Hotel Committee Background
The following comes from one of our hotel committee members that was on my jump seat for a long leg.
SWA is one of the only airlines that DOES NOT have the company choose the hotels. The hotel selection committee consists of FAs & pilots who negotiate the contracts directly with the hotels. SWAmanagement is involved only at the level of paying the bill. The result of this is that the crews hold ourselves to blame/praise on any hotel problems/posiitves. Issues are brought directly to the hotel committee which involve service/hotel issues....the company rarely gets involved in these. This keeps the company from having to dedicate folks in handling sticky issues or cutting pennies to say money with the crews getting the short end of the stick & complaining about the "company doesn't care" attitude. "We", the pilots & FAs are the ones who choose the hotels.
Additionally I was told this keeps "grievances" from being filed by crews against the company. At AA I was told they have at any one time over 500 grievances by crewmembers against the company for hotel related issues....urban legend? It takes a lot of resources, pulled trips & expensive research to resolve grievances. I don't know but even if that number is 1/4 of that the same source said SWA has only a handful (less than 5) at anyone time.
Our folks on the committee work very hard to get the most money for the best hotel & I believe the quality of hotels has steadily improved (they were good when I got here 4+ yrs ago) & continue to do so. We're very fortunate I believe & we're saving alot of money at the same time. What it is most gratifying though is the reputation that the company enjoys among most hotel staff. Of course they could all be lying to me & just be playing to the crowd but the general rule is the hotel staffs believe generally the SWA folks treat them the best...I hope we continue that LUV for a long time...when that changes it will be telling time indeed.
The following comes from one of our hotel committee members that was on my jump seat for a long leg.
SWA is one of the only airlines that DOES NOT have the company choose the hotels. The hotel selection committee consists of FAs & pilots who negotiate the contracts directly with the hotels. SWAmanagement is involved only at the level of paying the bill. The result of this is that the crews hold ourselves to blame/praise on any hotel problems/posiitves. Issues are brought directly to the hotel committee which involve service/hotel issues....the company rarely gets involved in these. This keeps the company from having to dedicate folks in handling sticky issues or cutting pennies to say money with the crews getting the short end of the stick & complaining about the "company doesn't care" attitude. "We", the pilots & FAs are the ones who choose the hotels.
Additionally I was told this keeps "grievances" from being filed by crews against the company. At AA I was told they have at any one time over 500 grievances by crewmembers against the company for hotel related issues....urban legend? It takes a lot of resources, pulled trips & expensive research to resolve grievances. I don't know but even if that number is 1/4 of that the same source said SWA has only a handful (less than 5) at anyone time.
Our folks on the committee work very hard to get the most money for the best hotel & I believe the quality of hotels has steadily improved (they were good when I got here 4+ yrs ago) & continue to do so. We're very fortunate I believe & we're saving alot of money at the same time. What it is most gratifying though is the reputation that the company enjoys among most hotel staff. Of course they could all be lying to me & just be playing to the crowd but the general rule is the hotel staffs believe generally the SWA folks treat them the best...I hope we continue that LUV for a long time...when that changes it will be telling time indeed.
