In large enterprise organizations, hotel RFP management is rarely owned by a single individual. Instead, it sits at the intersection of travel, procurement, finance, risk, and regional leadership. As hotel programs scale across countries and business units, responsibility becomes shared - and without clear ownership and structure, that shared responsibility can quickly turn into confusion, delays, and lost savings.

That complexity is exactly why many global organizations now rely on a centralized corporate hotel RFP management platform for enterprise travel program governance and supplier control. Rather than asking “who owns the spreadsheet,” the question becomes “who owns which decisions, supported by which data, in a single system of record?”

At a high level, hotel RFPs are no longer just a travel task. They are a governance process that requires collaboration, accountability, and technology. When supported by the right tools, such as a hotel contract management platform, enterprises can clearly define roles while maintaining speed, consistency, and transparency across global programs.

This article breaks down who is typically responsible for managing hotel RFPs in large enterprises, how responsibilities are shared, where ownership often breaks down, and how technology enables clearer accountability at scale.

Why Hotel RFP Ownership Is Complex in Enterprises

In small or mid-sized companies, hotel sourcing may be handled by a single travel manager or even an executive assistant. In large enterprises, that model simply does not scale.

Enterprise hotel programs typically involve:

• Thousands of travelers

• Dozens of countries and currencies

• Hundreds or thousands of hotel properties

• Multiple booking channels and TMCs

• Legal, security, ESG, and data privacy requirements

With that level of complexity, no single function has all the expertise required to manage hotel RFPs end to end. As a result, responsibility is distributed across several stakeholders - each owning a specific part of the process.

Without clear structure, this distribution leads to:

• Overlapping decision rights

• Slow approvals

• Conflicting objectives (cost vs. experience vs. risk)

• Poor documentation and audit exposure

Modern enterprises solve this not by centralizing people, but by centralizing process - using platforms built as enterprise hotel RFP software to align roles, workflows, and accountability.

The Primary Owner: Corporate Travel Management

In most large organizations, the Corporate Travel Manager (or Global Travel Lead) is the functional owner of the hotel program. This role typically:

• Defines hotel program strategy

• Aligns sourcing with travel policy

• Ensures traveler experience and safety requirements are met

• Acts as the internal point of coordination

Responsibilities of the Travel Team

In hotel RFPs, the travel team usually owns:

• Determining which markets and hotels are in scope

• Setting traveler-centric requirements (location, amenities, safety)

• Aligning hotel sourcing with booking tools and policy rules

• Monitoring traveler compliance and satisfaction

However, while travel managers understand traveler behavior and operational realities, they are not always best positioned to lead commercial negotiations at enterprise scale. That’s where procurement steps in.

Procurement: The Commercial and Governance Lead

In mature enterprise programs, Procurement plays a central role in hotel RFP management - especially when hotel spend is treated as a strategic category.

Procurement’s responsibilities typically include:

• Leading or supporting commercial negotiations

• Ensuring fair, competitive bidding processes

• Applying supplier governance standards

• Managing contracts, terms, and renewals

• Driving savings targets and value realization

Procurement teams bring structure, rigor, and negotiation expertise, but they often lack day-to-day insight into traveler needs or operational booking realities. This is why effective hotel RFP management depends on tight collaboration between travel and procurement, supported by a corporate hotel bid management system that gives both teams visibility into the same data.

Finance: Oversight, Controls, and Accountability

While finance teams rarely run hotel RFPs directly, they are deeply invested in the outcome. In large enterprises, finance involvement typically includes:

• Setting cost reduction or cost avoidance targets

• Reviewing and approving sourcing strategies

• Ensuring budget predictability and forecasting accuracy

• Supporting audit and compliance requirements

Finance teams care less about which hotel is selected and more about:

• Whether negotiated savings are real and measurable

• Whether hotel spend is controlled and predictable

• Whether decisions can be justified with data

A modern automated RFP management system helps bridge the gap between sourcing decisions and financial reporting by providing clear documentation, audit trails, and performance dashboards.

Risk, Security, and ESG Teams: Mandatory Stakeholders

As corporate travel programs globalize, hotel sourcing is increasingly scrutinized through the lens of risk and sustainability.

Risk and Security

Risk teams may require:

• Minimum safety and security standards

• Location risk assessments

• Crisis response capabilities

• Compliance with duty-of-care obligations

ESG and Sustainability

ESG teams may require:

• Environmental certifications

• Sustainability reporting

• Labor and ethical standards compliance

• Carbon and energy transparency

These requirements must be embedded directly into the hotel RFP - not added after the fact. Large enterprises increasingly rely on standardized hotel contract templates within centralized platforms to ensure these criteria are applied consistently across all markets.

Regional and Local Stakeholders: Critical, but Not Owners

In global enterprises, regional travel managers, office administrators, or local procurement teams often provide:

• Local market knowledge

• Feedback on traveler preferences

• Awareness of operational constraints

• Input on hotel performance

However, when regional stakeholders are given full ownership without central governance, programs quickly fragment. Rates vary wildly, contracts overlap, and enterprise leverage is diluted.

