Take Away
themand, tobe fair, askthemif theywant to rebid. Often, the European properties will come back with something competitive, while the Asian prop- erties simply tell me that they can’t offer meeting space for
free.Andthen they don’t understandwhy the client doesn’t want to spend what sometimes can amount to an extra $25,000 to $50,000 on fourwalls and air, and, as a result,why they are not on the short list. It is not always easy to make the client under-
standwhytheAmerican and European properties can offer space for free and the Asian properties can’t.“They just don’t” is not always a satisfacto- ry explanation for the client.
Negotiations My next step often is to try to convince the Asian properties to meet me halfway, explaining the following situation:The client is hosting ameeting with 200 attendees, but with all the breakout rooms they require, they are going to be taking meeting space for 400 people. Theway the meet- ing space works out, they need a room for a
As Mr. Hollan pointed out in his original col-
umn, if the Europeans and the Asians want tocom- pete on an even playing field, they first need to be willing to take a seat at the table. And with that comes moving past the word “no,” and trying to negotiate something that will be of benefit to both sides. Sure, there are times when the client is stuckand has to bookAsia and just ends up pay- ing the smallest bill possible for meeting space.
Work With Us, Please At this point, Europe iswayahead of Asia in this regard, with some properties willing to give the rest of the space for free, or, at the very least, will- ing to negotiate an extra catering event to elim- inate or reduce meeting-roomrental in an effort to make the client feel that they are getting something for nothing and to stay competitive. The Europeans often will workwith us, think creatively, andmake an effort to show that they want our business. Until the Asianmarket understands the culture ofmeeting-planning inNorthAmerica, and works
Until the Asian market understands the culture of meeting- planning in North America, it will remain at a disadvantage.
classroom setup for 100 people, two rooms for 50 people classroom-style, and then a variety of breakouts. When I get the proposal back, the first room for 100 is included in the DDR (daily delegate rate) package, but all the additional rooms are to be charged at a daily rate. Myargument backin our negotiations—try-
ing to be fair to the hotel while benefiting the client —is to askthe hotel to include the first three rooms for free. Those rooms would be covered by the DDRcharge for 200 people, and then the hotel can charge for the additional breakouts. Since the hotel will be charging aDDRfor 200 people,why shouldweonly receive free seating for the first 100? Shouldn’tweat least get the first 200 seats includ- ed in theDDRthatweare paying for anyway? The European venues seem to get that concept and will workwith me. The Asian venues simply say no.
with planners in terms of our expectations, it will remain at a disadvantage with American planners. Today’s market makes planners less—notmore— likely to give in to paying extra room rental, unless we have no other choice. In theory, all these years of being told no
should have trained us to expect and accept that response among Asian properties, but then the world changed. In this economy, I think many of us have
learned the lesson that we all have to workhard- er to show our value to the customer—be it plan- ner to client, or hotel to planner and client. Hotels knowthat in thiseconomic environment, there isn’t always going to be another group waiting in the wings. As the saying goes, a bird in hand…. And 100 percent of nothing, especially in today’s math, is still nothing.
ON_THE_WEB: Follow the international debate that started with James F. Hollan’s first column in our April 2010 issue:
http://bit.ly/ht7h6D. For Ben Goedegebuure’s response and Jerad Bachar’s comments (June 2010), visit
http://bit.ly/dJK9Ad, and for May Sollinger-Soucek’s response in our July 2010 issue, visit
http://bit.ly/f2yVte. Hollan’s follow-up column in our September 2010 issue can be found at
http://bit.ly/e7HXqO.
www.pcma.org
Building Loyalty Mycompany,The SK Group,has beenknown sinceits inceptionin 1999 forour loyalty among thelarge interna- tional chainswe’ve workedwith. Ifwefinda client a venuethatwill workwith usonthe con- cessions andthe con- tract language,weare sureto use that venue again.Building relation- ships is vital to success inour business. Forexample, last
year I bookedtwoEuro- peanprogramsduring shoulder season—one inItaly andone inHun- gary—andbothvenues werewilling toworkwith usduring theproposal andcontract process. The groupperformed wellbeyond thehotel’s expectations,theatten- deeswerehappy,and the clientwas happy. The rewardfor
everyonewasthatwe bookedtheseproperties again the following year, at thesamerate,and for evenbetter datesduring highseason, creating extra valuefor the client, not tomentionextra val- ue to us,theplanners, as all of the hardwork hadbeendone already. Wesimplyhadto changethedatesof the contract andthe client was ready to
sign.Those meetings could have just aseasily gone to Asia,andthey toowould have gottentwomeet- ings for theworkofone.
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