December Education Meeting

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Mary Kay Keating, Revenue Optimization Specialist for Carlson Rezidor Hotels – Americas, provided an overall view of this relatively new discipline to the meetings and events industry. She explained how a meeting is evaluated from a revenue management standpoint to determine if a group, or which group, if there were more than one vying for the same dates and space, would prove to be more profitable for the hotel to award its space to based on the venue’s revenue goals for the timeframe in question.

To illustrate, two different RFPs over the same time period were evaluated and the anticipated revenues from each RFP’s specifics were compared. Audience opinion was then asked as to which group would make more sense for the hotel to book. A lively exchange between planners and suppliers also followed on important information (such as history, deal-breaker concessions, F&B budgets, etc.) that could be included in the RFPs or RFIs that will give hotels a clearer picture of the group’s event requirements, which in turn could facilitate a shorter response time to benefit planners.

Four key points were highlighted during the presentation:

1. Being flexible on your meeting dates can help create a win-win for planner and supplier.

2. Understand that there are numerous channels that a hotel may receive a request for availability.

3. Be familiar with Average Daily Rate (ADR) and Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR) acronyms and how they could be used during negotiations.

4. Know the total value of your meeting when negotiating with hotel partners.

Mary Kay ended the program with a quote from Matt Schalk: "If they pick the dates, we pick the rates. If they pick the rates, we pick the space. If they pick the space, we go case by case."