Small disadvantaged businesses often have a harder time getting their names out there than the larger companies, including the travel industry.  OneRez president Brian MacKenzie explains how his company gives those businesses a fighting chance…

Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR has been adopted as a major company policy initiative by virtually all of America’s large corporations. The general purpose behind CSR is to strengthen the company by making it more environmentally sustainable and socially responsible. A major aspect of CSR is the incorporation of small disadvantaged business (SDB) procurement in the company’s supply chain. All of the Fortune 500 firms have established departments that are tasked with supplier diversity and small business procurement.

Until now, managed travel has been an excluded category for SDB procurement, grouped with other industries such as electric utilities, phone companies, etc — where there are no suppliers which qualify as SDBs. However, the lodging and car rental segments of the domestic travel industry are a prime example of true SDB ownership among suppliers. Nowhere is this more prevalent than with the Asian ownership of franchised and independent hotels.

OneRez began focusing on this aspect of the domestic travel industry in 2003. Working with the Small Business Administration (SBA) and other Federal agencies, OneRez pursued the idea of SDB procurement in domestic travel. At the onset one of the major questions was whether a franchised hotel or car rental business would qualify as an SDB. Although the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) responded no, the SBA responded, ‘if the franchisor/chain does not control the pricing of the product or the employees of the business then the franchise does qualify as an SDB.’

With extensive prior experience in Federal government contracting, OneRez management set out to bring SDB procurement to government and corporate managed travel. Working with various Federal agencies, Fortune 500 corporations, hotel and car chains, major travel agencies, AAHOA/NABHOOD and other stakeholders, the OneRez Network was born.

In September of 2008 the SBA did away with the agency’s arduous SDB certification process for disadvantaged (minority) businesses, allowing businesses to self-certify as disadvantaged. This brought the self-certification process to all three major SDB categories (small business/disadvantaged/woman owned). Working with the SBA, OneRez finalized its self-certification process as a third-party verifier of hotel and car SDBs.

With the certification process resolved, OneRez’s next focus was how to distribute the SDB data to allow corporate and government travel departments to steer business to SDB travel suppliers based on their ownership status. Sitting down with the travel departments and diversity procurement groups at Fortune 500 firms and at the executive level of major travel agencies, it became clear that the OneRez Network needed to be integrated with the GDS (Global Distribution System) booking platform to allow managed travelers to select hotel and car suppliers based on their SDB status. In early 2009 OneRez entered into an exclusive five year marketing agreement with Travelport to feature the OneRez Network as a new selection criteria on the travel agent screens and online booking platforms powered by Travelport. The new SDB selection feature will be marketed by OneRez and Travelport to government and corporate travel departments and major travel agencies as a new tool for CSR and SBA compliance.

For the first time managed travelers will be able to select hotel and car properties by SDB ownership status in addition to the normal selection criteria of brand, price and amenities. Companies such as Wal-Mart — which are not Federal government contractors — can use the new GDS feature to support their SDB procurement initiatives under their CSR policies. Federal contractors such as Raytheon can use the feature to comply with contract requirements under the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FARs). Federal agencies will use the feature to help meet their statutory goals for SDB procurement (23 per cent small business, 5 per cent minority owned, 5 per cent woman owned). And lastly, the major travel agencies working under the Federal E-Gov Travel contracts can use the OneRez Network on Travelport to meet their FAR contract requirements under their contracts. OneRez also recommends that SDB hotel owners register with the Central Contractor Registration at www.fedbizopps.gov to respond to Federal solicitations for blocks of hotel rooms set aside under the various SDB categories.

In summary, OneRez and Travelport have brought SDB procurement to the domestic travel industry. Because of the unique nature of the way travel is procured, a new feature on the GDS was necessary. By registering in the OneRez Network your location(s) can receive additional reservations based on your company’s ownership status.

Brian MacKenzie is the president of OneRez, LLC, which operates the OneRez Network.