Hotels

Always Looking For Your Business

The most commonly used venues are hotels. There are lots of them in every price range and location and almost all of them have meeting rooms that they need to fill. They also have guest rooms, which they do their best to attach to the renting of meeting rooms because a primary source of their profits is in renting guest rooms.

The one thing that you must always remember about either type of rooms is that if it is empty, the hotel is not making money on it. The venue would like to have all their rooms 100% full all they time, but this is not the reality of the situation. Thus, negotiation is always possible – even when the sales and catering folks quote you prices as if they were written in stone.

For example, if you are looking to book a fifty-person, two-day seminar with almost all the participants being local (no guest rooms), you will be quoted a far more expensive rate than the large corporation that is bringing in fifty of its sales people for a two-day training and booking all their non-local people at that same site. In fact, the corporation will often get the meeting rooms thrown in at no cost.

If, however, you are flexible with your dates, and you are willing to book the meeting room when it is available (empty and not earning revenue), you can usually negotiate a much lower rental rate. This is particularly true if you are willing to take the room in the near future (a few weeks or less) because the sales staff knows that it will probably not get booked by the big bucks corporation without ample planning time.

So, one more time just to make sure you get it – EVERYTHING IS SUBJECT TO NEGOTIATION. And once you have negotiated that great price (and perhaps got them to throw in a screen, flip chart, etc. at no cost) make sure that you get a contract as soon as possible. I also recommend going over your agreement verbally a second time just to make sure that there are no misunderstandings. Then, have them email or fax it to you within 24 hours. Get a great deal if you can, and then lock it down. You’ll almost always have to put down a deposit, and you want to do that as well as also return the signed contract right away.

Also, make sure that additional charges for equipment, refreshments, etc. are spelled out in detail and that you can afford these extras. Usually, it's much cheaper to bring your own equipment than it is to rent it from a hotel.

That’s my recommendation for booking rooms at hotels (and actually most other venues). Certainly, it’s best if you can see the room, but that isn’t always possible. And once you find something that works for you in a particular city or area, keep going back to that site. If the hotel worked well that first time, it will work better the next time because the staff will be familiar with you and your event.

This, however, assumes that you follow my guideline – take care of everyone at any hotels who is involved with your event. That means the people who set up and clean up the room as well as the sales and catering staff. Make sure that your team knows that they are to be extremely courteous and sensitive to the needs of all the hotel staff – especially the lower level staff who are generally treated like furniture by presenters and producers.

Have your team clean up your event’s trash, and you will begin to make true friends of hotel staff who generally don’t really care if your event fails or succeeds. High-end hotels have sales people that preach customer service, but they have little control or influence over the folks who really get the work done. If, however, you and your team expend just a bit of effort making sure that the low-level hotel workers feel appreciated, they will become your allies and friends. Then, when you really need twenty more chairs or an extension cord right away, they’ll be there to help you. And when you return, they will remember you and your group, so it’s best that they remember positive things about you.

This is how you get first class service out of a less-than-first-class hotel. And there are some hidden bargains out there if you look. Smaller independent hotels may not have the high-profile advertising campaigns, but they can often provide you with the space and service that you need at a much lower cost than the major chains.

The major chains, however, do generally provide excellent service and accommodations because they are required to maintain a level of quality by corporate mandate. Independent hotels can do that same, but you are taking a chance. Regardless of the hotel size or affiliation, continue to take care of everyone involved as much as possible. This context of genuine concern really does work, so do all that you can to make that happen whenever possible.