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really get down to brass tacks with that interaction, whether it be an email, phone call, [or] involve- ment of an NSO.”

THERE’S ALWAYS ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT Like Hyatt’s Vonderheide said, the meetings and hospitality industry is aware there’s a problem, and has convened any number of discussions about RFP spam — formally and informally — at industry conferences. And professionals on every side of the table have some thoughts about how the RFP process could be improved:

1 eRFPs need to be more nuanced. Schultz generally creates and distributes her own RFPs, partly because she can customize them for each individual meeting. “I look at it from a planner’s perspective,” Schultz said, “and … when we have to work within the technological system that is provided, we have struggled with being able to customize it. We feel as planners that all of our programs are unique and different, and I think on

the hotel side they look at it as [so many] heads. It does lose that personal touch through a computer agency, because it does standardize it and it makes it a little bit more difficult to be very specific on what you need.” RFP providers would agree that better-targeted information is always beneficial, and over the last year or two have taken steps to refine their plat- forms, both allowing planners to more precisely hone their RFPs and limiting the number of ven- ues they can submit it to. When a planner using Elite’s platform selects seven hotels to submit an RFP, Foy said, a message pops up “that basically warns, ‘You don’t want to send this to more than seven hotels. Please don’t.’” Likewise, Collins appreciates that her RFP

provider — StarCite — allows her to add custom- ized specifications and cover letters for each bid.

“We [ask] for the American Cancer Society, what percentage of your hotel is smoke-free?” Collins said. “Because that’s a consideration for us. So you can customize those questions so that you’re

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