Ms. Scholar

Meetings & Conventions

Critical Hotel Data for Meetings Leaders

By Debi Scholar, President, The Scholar Consulting Group

For more information on Strategic Meetings Management, read the first article in this series titled: Learn How to Gain More Business with SMM Services

Corporations, associations, government agencies and contractors, hospitals, and colleges are transitioning their meetings and events into Strategic Meetings Management Programs (SMMP). Defined, Strategic Meetings Management (SMM) provides direction for organizations to guide the strategy, operations, and tactical activities of meetings and events in order to improve business processes, quality, and return on investment, and reduce costs, risks, and inefficiencies. Initiating an SMMP enables an organization to save millions of dollars, comply with regulatory requirements, gain productivity through efficiency, and reduce contractual and financial risks. The cliché "You can't manage what you don't measure, and you can't measure what you can't describe" is true for meetings leaders who oversee their programs. Meetings leaders rely on data intelligence from hoteliers to validate their return on investment and meeting analytics. If hoteliers understand the expectations of meetings leaders, and produce those metrics, then client communications will be improved because the in-depth discussion topics offer opportunities for the hotel to excel.

A global or national sales organization can provide both macro and micro data metrics for its clients' meetings and events. For example, a chain-wide global sales organization should collect client data across all of its brands and locations whether the property is corporate-owned, franchised, or managed by another method. In contrast, an independent property or local hotelier may only have the micro metrics for its location. Regardless, the data metrics below can be tailored, collected, and reported at the chain-wide, local, or independent property level to provide meetings leaders with the data intelligence they need to manage their program.

Meetings leaders want selected information immediately and other information quarterly from hoteliers. In fact, meeting leaders expect that hoteliers will come to the table with transient and meetings data, a deliverable that may be a paradigm shift for some hotels. As a meeting leader who was responsible for over $200M in meeting spend, I experienced angst when a hotelier would schedule a meeting with me and not know the answer to the question, "Of our organization's total spend with your hotel, what is the percentage of our group business to our transient business with you?"

Information that meetings leaders want immediately when the information becomes available to the hotel:

• Notification of any unauthorized contract signer* who requests a meeting
Your client may have a Meeting Policy that lists the authorized contract signers; ask your client for a list of these approved signers and do not accept contracts from unauthorized signers
• Penalty information (cancellation or attrition)
• Key hotel contact names and updates when changes occur
• Hot dates/space availability
• Any issues, complaints, concerns that arise from the hotelier's perspective, from guests, from meeting planners, or from meeting planning companies regarding the client's meeting

Meetings leaders will have different priorities in terms of what types of data should be presented first, based on their current environment. Some meetings leaders may be in a cost containment environment while others may be in a risk reduction environment. Before you present any data, understand the key requirements of your client and the type of environment that they are in now so that you can present your data in the order of their priorities. Don't fall into the analysis abyss and think that all metrics are necessary. Instead, find out what is important to your clients.

Regularly scheduled quarterly meetings provide the opportunity for hoteliers to update the client on a wider range of data intelligence information. A best practice is to schedule regular quarterly meetings that include the Travel and Meetings Leaders especially if these two people report to different organizational leaders. In addition to the volume and financials data recommended below, a hotelier should be able to provide follow-up on the action items from the last quarterly meeting and updates on properties, brands, and chain, including planned renovations, outages, etc.

