Cendant Hotel Group today said it has introduced an automated request-for-proposal system, making it easier for the franchisees of its nearly 6,400 hotels worldwide to provide rate quotes and information to prospective clients.
Requests for proposals, or RFPs, are used to solicit room-night bids by corporations, travel management companies, consortia, travel wholesalers, tour operators and other travel intermediaries. While hotels must respond if they want the business, the process is so time-consuming smaller operators sometimes miss opportunities because of other demands.

By automating the RFP process through technology provided by Lanyon Inc., Cendant aims to help its “huge franchisee base capture a larger share of business opportunities,” said Tim Hamid, Hotel Group vice president of worldwide sales.

Lanyon’s RFPpublisherTM system will review submitted RFPs, complete 90 percent of the response and forward the nearly completed form to franchisees to complete the remaining 10 percent, which allows them to control the process and ensure they provide up-to-date submissions.

“Our new process has taken a tedious task for our franchisees and made it very easy,” Hamid said. “They can now take advantage of a very valuable source of revenue in less than half the time.”

The Hotel Group chose RFPpublisher by Lanyon because of its “powerful technology and reputation in the marketplace,” he said, adding that Lanyon has customized its technology and services to fit with the Hotel Group’s business model and needs, including “servicing all market segments on a global basis”
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