Marriott Reveals Tools for Booking Group Travel

Marriott International, Inc. has introduced two new tools to help group travel intermediaries: a website that will allow them to monitor their commission payments and future bookings, and an educational online training program.

Beginning in October, Marriott will launch a website that will provide group travel intermediaries with online access to all of their payments, future meetings on the books and will feature news and special promotions. This service will only be accessible by industry-accredited group intermediaries. The commission functionality of the website will initially be offered only to intermediaries in North America who participate in Marriott’s centralized group commission program. It will be expanded to other countries in the near future.

In early 2009, Marriott will introduce Meetings Excellence, a self-paced, online training course for meetings professionals in the travel industry. The program will focus on what differentiates hotel segments, Marriott’s brands, and planning a successful meeting. The program will be translated into nine languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, and Turkish.

In addition to receiving certification as a “Marriott Meeting Professional,” Meetings Excellence graduates will be exclusively eligible for Marriott’s discounted Plan-Tastic rates at over 2,000 hotels around the world. They will also receive special communications every two weeks with specials, offers, and news from Marriott.

For more information, call 1-800-445-1551 or visit www.marriott.com.