Trying Not To Loose A Big Account (Please Help)

[vendman0729]

I have an Extended Stay account which is my biggest account and a good portion of my income.

Canteen is also there and Canteen does all their hotels.

I have had this account for almost 2 years and I have never had to pay commission.

I know I should not be there in the first place since Canteen has a contract, but man do they suck at servicing their machines and nobody is happy with them there.

Lately, the Extended Stay corporate told the hotel manager their not getting enough money from her location.

She told me she has to start charging me commission and I told her I am fine with that.

A new district manager just came and heard good things about me.

She even told me I can have 5 more locations in her district if I want which was really nice to hear.

She told me that I need to follow some rules though and she showed me an email which stated for example that I need to sell Tide detergent from the snack machine.

Unfortunately at the bottom, the email said "if you have vending service issues please call or email Best Vendors at 800-747-8363 or email gethelp@bestvendors.com.  Thank you, Purchasing Services Group".

Also, in the same email, it says "any questions during the initiative should be referred to purchasing" (at a specific Extended Stay email which I have).

So my question is, how would you guys go about this?

The distract manager is really nice and wants to give me more locations, but I feel like she doesn't know that Canteen and Best Vendors are owned by the Compass group.

In the end, if she makes me go through Best Vendors, I feel like I might just get kicked out since Best Vendors would rather just have Canteen as their only vendor.

Do you think I can somehow pay the hotel commission directly to Extended Stay or do you think there's a chance Best Vendors would be willing to work with me? Either of these scenarios would be the only way I can keep such a great account.

By the way, I think there are other independent operators in my district who do Extended Stay hotels so its not like I am the only one doing this. I am curious as to how other independent operators pay commission to Extended Stay or even any large commercial chain.

Man I hate this situation and I do not want to loose this account.

 

[AngryChris]

Well.. of course the odds are against you, but do you know if the local canteen is totally owned by canteen or just a franchise?  Although compass may be in cahoots with canteen for obvious reasons, they might actually work with you depending on the sales of the hotels and their desire to keep the commission.  If it makes sense to you, check the agreement with best vendors and try to work it out.  They'll still get money from you if canteen isn't there.

[AZVendor]

Canteen and Worst Vendors are owned by the same company so it's unlikely a friendly distrct manager can allow you in due to the contract they have.  They would have to complain to their corporate office who would have to tell Worst Vendors to kick Canteen out and put you in.  Then you are beholden to Worst Vendors to pay them their onerous commission that would go to the client corp office and probably never be distributed to the hotel itself.

[Snickers]

Should Tide even be in a snack machine? 

Liquid I guess would be ok definately not powder. 

Best vendors may let you run it and pay the commission (high) to Best vendors. Chances are you won't have an opportunity unless your Canteen does not want to service it. 

[orsd]

Just sell Tide Pods...

On a more serious note, the problem with Tide in the snack machine is that all the food will smell and taste like Tide.

[TKK]

Its ur best account and you share it? How good is it?

[vendman0729]

Thanks for all the replies and I will take everything into consideration.

Chris I thought Canteen was just 1 big national company? Is it better for me if the one in my hotel location is national or a franchise? I guess what benefit would there be between one or the other. I might have to somehow find out though.

AZVendor I understand what you're saying, but as long as I pay the commision, I can care less what happens to it. At least I am paying it and I have done my part. I can keep proof of records if there's ever a problem in the future. I can also call Extended Stay corporate to make sure their getting it. Also, I don't think most managers would be willing to go that far for a vendor to call corporate and complain about Canteen but I can at least bring this up to the district manager. They say that Canteen doesn't even pay the tickets to the front desk from people loosing their money. I pay all of my tickets and also on time unlike them.

Snickers they actually specify the Tide has to be liquid pouch packs and not only that but use 3 spirals with 15 slots each haha what a joke. Worst Vendors dictates not only what to put in the snack machine but also how many spirals and how many slots. O and they even say vend price will be $1.50.

orsd I never thought about the smell in the snack machine but I am assuming if it's a liquid pack, then I don't think the smell should be an issue. If it is, it gives me a reason not to sell it.

TKK It does $1400/month from only a drink and a snack. I don't think its normal for a small hotel with 139 rooms to do this well but I don't know. It's right by the highway and it's at a minimum 80% capacity rate which is pretty high. Sometimes they have nights for as low as $55/night which is really cheap. When groups come and the hotel is full, I can do even $600 in 1 week alone. This is with me sharing the hotel with Canteen. I feel like though I must have really taken away a lot of Canteens sales and the reason the Extended Stay corporate complained haha. 

 

Anyways, I can care less about the whole Tide thing as that's only 1 item. At this point, even if I can keep the account just for a couple of months more, I can try to at least get a couple more good accounts until then. I do agree with you guys though and I am not going to get my hopes up.