When it comes to planning a Christian meeting, conference or retreat, one of the more challenging tasks can be negotiating with the hotel or conference center for your sleeping rooms, meeting space and catering. Am I getting the best room rate? Why do I have to guarantee anything? What does guestroom to meeting space ratio mean? These are just a few of the questions you may find yourself asking.
While those are all valid questions/concerns, hopefully we can give you a few tips that will help to lessen any anxiety.
Room rates - There are numerous variables that go into deciding the rate a hotel or conference center quotes a group. These variables include size of group, time of year (high, low or shoulder season), arrival/departure pattern, transient demand, how much meeting space group requires, amount of food & beverage revenue to be generated from event and meeting history for your event.
The slower the season, the better the rate you can negotiate. The same is true if your arrival/departure pattern is opposite the majority of the hotel’s normal business. In other words, if the hotel is primarily a business oriented property you can usually get better rates over a weekend, while a leisure destination location will usually give better rates for Sun-Thu business.
Two other key factors a facility considers before quoting rates to a group are the total revenue value of the event and its meeting history. The more your group commits to spend on food, audio/visual, etc can help you in your room rate negotiations. Also, a group with a consistent history of meeting their room block is much more likely to get a better rate than a first time group with no history. From the hotel’s point of view there’s just less risk with the group that has a good track record.
Guestroom to meeting space ratio- Almost all hotels/conference centers have guidelines by which they determine how much complimentary meeting space to allocate to your group. While this ratio will vary by facility, meeting space will always be tied to the number of sleeping rooms your group commits to. The more guestrooms you use, the more space you’re entitled to and vice versa. In some cases you may be able to rent additional meeting space, but that will depend on how much overall space the facility has available.
Contract guarantees – All hotels are going to require some type of room guarantee in your contract. This is to protect the facility should you fail to pick up your contracted number of rooms. However, it is fair to insist on some type of sliding scale. The further out you release your rooms, the less you’re responsible for, as the hotel will have more time to recoup their loss by selling the rooms to someone else. Hotels with high transient demand will be more open to this, while facilities with low transient demand (such as Ridgecrest and Glorieta) have less likelihood of reselling the rooms and thus have more to lose.
Negotiating with a hotel or conference center should not be adversarial. I’ve always believed a good deal is made when both sides are happy. When that happens the groundwork is in place for a successful event. When it doesn’t…run, don’t walk…and find another facility that will by happy to partner with you and help make your event a success.
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