January 18, 2011

Best Practices and Negotiating Strategies for Meeting Planners

ite selection is often the most challenging part of the meeting planning process. Every experienced planner knows that choosing the right venue and location is a decision that plays a critical role in the success of an event. A small oversight in the site selection process could cause major hiccups in event planning and execution. What is the best way to select an ideal destination and venue that meet all of the requirements of your event including availability on key dates, group transportation options, accommodation needs, meeting space requirements, audio visual options, accessibility to area attractions and pricing to fit the meeting budget?

Be Flexible

Guest rooms and meeting room rental fees can vary greatly, depending on the time of year and city-wide availability. Venues try to maximize their event space and put as many “heads in beds” as possible during their slower periods by offering lower rates. Planners who are flexible and provide venues with alternative dates can often negotiate better pricing. To secure the best deal possible, let venues know if there are any additional dates that would work for your event.

Explore Alternative Destinations

Every destination has peak and off-peak seasons. Planning an event in a major city during peak season is challenging on a tight budget. To keep costs in check, explore secondary and tertiary markets when evaluating destinations for your next event. For example, if you are interested in hosting a 3-day meeting in Los Angeles, see what surrounding locations such as Irvine and Santa Ana, California, have to offer as well. These destinations can provide the quality facilities you need and the excellent service your attendees expect with a much better price tag for your budget.

Know Your Meeting History

If you know what the value of your meeting is to the hotel it will help with negotiating better rates and incentives. The best way to define the value of your meeting for the hotel is to keep accurate records of past meetings by tracking your meeting registration totals, attendance numbers, actual number of attendees and actualized room nights. Venues want to know if you have held this event before and how many people actually attended so they can confidently block off rooms and function space for your group. Giving accurate guarantee numbers can help you negotiate reasonable room rates, food and beverage costs and minimize attrition fees. Almost every venue’s meeting contract includes an attrition clause or F&B minimum. That is, if your attendees don’t show, you will still be required to pay under the contract. Planners who keep records of their past meeting attendance are less likely to fall victim to unreasonable fees, increase their negotiating power during the contract process and are typically awarded the first option when booking rooms and event space.

Location, Location, Location

Transportation costs can become a large part of your event spend if your venue headquarters is not chosen carefully. Planners that select venues that are in close proximity to the airport or are easily accessible via public transportation can limit attendee travel time, increase attendance to off-site activities, decrease costs and promote the “Green Meetings” initiative. If you are hosting a conference with off-site events, be sure that these activities are easily accessible to your venue headquarters where the majority of your attendees are staying. Savvy planners should also look for hotels that provide complimentary shuttle services to destinations within a 3-5 mile radius of the property, downtown, as well as the local airport in order to eliminate the need for car rentals and taxi cab fares.

Define Your Event Requirements

The more information you provide in your RFP, the better group sales managers are able to assess your needs and determine whether or not their facility would be a good fit. As a planner, defining your needs upfront will ultimately save time in the planning process by limiting the number of inadequate RFP responses to sort through. Venues need to receive details regarding room set ups, food and beverage and audio visual needs to see whether their available rooms can accommodate your group. Planners who provide these meeting requirements and review banquet event orders with a fine-toothed comb are more likely to catch errors and, more importantly, avoid hidden fees. Misunderstandings surrounding meeting requirements and overlooked details on Banquet Event Orders (BEOs) lead to unpleasant surprises on-site and additional charges.

Collect Multiple Bids

Sarbanes-Oxley compliance and the focus on strategic procurement decisions in today’s business world require event planners to gather multiple bids from vendors. The first venue to respond to your request for proposal will not necessarily offer the best rate. Planners who carefully research, collect and compare bids from multiple venues have more negotiating power. Leverage the proposed prices you receive from venues and track your negotiating success for your manager. The money you save your organization could help justify a larger budget for your events department and a larger paycheck for you.

Consider Alternative Venues

Hotels, conference centers and convention centers are a part of a wide range of meeting and event venue options available to event planners. Planners who are open to more unique venue alternatives typically see an increase in attendance for a substantially lower price. Oftentimes, these special event venues are more appealing to attendees, who are more interested in attending an event at a new museum in the city instead of the worn out hotel they have frequented six times in the last two months. Consider your event requirements when you begin the site selection process for your next event to see if a restaurant, aquarium, outdoor space, art gallery or other type of venue could work for your group.