Best-practice organizations strike a balance:

• Central ownership of process, standards, and tools

• Local input into hotel selection and performance evaluation

This balance is easiest to achieve when all stakeholders collaborate inside a cloud-based hotel sourcing software environment rather than exchanging emails and spreadsheets.

The Role of TMCs and Consultants

Travel Management Companies (TMCs) and travel consultants often support hotel RFPs, especially in large enterprises.

Their role may include:

• Benchmarking rates against market data

• Advising on sourcing strategy

• Supporting RFP distribution and hotel engagement

• Assisting with rate loading and implementation

However, even when consultants are involved, ownership should remain internal. External partners should support the process, not own it. Enterprises that rely solely on third parties without internal accountability often struggle to maintain continuity, documentation, and long-term optimization.

A business travel sourcing software platform ensures that institutional knowledge stays with the organization, even when external partners change.

Where Responsibility Often Breaks Down

Despite good intentions, many enterprise hotel programs struggle with unclear ownership. Common failure points include:

1. No Single Process Owner

When no one clearly owns the end-to-end process, tasks fall between teams. Travel assumes procurement is negotiating; procurement assumes travel is managing hotels; finance assumes both are aligned - until results disappoint.

2. Manual Tools Mask Accountability Gaps

Spreadsheets and email make it hard to see who approved what, when, and why. Decisions become opaque, increasing risk and slowing audits.

3. Conflicting KPIs

Travel may be measured on traveler satisfaction, procurement on savings, and finance on budget variance. Without shared visibility and aligned metrics, teams optimize for different outcomes.

A centralized corporate travel procurement platform helps solve this by making responsibilities explicit through workflows, approvals, and role-based access.

How Technology Clarifies Ownership at Scale

Modern hotel RFP platforms are not just about efficiency - they are about governance. The right technology clearly defines who is responsible for each step.

Role-Based Access

• Travel managers define program scope and policy rules

• Procurement leads negotiations and awards

• Finance reviews and approves scenarios

• Risk and ESG teams validate compliance

Each role sees what it needs to see - no more, no less.

Workflow-Driven Accountability

• Tasks are assigned and tracked

• Deadlines are visible

• Approvals are documented

• Changes are logged

This structure is impossible to maintain consistently in email-driven processes.

Single Source of Truth

With all data in one place, there is no debate about which version is “final.” This is especially important for enterprises using automated lodging RFP solution environments across multiple regions.

A Practical Ownership Model for Enterprises

Leading enterprises often adopt a hybrid ownership model:

• Travel owns program strategy and traveler alignment

• Procurement owns commercial execution and contracts

• Finance owns oversight, targets, and reporting

• Risk/ESG own compliance validation

• Regions provide structured input, not independent execution

All of this is orchestrated through a centralized leading hotel procurement platforms approach, ensuring consistency without sacrificing local relevance.

Why Ownership Matters More Than Ever

As hotel sourcing evolves toward continuous negotiation models, dynamic pricing, and data-driven optimization, ownership clarity becomes even more critical.

Future-focused enterprises are asking:

• Who monitors performance mid-year?

• Who triggers renegotiation when markets shift?

• Who owns supplier scorecards and improvement plans?

• Who explains results to leadership and auditors?

These questions cannot be answered with ad hoc tools. They require defined roles, supported by platforms designed for negotiated hotel rate bidding at scale.

Reference Reading: Understanding Roles and Responsibilities in Hotel Sourcing

For deeper insight into governance, ownership, and execution models, the following resources provide valuable context:

• who should manage hotel sourcing corporate travel teams TMCs or consultants

• what is hotel sourcing and how it impacts business travel budgets across global enterprises

• breaking down the latest GBTA hotel RFP standards update for travel managers

• the future of hotel bidding from RFP automation to continuous negotiation models

• the best hotel RFP software in 2025 comparing modern platforms vs legacy tools

Conclusion: Clear Ownership Is the Foundation of Successful Hotel RFPs

In large enterprise travel programs, hotel RFP success is not about who sends the email or owns the spreadsheet. It’s about clearly defined responsibility, shared visibility, and structured collaboration across multiple functions.

When ownership is unclear, programs suffer from slow cycles, missed savings, weak governance, and frustrated stakeholders. When ownership is clearly defined - and supported by modern best corporate sourcing software - hotel sourcing becomes repeatable, auditable, and strategically valuable.

The most successful enterprises do not ask, “Who owns hotel RFPs?”

They ask, “How do we enable every responsible stakeholder to make better decisions together?”

If your organization is ready to move from fragmented responsibility to structured ownership, Request a ReadyBid Demo and see how a centralized, role-driven platform can transform hotel RFP management at enterprise scale.