Preferred and restricted suppliers

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Preferred and restricted suppliers
  • Overview
  • Preferred suppliers
    • Set a supplier as preferred
  • Restricted suppliers
    • Setting a supplier as restricted
  • Related topics

Overview

Company administrators can set any air, hotel, or car supplier as preferred or restricted.

Preferred suppliers

Setting a supplier as preferred highlights the supplier to your company’s employees when they are booking travel. This helps increase policy compliance and any savings associated with the preferred rates your company has negotiated with these suppliers.

Set a supplier as preferred

1. Login to the Online Booking Tool.
2. Select Company from the Program menu. The Settings page will be displayed.
3. Select Supplier management from the left side panel (under Supplier).
4. Depending on which supplier types you would like to set as preferred, click the Air, Hotel property, Hotel brand, or Car tab. The preferred tiers will be displayed. You can customize what the label that will be displayed for these tiers (e.g., Tier 2, Silver, Medium, etc.). 
5. To view the existing preferred tier assignments, expand the tier toggle on the right for each tier level. Each row will display the supplier that has been set to preferred for one or more legal entities.
6. The following will now depend on which supplier type you selected in the previous step:
   • For Air: Click Add airline. The Add new airline page will be displayed. Enter the name of the airline you will to set as preferred in the Airline name field. All matches for the airline name you entered will be shown. Click the name of the airline you want to set as preferred. Select the desired tier from the Default Tier menu. This will assign this airline to that preferred tier level for all legal entities or countries (depending on what you selected). You can also restrict airlines.
   • For Hotel property: Click Add hotel. The Add new hotel page will be displayed. Enter the name of the hotel property you will to set as preferred in the Hotel name field. All matches for the hotel name you entered will be shown. Click the name of the hotel you want to set as preferred. Select the desired tier from the Default Tier menu. This will assign this hotel property to that preferred tier level for all legal entities or countries (depending on what you selected). You can also restrict hotels by hotel property.
   • For Hotel brand: Click Add hotel brand. The Add new hotel brand page will be displayed. Enter the name of the hotel brand you will to set as preferred in the Hotel brand name field. All matches for the hotel brand name you entered will be shown. Click the name of the hotel brand you want to set as preferred. Select the desired tier from the Default Tier menu. This will assign this hotel brand to that preferred tier level for all legal entities or countries (depending on what you selected). You can also restrict hotels by hotel brand.
   • For Cars: Click Add car supplier. The Add new car supplier page will be displayed. Enter the name of the car rental company you will to set as preferred in the Car supplier name field. All matches for the car supplier name you entered will be shown. Click the name of the car supplier you want to set as preferred. Select the desired tier from the Default Tier menu. This will assign this rental car company to that preferred tier level for all legal entities or countries (depending on what you selected).
7. Use the Supplier status section to customize preferred tier settings for each legal entity or country (if desired). For each legal entity for which you wish to set this supplier (airline, hotel, car rental company) as preferred, select the relevant tier (Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3). To set the supplier as a particular preferred tier for all legal entities, select that tier in the Default Tier menu.
8. Select the Show label toggle to designate whether suppliers in this this tier will be displayed with a label when travelers search. 
9. Click Save. The supplier (airline, hotel, car rental company) will be set as relevant preferred tier for the legal entities or countries you have selected.

Restricted suppliers

You can restrict bookings by supplier (air, hotel, hotel brand, car rental company), location, or keyword.

• By supplier: Setting a supplier as restricted blocks your company’s employees from being able to book travel with that supplier. This ensures that no bookings with that supplier will be allowed for your company (or the legal entities within your company that you designate). This, in turn, reduces the burden of work for approvers who would otherwise need to decline any bookings with that suppliers to ensure company travel policy was enforced.
• By hotel property or brand: As with suppliers, setting an individual hotel property or brand as restricted blocks your company’s employees from being able to book travel with that hotel property or brand. 
• By country: Setting a location as restricted blocks your company’s employees from being able to book any travel to, from, or in the location you have restricted. This includes any layovers/stops within that location. For example, if location A were blocked, any flights that travel from airport X to airport Y through location A would be blocked in any airfare search results.
• By keyword: (Hotels only) This allows you to enter a list of keywords (including hyphenated terms such as “non-smoking”) that will be used to block hotel bookings. Any keywords you enter will be compared to terms and phrases in the hotel rate name and description. If they match, the hotel rate will be restricted.

Set a supplier as restricted

1. Login to the Online Booking Tool.
2. Select Company from the Program menu. The Settings page will be displayed.
3. Select Supplier management from the left side panel (under Company).
4. Depending on which supplier types you would like to set as restricted, click the Air, Hotel property, Hotel brand, or Car tab. 
5. Scroll down to the Restricted section of the page. To view the existing restrictions, expand the tier toggle on the right of the Restricted row. Each row will display the supplier that has been set as restricted for one or more legal entities.
6. The following will now depend on which supplier type you selected in the previous step:
   • For Air: Click Add airline. The Add new airline page will be displayed. Enter the name of the airline you will to set as restricted in the Airline name field. All matches for the airline name you entered will be shown. Click the name of the airline you want to set as restricted.
   • For Hotel property: Click Add hotel. The Add new hotel page will be displayed. Enter the name of the hotel property you will to set as restricted in the Hotel name field. All matches for the hotel name you entered will be shown. Click the name of the hotel you want to set as restricted. 
   • For Hotel brand: Click Add hotel brand. The Add new hotel page will be displayed. Enter the name of the hotel property you will to set as restricted in the Hotel brand name field. All matches for the hotel name you entered will be shown. Click the name of the hotel you want to set as restricted. You can also restrict hotels by hotel chain.
   • For Cars: Click Add car supplier. The Add new car supplier page will be displayed. Enter the name of the car rental company you will to set as restricted in the Car supplier name field. All matches for the car supplier name you entered will be shown. Click the name of the car supplier you want to set as restricted.
7. By default, all legal entities are selected (and set to restricted). To only restrict this supplier for specific legal entities, ensure the Restricted option is selected for each legal entity you want to restrict from booking with this supplier and select the Unassigned option for the rest. Alternately, to set the supplier as restricted for all legal entities, select Restricted from the Default Tier menu.
8. Enter a reason for restricting this supplier in the field provided. 
9. Click Save. The supplier (airline, hotel, car rental company) will be set as restricted for the legal entities you have selected.

Related topics

• Restrict hotel booking by keyword
• Restrict travel bookings by location