‘Agents failing to claim £20m in hotel commissions’
Agents in the UK lose an estimated £20 million of revenue a year by failing to chase unpaid commission from hotels, it is claimed today.
Commission recovery firm Net Trans claims that around 40% of commission owed by hotels is never handed over to the agencies which have earned it.
Most agencies fail to chase commission because it is time-consuming and sometimes the expense of banking commission cheques is not justified, the company says.
The Norwegian company, which has opened a UK office headed by sales director John Melchior, runs an outsourced service which claims to recover £35 million in commission for more than 5,000 agents in 70 countries a year.
Clients using the Active Commission service include Carlson Wagonlit Travel, BCD Travel, and Gray Dawes Travel. Net Trans has also been appointed as the exclusive commission recovery company to the Guild of Travel Management Companies (GTMC).
Melchoir, formerly at Radius, Birmingham European Airways and Maersk Travel, said: “Our analysis shows British agencies make around £500 million of commissionable hotel bookings every year. That figure should earn agents £50 million in commission but only 60% of it is getting through.”
He claimed that the company’s clients can recover as much as £500,000 a year.
Report by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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