There are two ways to book a room enjoying a corporate rate: calling the hotel and asking for the speed or booking on the hotel website using the corporate or contract code. Unfortunately, calling the hotel is not always successful because sometimes the hotel’s reservation agent will ask for an email from a corporate email account to confirm the booking. Therefore, if you are eligible for the rate as a contractor, supplier, or customer but are not an actual employee, you will not be able to complete the booking. The solution is to ask your contact at your client or supplier to book the room for you.
The more convenient way to book the room is using the corporate code and going directly to the hotel website providing the code during the reservation. There is usually a field called “Corporate Code,” “Corporate Contract,” or “Discount Code.” The issue is getting access to the corporate code because, very often, not even employees know the corporate discount code to gain access to the discounts. It is typically the information in the hands of the travel department. However, once you know that you are eligible for a discount as an employee, contractor, supplier, or client, you can search for the corporate code online on Google. There are many forums online where people typically share these codes, and Google will bring you right there. For example, suppose I am going to visit XYZ Corporation; therefore, I expect to be eligible to use their corporate rates. In that case, I searched online for “XYZ Corporation hotel corporate rate code” or “XYZ corporate rate HOTEL_NAME,” where HOTEL_NAME is the hotel or the chain I’d like to stay at. One of the best websites to find the codes is Hotel Corporate Codes. However, regulations are easier to find with Google than browsing the forum manually.
Large corporate and large hotel chains are the best candidates to find codes. I would not waste my time if I were visiting a customer who was a mid-sized corporation. Doubtful mid-sized companies have a chain-wide agreement with hotel chains. Because my career is in technology, I typically see companies such as Intel, Google, HP, Microsoft, Siemens, IBM, Oracle, Accenture, Dell, General Electric (GE), Honeywell, or Cisco. All these large corporations are excellent corporate rates negotiators. They typically have deals with most of the largest chains, such as Hilton, Starwood (Westin, Sheraton, Four Points, W), Club Carlson (Radisson, Park Plaza), Marriott, and Hyatt.