The Money Saving Secret Your Meeting Planner Doesn’t Know

How to Save a Ton of Cash on Your Next Meeting or Event

When choosing a location for an event, conference or business meeting most incentive program or event planners narrow down their venue selections based on the hotel amenities – the pool, the ballroom, the meeting space, the accommodations, the location, the ascetics, the spa, the food and beverage service, the golf course, etc.. Once they narrow down the three or four locations that meet their criteria, how do they finally make an event venue selection? The price is a common option. But how do they know that they are getting the best deal possible? Unless your meeting planners know the secret of venue procurement, they probably aren’t.

Shhhh… here’s the secret

The money-saving secret to negotiating the best deal for a business event is to have an inside view of your possible venues’ profit centers. Many hotel amenities aren’t owned by the hotel. Spas, food service, golf courses and more are often owned by other companies. To meeting planners, a dollar spent is a dollar spent. To a hotel or venue, their profit depends on where you spend your dollar. Just because you spend it, doesn’t mean they’ll get it. Meeting planners can get the best deal by picking the hotel that makes the most profit on your meeting or event.

A simplified meeting venue selection example:

Hotel Alpha generates 30% profit on their catering service and leases out their spa, making 0% of their profits. Customer A is planning a corporate retreat with $10,000 of their budget going towards spa services. Customer B is planning a corporate meeting with a $10,000 catering budget.

All other things being equal, which meeting planner do you think Hotel Alpha will be willing to negotiate with to get their business?

Customer B. The hotel will make more with Customer B. They have more leverage to negotiate a deal because their business means a higher profit percentage for the hotel. The corporate spa retreat meeting planner would find a better deal at a hotel that actually owns and generates profit from their spa.

Now here’s the hard part…maybe not

How can you identify your possible venues’ profit centers? How do you even know when you have the leverage to negotiate the best deal? Most event planners don’t have such knowledge, but venue procurement experts do. Venue procurement experts, like those at Teamings, are well versed in hotel Profit and Loss profiles. They have the knowledge to get you the best deal possible and best of all, the good ones provide this service free of charge.

For more information on Teamings’ free venue procurement services, contact us today.