One question to always ask hotels when planning meetings is “when was the hotel renovated?”  You’ll have to be specific and ask about these areas of the hotel:

  • Guest rooms
  • Bathrooms
  • Corridors on guest room floors
  • Meeting rooms
  • Public areas such as the lobby, restaurants, fitness center, etc.  

This information will give you good insight to how fresh and new the hotel feels and looks.  And as added measure request photos of any areas of interest to you which would typically be guest rooms and meeting space.   It’s ok to review photos on hotels’ websites; however, those photos may not be current so we don’t suggest relying on them completely.

When I was in hotels sales I worked at a hotel that hired a photographer to take gorgeous photos for my sales presentations.  With a bit of trepidation I would make sales calls and present the hotel knowing the photos made the hotel look a whole lot better than it was.   Later, when working for another hotel in the luxury market, I had dark pictures that made it difficult to see the hotel in its true elegance and glory.  It always reminded me of the quote “don’t judge a book by its cover.”  

As a meeting planner you have many tasks on your checklist to complete before selecting a hotel to host your meeting.  It will be insightful to ask hotels to provide you with this information to help you make the right choice and eliminate any unexpected surprises upon arrival.  

Don’t worry!  Meeting planners ask many other questions of hotel sales managers because it is your job to filter out what will or won’t work for your group.  Hotel sales managers are proud of their product and to them, their hotel is the very best. Together we make sure your executives and guests are pleased with the decision you help them make when selecting a hotel to host an offsite meeting.