Research Preferred Suppliers

Many venues will provide quotes for their on-site or preferred service providers such as AV companies and caterers. Many times, these suppliers are charging premium rates. Once again, to make sure you are watching out for your bottom line, ask the venue about their preferred suppliers and the possibility of hand-picking your own vendor. Planners who ask about bringing in outside suppliers or researching rates on their own often pay less for their services.

Negotiate Multi-Year Deals

Group sales managers have sales quotas to meet. The more guaranteed business they can put towards each month or annual quota, the better. Planners who try to negotiate multi-year deals will receive better packages with extra amenities and improved rates. Hotels that may not be able to offer reduced rates for a one-time meeting will suddenly be very flexible if a planner mentions that they will be hosting the meeting or event for the next three years. Be sure to mention the possibility of becoming a repeat customer during site selection negotiations.

As with all aspects of event management, attention to detail is critical in the site selection process. Understanding your meeting requirements, attendee expectations and leveraging your negotiating power are the keys to booking the ideal venue for your next event.

Source: http://www.cvent.com/en/resources/event-venue-selection.shtml

Philippines wedding planners and wedding reception caterers recommend Clark Philippines as this year’s premier destination for beach weddings and garden receptions. Wedding couples in Philippines no longer prefer traditional indoor venues and hotel ballrooms for wedding receptions in Manila, Angeles City, Subic and Clark Freeport.

Selecting a good and safe event venue in Philippines is not that easy. Many public event venues in resort hotels in Philippines can’t deliver assurances of safety and security. This exposes our corporate and private events to risks that are not acceptable to us as event organizers in Philippines.

This hotel in Angeles Philippines has the perfect ambience for a romantic beach wedding and a garden style wedding reception, exactly the kind of wedding venue we have been looking for to get married in the Philippines. Angeles City is near Clark Philippines and just 90 minutes from Manila.

Garden style wedding reception can take place within a few meters from the beach of this hotel in Clark Philippines so guests and observe the ceremony at the comfort of their seats on the table.

It is important to visitor that the family feels safe in a hotel in Angeles Philippines. That is a main reasons that we choose to stay in this hotel in Clark Pampanga outside of Manila Philippines. Many don’t like the hotels in Subic or some of the hotel in Angeles City Pampanga. This highly recommended hotel in Angeles city Clark Philippines does not make them comfortable and secure.

Traffic along the North Expressway NLEX from Manila to Clark is always light and the new Subic Tarlac Clark Expressway ScTex takes visitors straight into Clark Freeport without going through any towns and cities along the way.

For inquires and reservations, contact us here

Hotel Clark Philippines
Creekside Road corner of Centennial Road,
Central Business District, Clark Freeport Zone,
Pampanga, Philippines 2023

Tel: (045)599-5949 0917-520-4403 0922-870-5177

Manila Sales Office
3003C East Tower, Phil Stock Exchange Center,
Exchange Rd Ortigas Metro Manila, Philippines 1605
(632) 637-5019 0917-520-4393 Rea or Chay

http://www.HotelClarkPhilippines.com

Email: Info@HotelClarkPhilippines.com

Getting to this hotel in Clark Philippines
After entering Clark Freeport from Subic, Manila, Dau and Angeles City, proceed straight along Clark’s main highway MA Roxas, passing Clark’s largest wine shop called Clark Wine Center on your right, continue to bear right making no turns at all, go past Mimosa Leisure Estate on the opposite side of the road, you will hit a major intersection. Go straight and the road becomes Creekside Road. YATS Clearwater Resort and Country Club is on your right just 200m down. Traffic in Clark Philippines is light so it should be quite easy for get to this hotel in Clark Philippines.

YATS Leisure Philippines is a HK-based developer and operator of clubs, resorts and high-class restaurants and wine outlets http://www.YatsLeisure.com

To inquire with the beach resort hotel in Clark Pampanga visit http://www.ClearwaterPhililippines.com