STRASBOURG, France -- ASTA's 69th annual World Travel Congress
started off with a contretemps when roughly half the Society's
board -- and four of the five executive committee members -- stayed
away from a Marriott/Hertz-sponsored breakfast on Sunday to protest
the hotel company's Preferred Travel Agency program.
"We have from the beginning expressed concern, disapproval and
displeasure [regarding the Marriott program]," said ASTA executive
vice president William Maloney.
Marriott's program, announced Oct. 6, provides 10% commission
only for those agencies with one staffer per location who completes
the firm's training course. Other agents will be bumped down to 8%
pay.
Marriott is "using education as a weapon, not a tool," Maloney
said.
He is concerned because he views the program as a possible
precedent for "setting up unilateral supplier standards. Next,
agents are going to have to take courses for Cayman Islands and the
Alps. We're philosophically opposed to it," he said.
Although Marriott has said the program is voluntary and not a
commission cut, "that's flying in the face of logic," said
Maloney.
At least one member of the executive committee did not agree
with Maloney.
Mike Spinelli, the Society's immediate past president, was the
only member of the executive committee who attended the breakfast.
"I fought it tooth and nail," he said of the protest, adding that
ASTA executives planned to attend airline parties.
But Maloney said he and other ASTA officials saw a difference
between Marriott's actions and those of TWA and Continental, which
were not the instigators of the latest airline pay cut, but
followers.
Maloney acknowledged there were no plans to stay away from the
two carriers' events during the congress.
Bruce Wolff, Marriott's senior vice president of distribution
sales and marketing, knew about the protest in advance. He said
Marriott would schedule a press conference to reiterate the
company's position, adding there were no plans to alter the
program.
"We don't see it as a commission cut but as a volume
redistribution," he said.
Maloney said his only regret is that "we felt bad for Hertz,"
which co-sponsored the breakfast.
Reaction from agents at the congress was mixed.
Susan Hunter of Bon Voyage Travel in Tucson, Ariz., had already
taken the Marriott course and thought Marriott's efforts were "just
its way of saying, 'we want you to study our product.' If the
course cost a lot or were really difficult, that would be one
thing, but it's really simple."
Another agent, who mistook a Travel Weekly reporter for a
Marriott representative, asked how she could sign up for the
program.
Mary Ann De Groot, president of Broomfield Travel (Colo) Agency,
said she believed the Marriott program could create a domino
effect. "I'm afraid it's the start of all the hotels lowering
commissions."
"Agents don't have time to be a specialist for everybody, and
this is the start of it," said Thomas Valego, president of Travel
Network in Greensboro, N.C.
Terry Regan, Berkeley's Northside Travel in Berkeley, Calif.,
said he did not mind Marriott's making the program mandatory to
qualify for travel agent discounts, but by making it mandatory for
agents to hold on to their 10% commission is "definitely a
commission cut."
"I guess [Marriott] wants to say there's a distinction between
educated and noneducated agents, but it's not a good idea."