The International Charter aims to outline how international hotels and venues can benefit from the buying power of the UK’s most influential agencies involved in the procurement of meetings, events and business accommodation.
Unlike many other European countries, the UK is recognised for having a distinct business model that differs from universally accepted TMC terminology. Unlike global agencies who consolidate air and ground transport, along with corporate accommodation spends – the UK has a tier of intermediates whose sole premise is to consolidate corporate meeting and event budgets and maximise buying power. Hotel booking agents (HBAs) are widely acknowledged in the UK as the preferred option for corporate clients to strategically manager their meetings programmes.
Under their representative trade association, the HBAA, agencies are looking to widen their scope and drive awareness into key outbound markets; specifically Europe, Middle East and North America.
The HBAA’s International Charter aims to drive awareness amongst overseas hotels and venues on how to deal with UK agencies and thereby benefit from the association’s buying power that exceeded £2.3bn per annum.
The Charter represents a mark of integrity and understanding of the relationship between the UK agency and overseas property. The Charter covers response times to enquiries, commission levels and payment terms.
The HBAA is made up of the UK’s leading agencies, many of who have overseas offices in key financial cities and are booking significant groups into overseas markets.
The Charter has been created in response to growing demand from agencies booking outbound business. It also reflects the call from international hoteliers and venues to benefit from the UK corporate spend.
Steve Ockerby, chair of the International Charter Committee said: ‘We have been delighted with the amount of interest that overseas venues have shown. Everyone recognises that meetings and events are no longer confined purely to the UK and that a working practice needed to be put in place to clarify and strengthen the relationships between UK HBAs and overseas hotels and venues.
Robbert-Jan Meinardi, area sales director at Grand Hotel Huis ter Duin, Noordwijk, The Netherlands said: ‘We were one of the first hotels to sign up as we see huge demand and revenues from the UK outbound market in to our hotel. This is a very important development for the sector and especially the HBAA and Europe’s hoteliers. Since adhering to the Charter it has paid dividends and we have already seen €70,000 of confirmed business from a large corporate, had we not signed the charter we would not have been considered by the agency.’
