Planners and suppliers need to be more accommodating of the other party’s needs and requests in order to maximise event potential, say industry leaders. Photo Credit: Adobe Stock/U-STUDIOGRAPHY DD59
Event planners are increasingly being encouraged to remain flexible when it comes to event dates, while suppliers need to pay closer attention to details in RFPs to fully maximise event potential. This was one of the key takeaways from a recent Cvent webinar entitled Event Data and Hospitality Insights, which discussed the latest trends in the meetings and events sector.
According to data from Cvent’s platform, a staggering 59% of RFPs are being turned down, mainly due to unavailability of space or dates.
“Planners should take advantage of submitting an RFP with alternate dates,” said Alex Platia, director of product marketing at Cvent. “This past year, planners who were flexible accepted alternate date proposals 45% of the time. Hoteliers should pay attention to planners’ alternate dates. You might win the business or build a relationship for the future by focusing on RFP details.”
In-person events and unique venues on the rise
According to Cvent data, in-person events continued to grow through the second quarter of this year, while another trend is an increase in marketers looking to source unique venues for their events.
“Over the last year, we’ve seen a 20% increase in RFP value sourced to these unique venues,” said Platia. “And as a planner, there’s good indication that there is lots of volume happening in the year, for the year; in quarter two of 2024, just over 60% of room nights were sourced in the year, 26% were sourced 12 to 24 months out and 6% have been sourced more than two years and beyond.”
With regards to seasonality. Cvent data showed a 17% increase for events taking place in the spring compared to the same time last year, while room night growth for autumn increased by 32%. Nearly 25% of the time, planners are also considering at least two destinations.
With regards to the demand for companies to gather at events, Jan Freitag, national director, hospitality analytics at CoStar Group, a global provider of commercial and residential real estate information, analytics, and online marketplaces, referenced additional data on office vacancy rates.
“This implies that we are not back in the office, people are in the office a lot less than they were pre-pandemic,” he said. “This higher vacancy rate [in offices] has on the one hand a negative implication for corporate transit demand but on the other hand, this drives a tailwind for group demand - if we are not in the office all the time, we still have to get together and build culture. This means we are seeing more group demand that did not happen pre-2020.”
Freitag noted that popular destinations are those where events can take place outside and where there are many entertainment options outside the hotel.
“We’re all zoomed out and teamed out - people want to be together after four years of sitting online,” he said.
Global destinations in demand
US planners are increasingly looking towards international destinations - more than 115 countries have been sourced by planners from the US, an increase of 3% year on year and more than 1,300 US planners have sent an RFP internationally, up 13%. With regards to the growth in room nights, the Americas led the way, up 21% compared to last year; Europe had growth of 2%, the Middle East and Africa 14%, Australia had grown 5% while Asia decreased by 5%.
Healthcare, government and education are the most diversified sectors when it comes to event formats and are more likely to rely on all three formats of in-person, virtual or hybrid. When it comes to types of events, dinner or networking gatherings are trending in popularity, up 10% year on year, while education events and seminars have increased in frequency too. Webinars showed the most significant decline.