Use your magnifying glass when receiving and reviewing proposals from hotels for your events.

Hotels are always anxious to book your meeting and often their proposal is different from your RFP; dates may not be what you requested, meeting space may not be what you need, banquet space may be different from your requests.  

A good meeting planner reviews days/dates/number of guest rooms per night/and meeting room capacity charts to verify if your group will actually fit comfortably in the meeting rooms the hotel is suggesting in the seating set-up you need.

You’d be surprised how many times a proposal is different from the RFP!  One cannot assume a hotel is available just because you receive availability and pricing.

Here is a checklist of items to carefully review before confirming a hotel can provide your exact needs:

  1. Do the dates and days of the week match up?  In other words, is Wednesday, January 1 in 2020?  Double checking the date and the day of the week, as well as the year, is vital so you are sure the hotel is offering you exactly what you need.
  2. Do the number of guest rooms and suites you need per night match up?  In other words, is the hotel offering exactly what you requested per night for guest rooms and suites?
  3. Do the dates and days of the week match up on the meeting space grid?  And pay close attention to start and end times of each agenda item.
  4. Is the hotel offering the seating style you require in each meeting and banquet room?  Review hotels’ websites and search for meeting space capacity charts to double check what the hotel is offering can accommodate exactly the number of guests you need to seat per event.
  5. What is the meeting/banquet spaces’ ceiling height?  Nothing is worse than spotty WiFi in a room with low ceilings or a room under the main lobby level or basement.
  6. Are there windows in the meeting and banquet rooms?  Nothing better than natural daylight!
  7. Do your meeting and banquet rooms have 4 solid walls vs air walls?  You don’t want to hear your neighbors through air walls and no matter what the hotel tells you, sound travels!
  8. Are any of your direct competitors or other similar industry customers already booked into the hotel over the same dates?  Avoid this by adding a clause in the contract to eliminate this from wrecking your meeting!
  9. How recently were the guest rooms renovated?  Public areas, too, such as the lobby, bar, restaurant, gym, etc.  How recently was the meeting space renovated? What state-of-the-art technology can the meeting rooms offer?
  10. Now that you’ve found the “perfect” hotel, ask about cancellation, attrition, deposit requirements, etc., to make sure your “perfect” hotel is really perfect for you!