Marriot to require accreditation from agents

I read on today’s MeetingsNet that Marriot will require agencies to be registered with IATA or IATAN to receive booking commissions: (http://meetingsnet.com/news/marriott_accrediatation_independents/).

Here is a bag of worms. They want to make sure that their ‘sales representatives’ are bona fide agencies.

I shall never understand why a customer, say a corporate meeting planner, will hire an agency to be paid a commission by the supplier for the work. The higher the price you pay for the venue, the higher the commission. If the agency does a good job and gets you a good price, you don’t reward him, you penalize him! His commission is now calculated on a lower price. This is a textbook example of a win-loose business model.

I don’t really blame the hotels, they have a brilliant concept with large numbers of agencies selling their properties at the highest acceptable price. I don’t really blame the agencies either, although they should know better than getting themselves into such a split loyalty situation. I blame the end customer who allows this nonsense to happen.