If you are a venue that doesn't have accommodation then the obvious answer is, yes. Unique and unusual venues have similar goals and objectives to hotels with meetings & events space
Hotels tend to think ‘bedrooms’ first, but our experience and discussions with hotels across the world suggests a larger number of hotels - and their owners - are focussing attention upon how to increase Meetings & Events (M&E) business into their hotels. It was an area I discussed with a number of hoteliers during the 2019 Direct Booking Summit in Singapore, and those who had M&E facilities all had the same attitude, ‘sure, why wouldn’t we want to increase the amount of direct M&E business?’ It’s effectively the same principle, right?
The business risks outlined in Hilton’s 2016 annual report, also referred to the risks associated with intermediaries and M&E business;
“In addition, although internet travel intermediaries have traditionally competed to attract individual consumers or “transient” business rather than group and convention business, in recent years they have expanded their business to include marketing to large group and convention business. If that growth continues, it could both divert group and convention business away from our hotels and also increase our cost of sales for group and convention business. Consolidation of internet travel intermediaries, and the entry of major internet companies into the internet travel bookings business, also could divert bookings away from our websites and increase our hotels’ cost of sales.”
One of the responses to this risk was for Hilton and Marriott to controversially cut commissions to 3rd party planners in 2018, reducing group sales commission rates from 10% to 7% for hotels in the US and Canada. Albeit, the response is not accompanied by a clear ‘direct M&E booking strategy’, as there are a number of different reasons for this particular change in approach. In response to the change, we asked ‘What Next For The Agency Model?’ and explored some of the key factors behind this move by two of the world’s largest hotel chains. It must be noted that Hilton and Marriott only made this move in North America, where both have a very large footprint and can be difficult hotel groups to avoid when planning an event in major North American cities. The same cannot be said for other parts of the world, and certainly in the UK and Europe where intermediaries book two-thirds or more of all corporate M&E business. Neither Hilton nor Marriott have the same type of power they wield in North America and so haven’t, as yet, taken such a gamble.
The long-term challenge for hoteliers is that there is a place for intermediaries. They can and do add value, and - ultimately - the customer will dictate how they utilise the internet. Many customers, across segments - leisure guests, business travelers, meeting planners - want to have a view of the whole market and make decisions based upon what best suits their needs. Ultimately, this is where storytelling once again rises to prominence as one of the most important factors in exercising a direct booking strategy and attracting more direct business.