Marriott International president & CEO Arne Sorenson
marks his fourth consecutive appearance on BTN's Most Influential. One might
argue that anything Sorenson does, as the head of the single largest hotel
company in the world, is going to have an impact on travel. However, Marriott's
decision to enact a 48-hour cancellation policy in place of its 24-hour policy
caused a particular stir in 2017.
Marriott released the policy, in which travelers will incur
penalties if they cancel their reservations within 48 hours of their stay, in
June. Hilton followed the next month, and then InterContinental Hotels Group
changed its cancellation policy from same day to 24 hours.
Sorenson said in August the company hadn't seen much
blowback. "Nobody likes incremental restrictions on the flexibility of
reservations," he said, "but I think most customers understand that
we've got a need to manage our inventory and avoid walking people and doing
those sorts of things."
Corporate travel managers and buyers, however, had plenty to
say. The general sentiment was that the policies were anticorporate and the
inevitable result of consolidation in the industry, the biggest example of
which was Marriott's acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts. Under
24-hour cancellation policies, buyers typically still had been able to
negotiate same-day 6 p.m. cancellations on negotiated rates. With the new
48-hour window as a starting point for negotiations on corporate rates,
corporates are now being pushed to agree to a 24-hour cancellation window
instead.
The cancellation fees will hurt some organizations more than
others, but the lingering fear is that the change could lead to even stricter
policies in the near future and that Marriott, with its market dominance, will
lead the way.