"Triple-A" / AAA Hotel Discounts: Who Eats It? Hotel? or Kick-Back to Hotel? (American Automobile Association)
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To help me negotiate better with hotels for discounts I need to know if the "Triple-A" discount is kicked back to the hotels (50/50 split or something) or if the hotel just has a lower margin for these rates in exchange for more volume.
If there is no kick-back then for "mom and pop" establishments you could argue with them to just give you the better AAA rate.
I believe in most cases that the hotel takes the lower rate in order to get the booking (a reservation they may not have gotten without the listing on AAA, etc.). That being said, many of these wholesalers will in fact take a loss in order to sell a room at a lower cost.
But, keep in mind, hotels can have different contracts with the various agencies (AAA, hotels.com, etc.), and the margin can even vary based on time-of-year, etc.
So, there’s no guarantee that you’ll get the lower rate just by saying "hey, I saw a lower rate on AAA" — most hotel reservationists can’t (or won’t) take the time to verify the lower rate, or are unable to override their system with the lower rate.
One Response to “"Triple-A" / AAA Hotel Discounts: Who Eats It? Hotel? or Kick-Back to Hotel? (American Automobile Association)”
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May 2nd, 2010 at 10:13 am
I believe in most cases that the hotel takes the lower rate in order to get the booking (a reservation they may not have gotten without the listing on AAA, etc.). That being said, many of these wholesalers will in fact take a loss in order to sell a room at a lower cost.
But, keep in mind, hotels can have different contracts with the various agencies (AAA, hotels.com, etc.), and the margin can even vary based on time-of-year, etc.
So, there’s no guarantee that you’ll get the lower rate just by saying "hey, I saw a lower rate on AAA" — most hotel reservationists can’t (or won’t) take the time to verify the lower rate, or are unable to override their system with the lower rate.
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