The Dream Hollywood is one of the hotels paying 12% on group bookings.
Dream Hotel Group will boost commission on group bookings at
most of its hotels from 10% to 12% for the rest of the year, a move that
appears to counter rate-cutting by Hilton and Marriott International.
Marriott cut its group commission rate to 7% on March 31,
and Hilton will do the same on Oct. 1.
The 12% rate is available at the Dream Downtown and Dream
Midtown in New York, Dream South Beach, Dream Hollywood and Dream Bangkok, plus
Time hotels in Manhattan and Nyack, N.Y., and the Unscripted in Durham, N.C. The
Chatwal New York isn't eligible because the hotel is a member of Marriott's Luxury
Collection.
The group booking must be for a meeting or event happening
this year.
"We recognize and value the important role our
intermediary partners play in attracting business and group bookings to our
hotels," said Dream Hotel Group CEO Jay Stein. "In a time where
agents seem underappreciated, we want to remind them that we are here, and we
love their business."
Other companies are at least temporarily paying travel agents
more for group reservations, including Preferred Hotels & Resorts, Warwick
Hotels & Resorts and Denihan Hospitality. Plus, several individual
properties have raised group commissions.