Chairman, HRAO & Chairman, SWOSTI Hotel Group
The Hotel and Restaurant Association of Odisha (HRAO, headed by its Chairman J K Mohanty, had a meeting with the representatives of Go-MMT Nitish Sewariya and IBIBOs Abdul Aziz to iron out differences with the OTAs.
Here are some of the big takeaways and pointers put-forth to the representatives of Go-MMT and IBIBO by HRAO.
- It has been categorically told by Chairman, HRAO to Go-MMT and IBIBO that members of HRAO have unanimously decided that the commission percentage shall not be more than 15% for any property in the State of Odisha in all cases including ‘Pay at Hotels & Pay by Company’.
- Most of the time commission invoices are not submitted in time to the hotels to enable the hotels to pay TDS by the due date, which is 7th of next month. Go-MMT is advised to kindly deduct commission net of TDS while releasing the payment to hotels. Because the hoteliers are facing harassment when payments comes after 90 days.
- Go-MMT is advised to remove ‘Coupon Code’, ‘Meta Discounting’ and ‘Wallet Discount’ system. This is causing rate disparity and hampering brand and image of the hotel industry.
- GO-MMT / IBIBO must have a Notarized version of the contract between the property and Go-MMT under the Jurisdiction of Odisha High Court or subject to the local jurisdiction of the property and the contract to be signed by the signing authority only on proper legal documentation.
- It has been decided unanimously by the entire HRAO fraternity not to indulge in PLB modality (Performance Linked Bonus, i.e. complimentary rooms against a certain volume of business generated. That causes discriminatory dealing among the hotels.
- Instead of present system of post payment of TDS by GO-MMT / IBIBO, the HRAO insisted on pre-payment of TDS to the hotels.
