Selling hotel meeting space can be challenging, especially in today’s competitive business environment.
NB: This is an article from Knowland
From short-staffing to changing customer expectations, sales professionals face various obstacles when soliciting business for their hotels. Whether you are a seasoned sales professional or just starting out, these tips and strategies will help you close more deals, exceed your targets, and grow your hotel’s revenue.
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and stay up to date
So, let’s dive in and learn how to overcome the challenges of selling hotel meeting space.
1. Average RFP win rates
73% of respondents had a 15% or less win rate on RFPs indicating an industrywide trend. Since recovery, many hotels are inundated with RFPs, but not all RFPs are created equally. Meeting planners don’t always vet venues before sending RFPs. That means sales teams may be faced with an influx of requests that may not fit their needs.
Smaller teams and high demand have made navigating requests more challenging– especially when responding with personalized proposals.
The right tools help boost prospecting efficiency and can help determine how much time to spend on an RFP. For instance, looking at the account’s historical booking behavior for each RFP can help isolate the best fit for your property.
2. Filling need periods
Need periods are a daunting challenge. 54% of respondents had need periods to fill, while nearly 20% struggled to build their pipeline.
Respondents indicated that they use a variety of strategies for filling their pipeline, primarily by leveraging meeting data. By incorporating Knowland into those strategies, hoteliers can identify groups that:
- Have previously met in their market
- Booked with competitors during need periods
- Met in like markets
With this insight, teams can move beyond the limitations of internal systems, quickly fill those sales pipelines, and return to profitability.
3. Leveraging internal data systems
A significant challenge for hoteliers is their limited access to data. 80% of survey respondents look to internal systems for booking history. Therefore, if you did not bid it in the past, much less win it, there is no detail or information to build a response or differentiate your proposal.
