Ms. Silverman

Concierge

Five Reasons Why You Should Partner with Meeting Planners

By Marjorie Silverman, Honorary President, UICH, Les Clefs d'Or

One of the natural synergies in the hotel world is the one that exists between concierges and meeting planners. Meeting planners value long-term relationships, demand local expertise, and rely on good networking to local vendors. The concierges can facilitate the delivery of services to the group inside the hotel as well as outside for group transportation, tours, restaurants and events. Meeting planners and concierges share the desire to introduce guests to new and memorable experiences; they are the perfect collaborators.

Reaching out to the group aspect of the hotel constituency offers several distinct advantages to the concierge:

1. The opportunity is created for repeat business for the hotel.

When the meeting coordinator, a travel professional, is happy with the concierge service, he lets management know about his pleasure. It is very easy for management to track this piece of business and to quantify exactly your level of service as well as how much revenue is generated for the hotel.

Every year for the past 30 years, the City of Chicago has been fortunate enough to attract a very lucrative convention at a good time of year for us—early winter, when not many visitors come to Chicago. RSNA (Radiology Society of North America) is one of the best medical conventions attracting radiologists and doctors, between 60,000 and 75,000, from all over the world. As concierges we were able to forge relationships with the meeting planners who coordinated the groups coming from Western Europe to this convention. We spoke many of the languages at the concierge desk and over the years made friends with many in the group. These guests came back to our hotel year after year, happy to see us and we equally happy to host them. Meanwhile they spent millions annually in our hotel and enriched the Chicago economy.

2. Knowing the meeting planner saves you and your hotel time, effort and money.

Imagine that about half of the 800 rooms of your hotel are occupied by guests from one particular group. You know exactly what their program is. If the group is gone all day but have a free night for dinner, you know precisely how to staff as well as what steps to take to organize accordingly. Some years ago I worked with Paula Kelly, a vice president (now retired) for Incentive Travel at Delta Life and Annuity Company, who headed up a group of this size, occupying about one half of our rooms. She and I collaborated on a plan to avoid endless lines and disappointed insurance agents for their free night.

We came up with a short restaurant list that included a description, cost and type of food. The list was sent to agents with a ReserFax, a form addressed to the concierge with space for three choices of restaurants, time requested, and number in the party. More than 90% of the faxes were returned before the trip and all the guests had to do was pick up a reservation card at the concierge desk. Of course, we adapted the idea to work equally well with email and renamed it the ReserEmail. You can tailor it to work equally well for tours or special events.

3. Educating the meeting planners to use the concierge services while you demonstrate to hotel management that you are an integral member of the team.

The above-mentioned Paula Kelly was a savvy meeting planner. She was responsible for leading incentive groups to top hotels and cruise lines around the world. She used the Concierge Network globally to facilitate these travel arrangements. She became an honorary member of Les Clefs d’Or because she brought so much business to our 4 and 5 star hotels and in turn I spoke at a Meeting Planners International Conference to describe the benefits of a close collaboration between the members of our two groups.

The concierges must also work inside the hotel networking with marketing, catering, sales and conference services to make sure that they are included in planning for groups within the hotel. They should attend pre-convention meetings and their services should be offered to all meeting planners before they arrive at the hotel. Concierges can offer unique services ranging from special directions to facilitate travel during parades and events, private tours of museums, tickets to sold out attractions, appearance of a sport’s figure or celebrity at a client event. For the Delta Life Group mentioned above, we were able to get Sammy Sosa to appear at an ice cream social at the hotel before the group went to a Cubs game! That was a “wow” moment for that group.

4. Sending excellent group business to your outside vendors helps to bolster those relationships.

The more business you send, the more clout you have. Fifty limo transfers for a group can certainly help keep your limo company happy. Restaurants are delighted to have their private dining facilities used and if you charter a theatre or boat for an evening event, you can highlight the attractions of your city while keeping your meeting planner happy. It is rare that a group will want to do all events inside of the hotel. Using your knowledge and contacts to enhance the group’s experience, will reflect well on you and your hotel. In return your vendors will keep you in mind when you need them to facilitate a service for a VIP on a sold out night.

5. At the cutting edge: Create a new revenue stream for your hotel—an in-house DMC.

Many meeting planners often use a DMC or Destination Management Company. As defined in Wikipedia: A Destination Management Company (DMC) is a term for a professional services company possessing extensive local knowledge, expertise and resources, specializing in the design and implementation of events, activities, tours, transportation and program logistics. If you look at that definition carefully, it mirrors the skills of the concierge. Some hotel management teams are looking to the concierge desk to open and supervise in-house DMC’s. Rather than farming out these services to independent contractors, they believe that they can provide the same services by using their already existing staff, often attached to catering and sales but also by using the concierge. Many of these hotels already manage their own in –house florists and business centers with high-speed copiers to quickly produce business materials.

This would create a whole new revenue stream without much additional cost in salaries. Several chains in Las Vegas are looking to this model as well as around the country. Some enterprising concierges are suggesting it to their management because they know they have the skills and in the current economic environment, they are assisting their management to generate ideas for creating additional income. (We will do a follow up article in the near future because this movement is in the very early development stages). A quick perusal of the internet showed that The Charleston Place Hotel, Charleston, South Carolina, www.charlestonplacemeetings.com/dmc is advertising their in-house DMC online—they specify a separate staff of 4 event planners to operate this service.

Working ever more closely with meeting planners has instant appeal to a hotel concierge. The jack-of-all-trades job description contributes to the concierges’ willingness to try new things. The only limit to their service is either the guests’ or managements’ imagination. They are expert improvisers and love a new challenge.

From the meeting planner side of the equation, my friend Paula Kelly had her own list of five items on her pre-meeting Concierge Checklist:

• Before signing a contract, call the concierge to discuss the property and the area. No travel agent or guidebook can match a concierge’s inside information.
  
• Meet with the concierge staff on your site inspections.
  
• Go over the ground operators, outside caterers and other vendors you are considering using off-property. Concierges know the latest information about changes within these organizations.
  
• Request that the concierge attend your pre-conference meeting. Give him or her a copy of your program agenda and a list of your attendees.
  
• Use the ReserEmail and tailor it to fit the anticipated needs of your group.

Marjorie Silverman was in concierge for 25 years and now is a Consultant, Meeting Planner and Lecturer. She was the Chief Concierge of Hotel InterContinental Chicago, and the first female and first American to serve as President of Union Internationale des Concierges d'Hotels, Les Clefs d'Or. Les Clefs d'Or is the international association of concierges, headquartered in Paris, which groups 40 countries under its umbrella. The 3500 members join forces to promote tourism worldwide. She was a founding member of the Chicago Hotel Concierge Association. Ms. Silverman can be contacted at 773-248-7462 or marjoriesilverman@mac.com Extended Bio...

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