How to Build a Winning Hotel RFP for Multi City Programs

Running a hotel RFP for one city is hard enough. Running a multi city RFP for a regional or national program can turn into months of spreadsheets, attachments, and conflicting answers.

A winning RFP does two things well. First, it gives hotels a clear way to respond so they are not guessing about your priorities. Second, it makes it easy for you to compare apples to apples across brands, markets, and segments.

Start with a clear program story

Before you ask for a single rate, tell hotels what problem you are trying to solve. Are you centralizing spend, improving duty of care, or supporting a new field operation model

Good RFPs describe:

• Your traveler profile and trip purpose.
• Expected room nights by city or region.
• Seasonality and blackout expectations.
• Key must haves such as parking, kitchenettes, or breakfast.

Group cities into logical clusters

Not every city deserves the same level of detail. Group similar markets so hotels understand where you truly need strategic partners and where you just need solid options on a directory.

• Tier one markets with heavy volume.
• Tier two support markets.
• Long tail locations that only see a handful of trips.

Standardize how hotels respond

The biggest failure in traditional RFPs is inconsistent responses. If every hotel fills out a different version of a spreadsheet, your team spends weeks normalizing data instead of making decisions.

Tools like HotelHuddle standardize how rates, inclusions, and blackout dates are captured so you can compare more quickly and spend more time on the strategic conversation.

Close the loop with awards and agreements

An RFP is only successful if awards are communicated clearly and agreements are easy to reference later. Centralize your awards, attach program level documents, and make sure travelers can find their preferred hotels for each market inside your tools.