Volume and Financials

• Group volume, spend, and production reports; may want to also provide transient/business travel data (the history); top 25 – 50 hotels used for groups (and transient if applicable) compared to same quarter last year; itemized list of all properties used
• Group volume and estimated spend for forecasted meetings currently contracted and those that are in negotiation
• Group business that received transient room rates
• Savings itemized by categories (room, F&B, concessions, AV, etc.) compared to same quarter last year by brand, by top 25 – 50 hotels (or possibly more hotels)
• Savings as a result of leveraging group and transient volume at the chain, brand, and/or property
• List of concessions and their value so that meeting planners can track the savings and cost avoidance
• Review of any maverick meeting spend that went to the chain, brand, or property but did not funnel through the meetings team
• Room nights/revenue results compared to the same quarter last year; list of meeting size (peak nights), volume of meetings, # of room nights, revenue, and average rates by property
• Room nights by brand compared to same quarter last year; also itemized by city
• Commissions earned, collected, or distributed, itemized by type of room; also amounts paid to client and/or a meeting sourcing/planning company, to provide 100% transparency
• Value and quantity of invoice disputes by property and brand; # of days to resolve disputes
• Meeting spend by property itemized in percentages by sleeping rooms, F&B, AV, room rentals, misc.; also provide averages of these categories across all brands
• Meeting spend and volume itemized by the level of the property (e.g., 3, 4, 5 star and luxury, upper upscale, upscale, midscale with F&B, midscale without F&B, economy)
• Meeting planner points earned and how the points can be accumulated by the organization for future reduction of meeting costs
• Value of penalties (cancellation and attrition) incurred, reused, and outstanding by property; opportunities to reuse at other properties within the same brand
• Lists of properties used by the client that are corporate-owned vs. franchised; list of management companies that own the franchises as some meetings leaders may be able to obtain discounts at properties from the franchise management team

More and more meeting leaders are creating their own standard hotel contract or at least an organizational addendum to attach to the hotel contracts. A hotelier should come to the quarterly meeting prepared to discuss the site selection, sourcing and negotiation process, and the changes that should be made to the contract language to protect the organization. For example, a new best practice is to include contract language on rodents and bed bugs and if your client does not have that language in their addendum or master contract, then the hotelier may want to suggest updating the contract to ensure that the organization is covered in that type of precarious situation. Other items that the meetings leader may want to know include:

• Quantity of RFPs received by the hotel from the client (itemized by brand, location, properties)
• Quantity of contracts that required significant redlining and edits
• Quantity of contracts that used either the client's master contract or addendum vs. the quantity that only used the hotel contract

Hoteliers have the advantage of servicing numerous clients. As such, hoteliers are in the best position to know what works and what doesn't work. Use the best practices learned from leading organizations and share the expertise with your clients. For example, there are numerous processes, services, and data that a hotelier could bring to the quarterly meeting to help their clients such as:

• Operations review of processes and procedures for a) managing the account; b) RFPs/contracts; and c) managing the meetings
• Percentage of meetings that were paid via invoice/check, corporate cards, procurement cards, meeting cards; by property, brand
• Lead time from when meeting was requested to date of meeting itemized by property
• Provide crisis management plans for the properties used
• Corporate social responsibility metrics (e.g., Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design "LEED" hotel, carbon footprint, other CSR activities)
• Small-meeting service packages updates – where these small-meeting turnkey services are offered, the rates, contracts, and how to book small meetings
• Other planning resources that the chain/brand/property has available, e.g., onsite Certified Meeting Professionals, meeting content developers, team building resources, ground transportation, etc.
• Provide quantity of automated external defibrillators per property if needed
• Provide innovative ideas on how to improve pricing, product, and service – e.g., offer blocked space for frequently used properties; provide client with improved discounts if X% of group market share was moved to chain, brand, or property; offer to assist with value added tax collection initiatives, etc.

Organizations want to know that your hotel chain, brand, and property are staying up-to-date with technology advancements. Technology should support a hotelier's strategy to improve automation and efficiency. If your hotel fails to respond quickly to electronic request for proposals, then it should be no surprise when you lose business or stop receiving leads from organizations. Similarly, if your hotel does not offer or support virtual meeting alternatives, you may lose business. In a 2011 industry study , almost one-third (30%) of meeting professionals say they will be using more virtual and/or hybrid meetings in the future, an increase of 57% over the 2010 study, when only 13% forecast more virtual events. With technology playing such a large role in our business, a hotelier should be prepared to discuss the following at quarterly meetings:

• Technology integrations and performance metrics at chains/brands/properties (e.g., Passkey, meeting management technology)
• Virtual meeting / hybrid meeting capabilities, history of use, and opportunities for future use of these technologies

In addition to the data intelligence listed above, some meetings leaders who have high meeting budgets and volume may expect a seat on the hotel's advisory board.

