CNG looks to woo agents with 12% commissions

Agents are increasingly turning their attention to products that pay commission, according to CNG Travel Group, which is why it expects a wide scale take-up of its hotel booking solution that offers commissions up to 12%. Called TLC (Travel Lodging Connector), the solution integrates with agency GDS systems to allow agents to book hotels from a 25,000-strong list of merchant rate properties alongside the agent’s normal GDS hotel listings. “It gives agents the ability to compete with online players from their desktop,” CNG senior vice president EMEA business development, Tim Wright, told TravelMole. This week CNG has extended it Prompt Pay commission system to all bookings. This means agents making GDS hotel bookings through TLC get commission rates up to 9% within 30 days. CNG has also upped its rates on merchant rate hotels to a maximum of 12%, which is paid within two weeks of the customer leaving the hotel. “With airline commissions diminishing agents are looking for new revenue stream,” Mr Wright told TravelMole. Average commissions received by UK agents for hotel bookings are 5.5%, according to CNG research and take 60 to 120 days to receive – sometimes more. Mr Wright mentioned the example of an agency in New York, which spent four days a month collecting commissions. “With TLC they have cut this to 30 minutes a month,” he said. He also used an example of an agency making five hotel bookings for 20 days with a total value of £30,000. The agency could increase its commission payments from £1,854 to as much as £3,530, according to CNG by booking its merchant rate properties and receiving the maximum commission of 12%. According to Mr Wright the average commission paid by CNG on merchant rate bookings is “more than 10%”. The commission varies according to volumes and negotiations between CNG, the suppliers and agency, he said. CNG also makes a charge of 70 pence per transaction on Prompt Pay bookings. So far 30,000 hotels are signed up to the Prompt Pay scheme – some GDS hotels are excluded from Prompt Pay because CNG has not yet struck a deal with the supplier, but Mr Wright is confident they will come onboard before long. TLC is featured on 60,000 agency desktops worldwide according to CNG following deals with consortiums such as Advantage and Worldchoice and more recently with Sabre, which is rolling the product out to its European agents at the moment. Report by Ginny McGrath