What North American incentive planners want

More transparent costs, quicker responses from hotels and improved service levels are high on the agenda for North American incentive planners.

With demand for incentive travel continuing apace, a panel including an event planner, a hotel and a convention bureau debated the different needs of the industry, alongside findings from the Incentive Research Foundation’s (IRF) latest study.

Incentive Travel Programs - Expectations & Challenges, the second such report produced by the IRF, using data sourced in May, examines the ongoing effects of inflation and a tight labour market on the design, execution and cost of incentive travel programmes.

Panellists observed an increase in the number of incentives booked as well as longer time frames, with incentives being booked much further ahead compared to last year.

Michelle Mariani, divisional director of sales groups North America at Belmont, acknowledged one further trend, saying the hotel operator had experienced more requests for property buy-outs for incentives. Staff shortages continue to impact the hospitality industry, potentially making expected service levels harder to achieve.

Slow response times

From a planner perspective, ongoing challenges include expensive hotel rates and slow response times from properties.

“We can't take a destination or property to our client if we can't get those two components back in a timely manner and in a way that's understandable to them,” said Susan Adams, VP of engagement strategy & corporate services at Next Level Performance. The company has a track record of receiving 14 SITE Crystal awards.

She added: “So with any partnerships we have, we're leaning in on making sure that we get in under the budget if we can and that we're getting timely responses; relationships across the industry are incredibly important to us in overcoming these two obstacles.”

Engage CVBs

To help with these stumbling blocks, Robin Valenta, national sales manager, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors’ Authority said planners should proactively engage with DMCs or CVBs to assist in identifying time periods or properties where it may be possible to provide discounts to help with budgets.

“These might be hotels you might not know about or have thought about and we can also help in getting those responses, even if it’s just an acknowledgement that the hotel has received your RFP or your lead and are working on it,” she said. “Include us, involve us. We don't get used enough. We can definitely assist in these areas.”

Staffing issues

With regards to staffing challenges, Belmond’s Mariani said the company had put in place an employee value proposition, focusing on areas outside standard benefit packages.

“It's coming from the employees and it’s about what's important to them,” she said. “The costs for everything have skyrocketed as a result of inflation and we’re unable to control these costs. We have to work around it because we have to deliver the level of service people expect.”

Service level agreements

Next Level Performance’s Adams said that in order to avoid disappointing levels of service, the agency is looking at putting service level agreements (SLA) into the contracting stage.

“You think something will be there or included and then you get on site at 5pm and the bar is closed or there’s no housekeeping - I’m hearing more chatter about that from clients in the RFP stage,” she said. “What are the SLAs, not only from our company, but from our partners too. How can we make sure that we are all clear on what the reasonable expectations are on both sides?”