Why hotels want your meeting is because you need a bunch of guestrooms, meeting space, banquets, audio visual equipment, WiFi, and all of that means revenue to a hotel! Yet it is helpful to know why your meeting may or may not be a good fit for a hotel, or why a hotel would want your meeting or not.

Hotels are like a jigsaw puzzle, and they are steadfast on how they fill every guestroom, every night. Many things are looked at when you approach a hotel to ask about availability. Hotels consider how many rooms you are requesting per night, the date of arrival and the date of departure, the agenda you have that will occupy the hotel’s meeting rooms and banquet spaces, the food & beverage events you will host, the start and ending times of each event you are planning, and the number of guests at each event. If your needs match an opening in the hotel’s jigsaw puzzle, they’ll offer you availability. 

And, on the flip side, should your dates not be available or if you need too many rooms and the hotel is already full, and even when the meeting space may be available yet there are no guestrooms to offer, a hotel will not be able to accommodate your meeting. Sometimes you may be requesting too much meeting space in proportion to a lower number of guestrooms and hotels prefer groups with an equal number of guestrooms to the number of meeting attendees.

 What can you do to get hotels to want your meeting? 

  1. Be flexible with dates. If your group could arrive the week before or week after, a hotel may be able to accommodate you. If your group could arrive another day of the week, a hotel may be able to offer availability. 
  2. Be certain the meeting space you are requesting is exactly what you really need, and possibly release some event space or change the meeting times to fit into a hotel’s jigsaw puzzle of availability.
  3. Be adaptable and use the general session corners of the room as your breakout space. Limiting the amount of meeting space you need tends to be what hotels would like, so they can sell other meeting rooms and guestrooms to another group. Remember, hotels are like a jigsaw puzzle, needing to fill every room, every night.
  4. Be open to hosting more food & beverage events onsite rather than going away from the hotel for meals. Hotels favor groups who stay in the hotel for meals as this is a great revenue producer. You’ll save money on transporting guests offsite and you can use that money to building up a unique and special occasion event on property. 
  5. Be willing to share with hotels about the ancillary revenue your group will produce. If you know your group likes to spend evenings in the hotel lounge having drinks, this is added value to a hotel. If you plan to offer spa or golf to your guests, this is great and hotels welcome this. If some of your guests like to arrive early or stay later than the group dates, let the hotel know they will get more rooms than what you are contracting. 

The meeting planning tip is to show hotels the value of your meeting, so they want your business. You have to find ways to stand out in the crowd. Many organizations are having meetings and events, filling up hotels every night. If you want a certain hotel or type of property, you’ll want to demonstrate why a hotel would want to welcome your group, and the value or revenue your meeting will generate.