I was working in a travel MNC a couple of years ago. We always used to plan our annual meetings somewhere at a tourist destination.
NB: This is an article from eZee Absolute
For that, we needed a good hotel/resort with meeting rooms. We tried various online and offline channels to find a perfect property, but that wasn’t easy. Every time we liked a property, one or the other nook gave it a red flag. Sometimes the meeting rooms didn’t have enough capacity or lacked the gadgets we required for our presentation. And, if everything else was fine, the budget became an issue.
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It took us a while, but finally, we found a property that matched our requirements and expectations. But I wondered why meeting room bookings are so underrated even though they form an integral part of banquet sales.
You can sell hotel meeting space either as an independent area or clubbed with accommodation facilities for better benefits. Let’s take a look at the ways that can help in maximising your meeting room sales.
1. Move beyond corporates
Hoteliers often believe that the only way meeting rooms can be booked is by pitching out to corporate companies. However, that’s far from reality.
There are many other guests who look for hotels with conference room facilities, such as schools (for annual teachers meet), government offices (to host retirement parties), college students (for get-togethers or any other celebration).
For instance, in India, after the 1st wave of covid, the government has restricted the guest count for marriages and other events between 15 to 50. So, hotels can market their meeting rooms among guests for such small informal functions.
There’s another segment that can be beneficial for you. Whenever military personnel turn veterans, a toasting ceremony is held in their honour for their service to the nation.
For such functions, the military boards look for conference halls that can serve food and alcohol, with the provision of a toastmaster to raise a toast. If you can successfully strike a deal with them, you are sure to get recurring business (considering your hotel provides an impeccable experience to them).
2. Adopt co-working culture
Offering your hotel’s conference room as a co-working space is another smart way to increase meeting room bookings. In fact, co-working culture is trending these days.
We should thank the start-ups for being the driving force behind this innovation.
Start-ups are usually on a strict budget. For a product to be launched, marketed, and sold it takes a lot of time, manpower, and money. Moreover, for meeting with clients, they need to have a well-maintained office which is an add-on expense.
To address this problem, the co-working concept came into existence. It allowed start-ups to work from well-maintained and fully-furnished offices in a sharing model.
Hotels can offer their meeting room as co-working space to such companies. You can charge them on a per seat basis.
Let’s say, you have a meeting room that can accommodate 20 people. So, you can calculate the amount per seat for a period of a month (excluding weekends and holidays). Don’t forget to include any maintenance costs, service charges, and any other additional fees.
