Room Blocks

Attrition penalties are becoming a growing problem for associations as registration levels drop, and more attendees and exhibitors are booking outside the organizations room block at the designated hotels.  Many organizations are reluctant to reduce their room block as they may require a given number of rooms for the peak night to access meeting and exhibit space, qualify for meeting space discounts, or qualify for comp rooms.

Consider these suggestions from the  Professional Convention Management Association¹:

1. Get creative with incentives for staying within the block

2. Effective contracting (language, risk management & rates)

3. Engage your CVB and see how they can help you to pull the hotel community together in reporting

4. Educate your attendees - let them know that their future registration fees will be impacted if the organization is faced with potential attrition penalties.

5. Re-establish your relationship with exhibitors regarding group blocks. Perhaps offer priority points for booking within the group block.

6. Educate your Board and volunteer leadership on all the issues related to this trend.

7. Encourage your meeting professionals to network with other planners and share experiences that have worked, and have not worked.

8. Staff leadership beyond the meetings department should be strategizing with your 3rd party registration/housing partner.

Other suggestions include²:

1. Consider a registration fee differential for those who book within the room block.

2. Consider severing the link between room blocks and meeting space so that additional room nights gains the organization comp rooms but not meeting room discounts.

3. Get more creative with hotel packages keeping in mind that they are interested in overall revenues from the meeting.

4. Include a clause in hotel contracts requiring the hotel to recognize "internet" rate guests who are attending the meeting as part of the overall block count. 

¹ Reprinted with permission from PCMA Convene, the Magazine of the Progessional Convention Management Association www.pcma.org 

² Source: ASAE list discussion

The practices described in this area are described as Better Practices for a very good reason. We have a great deal of difficulty with the term best practices used in any other context than to refer to the results of benchmarking exercises involving real and relevant organizations with tangible results.  We offer Better Practices related to areas where we feel that change is needed in associations. Better Practices are intended to provoke thought, and to encourage organizations to think about what they are doing and how they are doing it.  

 

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