#hotels #meetings #conferences #planners
A recent article by HotelNewsNow.com reveals survey results from STR regarding meeting planners’ top considerations. We’ve highlighted the details below:
Make it Familiar: If you want more meetings booked at your property, bring in meeting planners just for the experience. A whopping 92% of planners called previous experience “very important” and 57% held their largest meeting at a site they had used before.
Keep It Cost-Effective: Consider room rates, travel, and food prices when building conference and meeting packages for planners. Half of the most important considerations were cost-related.
A good hotel at the top with 87% rating it “very important” with $189 as average room rate.
Travel costs to the location, 81% rating it “very important.”
Food and lodging tied with travel costs at 81% also rating it “very important.”
Beef Up Bandwidth: Manage your bandwidth to attract planners. Decent Wi-Fi was listed “very important” by 82% and a full 94% listed wireless Internet access as a must-have for their largest meeting.
Plan Ahead: Be prepared to provide information to planners over 2 years in advance. The largest meetings were planned 24 to 28 months before events.
“Clean Up Your Act”: Planners and attendee opinions really count when choosing a venue, consider the top 4 sources they use to book:
Previous experience, 92%
Attendee feedback, 84%
Property location and image, 81%
Colleague recommendations, 66%
Bottom Line: Know your numbers and make packages that create a win:win for both your property and planners. Incentives are “very likely to influence selection of a site,” including complimentary hotel rooms, meeting space, and transportation.
According to STR, there are more attendees, yet fewer events; expect less events with larger groups. According to the survey, event loyalty will increase and meeting planners will book less based on finding a deal and more based on experience and relationships.
Read the complete article here.
How are you updating your conference planning for meetings and events in 2014?