What does one have to do to qualify for a corporate rate at a hotel? None of the hotel reservation sites I’ve checked specify what qualifies.
When I personally use the “corporate” rate at hotels I frequent, it’s because my company has negotiated a favorable rate with that particular hotel/chain. I believe that would qualify as the definitive corporate rate, but there may be tricks or techniques for getting something called the “corporate” rate that I’m unaware of.
Jammer
My company had to negotiate directly with the hotel chains as well to get the corporate rate. Mind you, since I often stay at the same hotels (if they’re good) for personal travel as business travel, I’ve found that very often you can search around and find someone (like Expedia) who has the same rate - or lower. This also applies to airline tickets.
I’ve also found that sometimes if I say “I’m an employee of so and so, but I’m travelling on personal business and paying on my own nickel – can I still have the corporate rate?”, the answer is often “Yes”. Hotel pricing seems to come from some bizarro world where paying the “standard” price is the exception rather than the norm.
In lots of states, there are laws that indicate that room rates and fire information be posted on the door to the room (well, I always see it there, don’t know what the law really says). I see this in many, many places in Ontario, too.
Interestingly, the prices are always super-ridiculous. Like a $50 Red Roof Inn indicates that the rooms are $190 per night. I guess this maybe gives them the legal right to charge that much if they ever need to? Like on Labor Day, all of the Motel 8’s near Macinack Island were $140 per night! So went went to Sault Ste. Marie where it wasn’t a holiday (I don’t think) and paid merely CDN$50.
I was once laughed at by a desk clerk near Baltimore when I told him what our “corporate rate” was. He followed with, “Oh, I’m sure we can do better than that.” It’s often some corporate purchasing drone’s job to go out and negotiate good corporate rates. These rates come in handy when the town is mostly booked up for a convention and you need a reasonable rate. But as suggested elsewhere here you can usually do better with AAA, AARP, Priceline, the Hotel’s own website or other discounts.
The rates indicated on the hotel doors are the highest that they are technically allowed to charge. Most hotels only approach these rates for large events like the Super Bowl, Republican/Democratic National Conventions, and the Apocolypse.
Bingo.
As for the corporate rates…it depends. Usually, a hotel will negotiate set rates with local companies that are much better than AAA or AARP - but only with those companies. Very few hotels have a general ‘corporate’ rate anymore, at least in this area. I will usually, personally, slide a bit of a discount (10% or so) if the person hasn’t managed to irritate me in the first few seconds; that way, we get the business, and (hopefully) more in the future.
An example:
Rack rate: 93.00
AAA/AARP/just about anyone, really: 83.70
Negotiated Corporate: 59.00-69.00
Government/Military: 59.00 (assuming on gov’t business/orders)
Someone who walks up, hits the counter, and says ‘Gimme your best rate’: 93.00 - 98.00 if I see they’re driving a Caddy, Lexus, BMW or some similarly expensive car.
Whoops, missed this one. Y’see, we get so much hassle, that the honesty of that response is refreshing. If it’s a quiet night, I’d probably give it to you for that reason.
Rates are, within reason, at the discretion of the clerk and/or the manager on duty - at least at the chains I’ve worked for. We want to get as much as we can, but we’ll settle for a bit less.
Another quick note - rates vary from region to region, according to the local market. The reason may not be immediately obvious, but please don’t assume the clerk is ripping you off. S/he is (almost) always quoting you what they’re told to quote you.
I always understood that you should ask when booking the room what discounts are available. Usually, they’ll mention ones for AAA or AARP or frequent flyer program members. I’ve never paid the rack rate in my life, but then again, I’ve never booked a room during the Superbowl or a political convention. (Actually, usually the hotels book the rooms far in advance of those events at negotiated rates.) Sometimes you get a better rate by calling the hotel directly while other times the central reservation number has a better rate. And it always helps to be nice to the front desk clerk.
I used to work the desk in a couple hotels, while I was still in college. And it taught me a lot of valuable lessons about hotel pricing.
[ul]
[li]People who pay the published/rack rate are suckers[/li][li]People with reservations generally pay more[/li][li]Discounts are given without much discretion to mostly liars[/li][/ul]
Granted, I worked in the very touristy Myrtle Beach, SC. Hotel rules may differ little bit in a place like that, where the competition is big. But I’m telling you how things worked at the two “mid-grade” hotels I worked at.
Before I worked hotels, as a clueless youth, I just assumed that the price on the sign was the price you paid for a room. I figured the pricing was like merchandise at Wal-Mart: the amount on the price tag is what you pay. Once I worked the desk, I figured out that all the “seasoned” travelers I saw seemed to know that the price was negotiable, like a car or a house. They could often haggle it down 30-50%, depending on how empty we were that night. What surprised me is that so many people knew this…except the obviously oblivious. It came to the point when I chuckled when someone took the rack rate.
I also figured out that reservations are great for holding rooms, and terrible for securing good deals. I lost count of the number of times someone came in as a walk-in after we had lowered the standard rate for the day (slow business). So the walk-in comes in and pays $60/night for their room, while the guy behind him made reservations two months ago at the $99/night “special AAA discount rate.” Not that I’m advising traveling without reservations. But it may be good strategy to arrive as a walk-in and see what kind of rate you can get. Then, after you check in, cancel your reservation. 
Finally, most places I’ve stayed (and the places I worked) give discounts pretty indiscriminately. The corporate rate can be tricky in some cases because it sometimes has to be attached to some kind of special billing. But in general, you can lie about most discounts. Remember this one central theme: the desk clerk doesn’t care! You can say you’re a AAA member, and likely won’t be asked to prove otherwise. If you’re asked to your card and you say you forgot it, you’ll get it anyway. Remember what’s going through this clerk’s mind: “It’s not worth getting into an argument over…I’m lazy and it’s not my money.”
I’m not saying you should lie. I’m just saying that if you want to “qualify” for a discount, it often works on the honor system. You may choose to abuse that…it’s your conscience.
I travel for work all the time now, and am always booked at the Government rate. However, I’ve NEVER been asked to produce my Government ID, travel orders, or anything of the sort. Then again, the Government rate is rarely the best available. I can usually work it down a little lower. That’s me, saving your tax dollars. You’re welcome.
I hate to be a shill for a corporation in which I don’t even own stock, but I used a single time PriceLine for a hotel. It kind of worked to the best of both of audiolover’s points. Security of a reservation with what I still think of as a super cheap rate.
The thing is, though, you don’t know which specific hotel you’re going to be in, but you get to choose the “stars” of the hotel. I think we picked four stars, and got the room in a beautiful place in downtown Toronto. It did let us pick the “zone” of the city, so we knew we’d be downtown.
I wouldn’t consider this on a road trip, though, because then we’d be stuck on a fixed schedule, rather than stopping where we felt like it.
Yes- you need to dicker for the best rate. I just went on some Gov’t business, and a certain Suite hotel was suggested. I called- their governemtn rate was about $5 more than my Agency paid. I simply told them my Agency rate, and said “Your Hotel was recommended to me, and I wanted to give you a chance to meet my rate”. They did so.
Unless there is a HUGE convention going on right then- the Hotel business is hurting. I stayed in one 5 star hotel in Dallas- during Summer- when they were REALLY hurting. The “rack rate” was $450. The Corp rate was $250. I got them down to $89 as that was all my Agency would pay. I did reward them by getting several others to stay there at the same time. “Better $89 from a nice quiet customer than an empty room”.