Marriott Downtown, B-294594, November 8, 2004

B-294594 Nov 08, 2004 Jump To VIEW DECISION DOWNLOADS RELATED PAGES GAO CONTACTS Highlights Marriott Downtown protests the award of a contract to CMS-Radisson Hotel Memphis Airport by the Department of the Army under request for proposals (RFP) No. W912D-04-R-0007, issued to procure meals, lodging, and transportation for armed forces applicants at the Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS) in Memphis, Tennessee. Marriott argues that the selection of CMS-Radissons proposal was unreasonable. We deny the protest. View Decision B-294594, Marriott Downtown, November 8, 2004 Decision Matter of: Marriott Downtown File: B-294594 Date: November 8, 2004 Phillip E. Johnson, Federal Contract Specialists, Inc., for the protester. Capt. Eugene Y. Kim, Department of the Army, for the agency. Kenneth Kilgour and Christine S. Melody, Esq., Office of the General Counsel, participated in the preparation of the decision. DIGEST Protest of proposal evaluation and source selection is denied where record shows evaluation and award decision were reasonable and consistent with solicitation's evaluation terms and applicable procurement rules. DECISION Marriott Downtown protests the award of a contract to CMS-Radisson Hotel Memphis Airport by the Department of the Army under request for proposals (RFP) No. W912D-04-R-0007, issued to procure meals, lodging, and transportation for armed forces applicants at the Military Entrance Processing Station (MEPS) in Memphis, Tennessee. Marriott argues that the selection of CMS-Radissons proposal was unreasonable. We deny the protest. The RFP, a commercial acquisition using a combination of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) parts 12, 13, 14 and 15, provided for award of a fixed-price requirements contract, for a base year period with four 1-year options, to the offeror whose proposal was most advantageous to the government. The RFP required that offerors submit a technical/quality proposal as well as a separate cost/price proposal. The RFP advised that offers would be evaluated on four factors: facility quality/quality control, past performance, transportation, and cost/price. The first factor, facility quality/quality control, included sanitation and cleanliness, room condition, meals, security, special features, facility location, and quality control. The RFP also advised that the non-cost factors were more important than cost or price, and that among the non-cost factors facility quality/quality control was more important than past performance, which was more important than transportation. In response, the agency received nine proposals, including one from an offeror whose facility was closed for business and therefore was not considered further. The original evaluation team reviewed the eight other proposals and conducted on-site visits, and a contract was awarded to CMS-Radisson. Marriott Downtown protested the award, contending that its offer had not been properly evaluated. The contracting officer subsequently terminated CMS-Radissons contract, amended the solicitation to provide for a date for new on-site evaluations, and assembled a new evaluation team to review the proposals and to conduct the site visits, in order to make a new source selection decision. [1] As a result of the agencys action, we dismissed the protest. After reviewing the proposals and conducting on-site evaluations, the second evaluation team rated the proposals of Marriott Downtown and offeror A as excellent; CMS-Radisson and offerors B, C, and D as good; offeror E as satisfactory; and offeror F as marginal. The contracting officer established a competitive range consisting of the six offers rated excellent or good, including those from Marriott Downtown and CMS-Radisson. Detailed weaknesses/deficiencies were communicated to those offerors. The agencys main concern with Marriotts proposal was the facilitys proximity to Beale Street, which features nightclubs, bars, and other late-night tourist attractions. The agencys main concerns with the CMS-Radisson proposal were deficiencies in cleanliness and quality control noted by the second evaluation team. Amendment 0002 was issued on July 6 requesting final revisions and/or pricing changes. Five of the six offerors in the competitive range submitted revised proposals, [2] and based on the revised submissions, the contracting officer rated each of the remaining proposals as excellent and awarded the contract to CMS-Radisson. In conducting the price/technical tradeoff analysis, the contracting officer determined that the proposal offered by CMS-Radisson provided the best value to the government, because it was priced81,147.58 less than any other offer over the possible 5-year life of the contract.