flyer

Actually not - if you use the travel arrangement software it is all inclusive. Booking outside the system requires more work to get it processed (uploading reservation, verifying it is in the per-diem rate, inserting into the travel orders, etc.). In adition, alot of the travel arrangement contracts depends on the booking going through them (commission). One booking outside the system means that in the long run those contracts would cost more to the Government.

Often1

That is the fault of poor software and does not mean that FedRooms, which requires participating properties to provide certain features which are not required in any GSA rule, is the solution.

Verifying that the rate is within government per diem, just as one example, can be accomplished by simply knowing the zip code of the property. FedRooms, however, requires that the property agree to "last room availability." This means that a property which might provide some rooms at the government rate, but is not prepared to give up its private business if called on, can't participate.

In the long haul, fewer choices is a bad thing. For the taxpayer, the properties and the employee.

soitgoes

There are no government restrictions I am aware of on using hotels' offered government rates for personal travel. Hotels can, of course, put restrictions on the use of the rates. Marriott, however, generally does not: https://www.marriott.com/File%20Bloc...eals/chart.htm

MD/DC Flyer

SkiAdcock

I don't work for the gov't so I had no idea how it worked, although the above makes sense to me; just like some corporations allow corporate rate to be used for personal travel & some don't.

My friend said if the person who booked the various rooms has gov't ID, they honor the rate for all the rooms booked under the name. I think he was more curious in how many rooms the gov't allowed for personal when sometimes it's 2-3 rooms but other times it's 5-6 rooms when it was obvious it was for something like a softball tourney. And to someone's comment that rack rates aren't very often used - well on a busy weekend in the summer, there are definitely people paying rack rate in the $200-300+ range.

He did say they've changed someone to rack rate when some have booked the gov't rate but don't have any gov't id. It's usually with the caveat that if they can provide it at some point during the stay, the rate will be switched back to the gov't rate. For the govt' contractors, they just tell them to have their gov't contact contact the property via email,, fax, etc, to verify they're allowed to use the rate.

He said they've gotten a few who did the how dare you, in 20 years of working w/ the gov't as a contractor I've never once been asked to show id. That person just happened to be staying on a weekend where a hugely popular festival was happening nearby & in a 3-day stay never came back w/ anything showing he was entitled to use gov't rate & didn't say a word about the rack rate when he checked out, according to my friend. Another one, when asked (after not being able to provide gov't id) what gov't agency/branch the person worked for, said what do you mean? I don't understand the question.

Cheers.

PHLGovFlyer

Some hotels limit the number of rooms one person can book at the government rate (e.g. Renaissance Portsmouth VA allows 2 rooms at the gov rate per person). Other properties have no limit. I booked 11 rooms at a Westin for a leisure event at the Gov rate a few years ago and the property was happy to have the business.

Similarly, some hotels are quite strict in mandating that gov rate rooms can be booked only in conjunction with official business and require travel orders. Others never require orders and their rooms can be booked at the gov rate for leisure trips (with appropriate ID). With some properties there are different government rates for official and leisure stays, with the former typically at per diem and the latter above per diem.

So basically, all of these details are highly property dependent.

Often1

That was then, FedRooms is now. FedRooms requires last room availability. In other rooms, if there is availability a government traveler must be offered the room at the government rate.

Perhaps the best reason not to participate.

ajwright

So I don't think this is a Marriott doesn't participate issue, but that the properties where you were staying don't. Marriott is listed as one of FedRoom's partners., and I have booked Marriott Properties through FedRooms before, and I did a quick search on both FedRooms independent booking engine, and my agency's booking software (using random dates in February in DC), and both Marriott and Starwood properties do show up (albeit not all of them - most of the nicer properties appear to be missing) - so it appears this is more of a property by property determination.

It doesn't appear that last room availability is required, I dug a little deeper, and it appears that they advertise "most hotels offer last standard room available FedRooms rates" but don't actually require the hotels to provide it. When I did my dummy searches there were a few hotels that were shown but with the disclaimer "rate unavailable" but for which other rates were. If I had to guess the biggest reason a particular property wouldn't participate is the extra paperwork - if the rooms are selling, why bother?