Hit the mark with venue sourcing and RFPs

Planners and suppliers gathered for a recent webinar discussing the latest trends around venue sourcing, requests for proposals and the onsite event experience.

Titled _#Nofilter: Let’s Dish on the State of Events_, the discussion was moderated by Kelli Kopec, senior manager, product marketing at Cvent, and featured speakers including Alyssa Petty, director, global sales strategy at IHG Hotels; Kelly McDonald, senior event sourcing consultant, meetings & events at Wells Fargo; and Charlene Smith, Americas regional manager, global events at Cisco Systems.

RFPs and response times

According to Cvent data, event planners have to add more venues to their RFPs to get the responses they need – but as Kopec outlined, more hotels and venues are also responding to RFPs than in previous years.

Petty said several factors could contribute to how quickly a venue will reply to RFPs. “There’s a lot [of RFPs] coming in, and sometimes lack of flexibility can make it challenging for our hotels to come back with an attractive bid. It’s not just about responding by the deadline but doing so with an accurate and compelling bid.”

She added that it was also about exceeding expectations - if hotels and venues are unable to accommodate a piece of business, they shouldn’t just turn it down but explain why they are doing so; and alternate dates, if available, should always be a consideration.

Petty also outlined how planners can make their RFPs stand out. “Give as much information as you can,” she said. “It slows down everyone's processes if we get dates and room requirements without further context on why it's important, what else the team is doing – the things that are really critical to either the organiser or the attendees.”

The panel also debated the issue of venue loyalty, with planners highlighting how it can be a struggle to maintain repeat business, with many hotels offering a ‘take it or leave it’ quote.

“There’s definitely a financial aspect to any offer that the hotel is making for your programme; but loyalty buys you a conversation,” said Petty. “If the hotel has worked with an event planner before, you're able to have that conversation about additional concessions that would be of value to the group, or alternative dates [where the pricing works better]. The biggest benefit of loyalty is having that flexibility to explore other options.”

While the relationships and connections between hotels and planners are all-important, McDonald stressed the significance of both sides being flexible – citing an example of receiving multiple turn-downs for an event at a particular destination, with only one venue explaining that there was limited capacity because of a major sporting event happening at the same time.

The changing face of contracts

Post-Covid, contracts have changed significantly. McDonald said there has been a heightened awareness of the language used in making sure both parties understand the cancellation, resale and rebook terms.

“We’re reading that ‘force majeure’ and making sure it’s going to apply,” she said. “The pandemic is no longer a ‘force majeure’ but there will be something else. There’s now an awareness of legal terms that were possibly not as big a part of your negotiation previously. Use very clear, concise language and make sure both parties agree. The pandemic has made hoteliers and buyers much more comfortable when having these types of conversations.”

Smith said it’s vital to ensure that cancellation clauses are as specific and as detailed as possible.

All about attendance

The webinar concluded with a discussion on attendance, with Smith reporting healthy attendance levels, with many of Cisco Systems’ events seeing increased numbers - so much so that Smith often has to make changes to contracts to add many more rooms ahead of an event or look at overflow hotels.

“There’s less risk with attrition levels at present - we are travelling again and there are now more attractive events with experiences attached,” she said.