If the hotel property is part of a chain and the client has a relationship with the Global or National Sales contact, the local property should coordinate communications efforts so the meetings leader does not receive multiple telephone calls or emails from numerous sales associates all within the same chain or brand.

While the hotelier is collecting and preparing reports for the quarterly meeting, the meetings leader should be doing the same thing from the organization's perspective so that the hotel efforts are not unrequited. The meetings leader should come to the table prepared and ready to share the organization's hotel volume, reports, and expectations.

Meeting leaders are held accountable by their leadership to encourage and monitor compliance to the meetings policy. A thorough meeting policy describes what constitutes a meeting, who can plan meetings, how to plan meetings, which suppliers may be used, how to source meetings, how loyalty points can be accrued, and the consequences of non-compliance to the policy. Information that meetings leaders should provide to the hotels that service their SMMPs include:

• Meeting Policy information
• List of authorized contract signers
• Key contact names of sourcing professionals or external meeting planning companies that are allowed to negotiate on behalf of the organization
• Business terms for contracts; contract concessions expected
• Service-level agreement with key performance indicators

An organization wants the preferred hotels to succeed by gaining the majority of the group business market share. To that end, meetings leaders should be willing to drive the change management efforts within their organizations. For preferred hotels, meetings leaders should commit to provide the following activities at least annually:

• Provide a global or national endorsement of the chain/brand/property preferred relationship if applicable through executive-level communications outlining the strategy, goals, objectives, and commitment of the agreement and the expectation to support the hotelier for group needs through appropriate channels
• Support of and access to travel agencies, meeting planning companies, local offices, and affiliates for strategic communication, education, and support of the global, national, or property group agreement
• Inclusion in the meeting management technology supplier database as a preferred supplier (if applicable) and the hotel will be considered "in policy" for groups and meetings
• Support of hotel program's reward program for frequent travelers/guests in all appropriate communications
• Allow for the hotel chain/brand/property to participate in an annual call with the meetings team and/or meeting requesters to provide an update on properties and services

Meetings leaders should extract data from their meeting management technology or other systems to provide the hotelier with data that may improve negotiations. Data intelligence that the meetings leader should provide to the hotelier during quarterly meetings includes:

• Percentage of the total value of the chain/brand/property's market share (e.g., XYZ Chain has 30% of our total hotel spend) compared to last year in this quarter; also, itemize by brand and/or property; may also want to include the average rate received for group room nights and could itemize even further by a) large meetings vs. b) small meetings
• Percentage of the total room nights of the chain/brand/property's market share (e.g., XYZ Chain has 40% of our total room nights) compared to last year in this quarter; also, itemize by brand and/or property
• Top 25 or 50 hotel chain report based on client records (only providing data for the chain or brand in attendance at the meeting)
• Service-level agreement expectations and score based on data provided by the hotels
• Technology expectations and performance compared to other hotel chains/brands/properties (e.g., Passkey, meeting management technology)
• Virtual meeting / hybrid meeting expectations and opportunities

After data is collected, the hotel should provide an analysis of what the data means to the client. Another cliché describes the analysis deliverable: "That's ‘what,’ Now What?" For example, the hotelier and client should analyze the data and figure out why market share is down, how processes may be automated, and what services should be improved.

Data metrics and the subsequent analysis offer a barometer for the meetings leader to gauge the SMMP, and the information may drive more market share to your hotel properties. Help your clients use your data as the impetus to improve their SMMP.

Debi Scholar, author of SMM: The Strategy Quick Reference Guide, advises clients on supply chain and expense management categories, including airlines, hotels, meetings, ground transportation, corporate card programs, and travel management companies. Before founding her own consultancy in 2010, Ms. Scholar was with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for 13 years. In her last position there, she was Lead for consulting with clients on Travel and Entertainment Expenses. She also held positions as the Meetings and Group Travel Director, and eSupport and Training Director. Ms. Scholar can be contacted at 908-304-4954 or debi@debischolar.com Extended Bio...

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