Amex GBT, Cvent Add Dozens of CSR Questions for Hotel RFPs
American Express Global Business Travel and meetings management and transient sourcing provider Cvent have partnered to create and launch a set of 47 hotel sourcing questions focused on sustainability, diversity, equity and inclusion, the companies told BTN.
The new questions are supplemental to the Global Business Travel Association's request-for-proposals template and were released to hoteliers in late July so they could begin to fill in their responses. The questions will be available to buyers using Cvent Transient today, in time for the 2022 RFP season.
"Corporate social responsibility topics around sustainability and diversity we feel are a growing priority for many of our clients at GBT," said Nina Marcello, principal of GBT's Global Business Consulting arm. She proposed the RFP initiative, which began in the spring. "We are being inundated with a deluge of questions about how we can support clients that need answers to these questions," she said.
Marcello explained that the current GBTA module doesn't fully capture the full spectrum of questions asked by clients. "This has resulted in a large amount of custom questions and back and forth with hoteliers," she said, adding that questions on sustainability and DEI-related topics for many buyers were not at the current level of priority when the association created its current set of questions.
For example, some GBT clients have asked questions about the ability to support charging stations for electric vehicles, Marcello said, adding those are not in the current GBTA template. Another set of questions is for more detailed information on diversity-owned businesses. Carbon emissions is another topic covered.
