Congratulations! You are now the official "event planner" for an upcoming event. With your new found responsibility, you may wish to have a quick review of the following tips - they may well help you to achieve more with your budget…:
1) Season/Dates: certain locations experience high and low seasons. Depending upon the dates chosen, considerable price differences can be found. In addition, if your group could meet over or around any of the regular holidays, that would also be worth bringing to the attention of the hotel planner.
a. Research: once you have selected a city, we suggest you research any dates when that specific city may be the host to a large festival, a citywide convention or a special event (i.e. a cup final) etc. If it is at all possible, you should attempt to plan your meeting either a week before or after important city wide events. Planning your event that coincides with a city wide event could prove to be costly and chaotic for your attendees.
2) Day of week pattern: many hotels may look to attract additional business either on the weekend or during the week. For example, a hotel in a corporate park may be exceptionally nice and offer very competitive rates over weekends as they do not usually attract business custom during then. Conversely, there may be a beautiful resort type hotel that may have difficulty in filling rooms on weekdays, and so would offer competitive rates during the week.
3) Check to see if the hotel rates offered are for single or multiple occupancy rooms. The room rate may meet your budget, but if your group is such that you have delegates sharing a room, they may charge a tiered rate. This could add anywhere from $10 to $30 per additional person occupying each hotel room. When posting your request, please ensure to select the correct room types so the hotel group rates will be accurate for your type of group.
4) Be on the lookout for additional costs using the hotel information button to the left of any hotel bids. Are there any resort fees at the property of interest? What about parking charges? Does the hotel allow pets, and if so, do additional fees apply? Are there any mandatory fees in addition to the hotel occupancy taxes? These additional fees can amount to a considerable sum of money, and some may be negotiable depending on how your groups profile fits with the business profile of the chosen hotel.
a. Look for any free amenities. Some hotels will include a free breakfast, may host an afternoon reception open to guests of the property, offer free fitness centre access or free internet access with the purchase of a guestroom. These free amenities are not only a cost saving, but can also add to the overall experience while staying at the hotel. The details of these value added deals will be listed in the comments section of any hotel bids immediately below the hotel group rate.
5) Food and Beverage: if you are planning to have a banquet event during your visit, please ensure to make a note of this in your group request; this will make sure that only hotels that can accommodate your banqueting needs will respond. In addition, hotels that have banquet space are more likely to block group room space and give additional discounts if the group plans on using their food and beverage services and banquet facilities. Once you have located a hotel with all the services you require within your budget, use the contact hotel button for a set of menus. Please be sure to check their Service Charge and Taxes. In addition to the banquet menu pricing, these fees can add anywhere between 20% and 40% in additional costs. The following are a few ways to defray or reduce these costs:
a. HotelPlanner.com will attempt to negotiate a 20% to 50% discount on food and beverages for your group. Ensure to check the comments section of hotel bids for these discounts.
b. Design a sample menu together with the anticipated cost you would expect to pay, inclusive of all extras, to present to the hotel. For example, pitch a breakfast inclusive of various breakfast breads, fruit juice, and coffee/tea, for an inclusive dollar price of your targeted/budgeted amount per person, and see if they can alter their menu to accommodate your budget. Most HotelPlanner hotels will offer free breakfasts for your group; this added value perk will also be listed in the hotel bid comments section.
c. Review the menus at the hotel’s restaurants. If your group is small, you may want to take advantage of dining in one of the hotel’s restaurants or in a nearby restaurant away from the hotel.
6) Audio-visual: relay your audio-visual needs to your hotel planner sales representative and ask for an individual quote. One expensive item is the rental of an LCD projector. At times, it can be more cost effective to purchase your own; however, be sure to ask your representative about any "connection" fees for bringing in your own equipment.
7) Meeting room rental: if the number of guestrooms matches the number of people attending your meeting/s, you will most likely have more negotiating leverage when discussing the meeting room rental. If your group requires exhibits, l of different types of rooms or a larger meeting room (say for 100 people while you have only contracted 10 guestrooms per night), you should expect to pay for the rental of the meeting room. HotelPlanner can leverage your power against paying meeting room rental if: a) your group is meeting over a "need period" (i.e. a holiday and/or during low season); b) you have a high food and beverage spend per room night (i.e. you have your attendees eating breakfast, lunch, morning and afternoon snack breaks, and a reception/dinner); c) your event will completely sell out the hotel property you have selected.
8) Proximity to activities: is your group one that will have many nights free, or are you planning on scheduling off-site activities for your group? In either case, if attendees are able to walk to various local attractions, it can help defray transportation costs for you as the planner or for the individual attendees. If your group has numerous free nights and there are attractions within walking distance, attendees will appreciate not having to pay cab fares or having to retrieve their car form the parking facility and research driving directions in a foreign city. Transportation costs for off-site activities that you may be planning can be a considerable expense. If you select a hotel close proximity to numerous event locations where attendees can walk to same, a considerable saving can be achieved. Click on the hotel information button to the left of the hotel bid to view a map of the surrounding areas; a list of local attractions specifying the distance to each attraction from your hotel, is located to the right of the map. HotelPlanner can also sort all your hotel options by distance to any specific location. Check the “sort by” box at the top of the hotel bids.
9) Transportation: if many of your attendees are travelling by air, you should undertake a quick survey of the flight prices from main cities over the prospective dates of your event. If you are considering different cities in which to host your event, you may find one is far more reasonable than another. Likewise, use the hotel information button to the left of each hotel bid to obtain information about shuttle and taxi costs from the airport, as well as the travel time from the airport to the selected hotel.
10) Upgrades and amenities: your HotelPlanner representative will always enquire if your group can be given one free upgrade to a suite at the group rate, or a free amenity for one of your VIP attendees. These special touches are noticed by your group and can be provided at no additional cost to you.
11) One more bonus! One per Fifty Comp: this is standard at most hotels, where for every fifty rooms used by a group, one is free! Some hotels only offer One per Fifty Complimentary when fifty or more are used PER NIGHT. Other properties will credit this on a cumulative basis. Some properties will offer One per Forty Complimentary or even less. HotelPlanner works with a number of hotels that offer a free room for as little as 10 rooms per night. These free room deals will be detailed in the comments section under the hotel group room rate bid.
Good luck and happy negotiations! You are now well on your way to event planning bliss!