Continuing the Conversation from the TSEA Red Diamond Congress - An Invitation to Housing Bureaus

 *Ann Exhibitor is pseudonym  of a member of the Trade Show Exhibitors Association.   

I received an email the other day reminding me that I had to submit names to my room block immediately or risk a cancellation to rooms without names. Now, if this was 30 days out from the show, I could understand the request. But the email came four months prior to the show. Mind you, I reserved these rooms based on my pickup from last year. Clearly, I need all of the rooms requested. I also put a deposit down (one night’s room and tax) for each of the rooms reserved. Clearly I am planning to put someone in each of the rooms. So why, do you need the names?

We have 75 people that go to this show and four months out we do not know exactly which 75 will get to go this year. If I send over “Joe Schmo 1” and “Joe Schmo 2,” will you really cancel my rooms? Instead we end up going through this exercise where I put down all of my relatives and close friends names just so I can remember which names are company employees and which names are “dummy names” meant to satisfy this request by the housing company well before I am prepared to provide the information they really want.  

Let’s face it… this is not the only hoop we all jump through when it comes to booking room blocks with the housing companies for our major trade shows.

 

Hoop #1: Make absolutely sure you are sitting next to your phone waiting for it to ring on that specific day and time the housing bureau is calling your company to take your request for the hotel of your choice. If you miss the call, you may end up at the Cockroach Inn miles away from the convention center.

Hoop #2: You must put down a deposit (one night’s room and tax) when you reserve the rooms 14-16 months prior to the show. Do you know how much my Accounting Department loves me for that?

Hoop #3: If you want to keep your entire room block, you can not make changes online because the moment you shorten someone’s reservation, you have now lost those room nights in the block.

Maybe it is because I have never worked on the hotel side that I don’t understand the need for these hoops. It just seems to me that we could all help each other out here. If the housing bureau can wait to receive my rooming list 30-60 days prior to the show, I guarantee you that I will have fewer changes to the block. If the bureau was able to hold some of the rooms in the block so that I could increase or decrease my block without fear of not being able to get someone a room in our block 60 days prior to the show, I guarantee you that I would not hold more rooms than I actually need.

Unfortunately, the way the bureaus have set the rules requires exhibit managers like me to find the loopholes in the system in order to feel confident that we have the rooms we need.  There has  got to be a give and a take here. I’m guessing there are things the housing bureaus would like to have from exhibit managers as well. So let’s have that conversation. Tell me what you need and I’ll tell you what I need. We are all in this together. We do it because we love it. (You would have to survive in this industry) So I invite the housing bureau to pull up a seat, share a beer with me, and let us have a real conversation about how to make this process better for everyone.

Invitation Accepted by Lodging for All Parties**

  
  **Lodging for All Parties is pseudonym of a member of the Trade Show Exhibitors
Association. 

Thank you very much…I’ll have a Hoegaarden, please. And let’s invite the show organizer to the libations and discussion, if you don’t mind.

In all fairness, as a housing partner, and as a representative of the show organizer, we appreciate your perspective with the “hoops” and can understand your frustration.  Hopefully we can shed some light for you on the behind-the-scenes play. Regarding housing policies, it comes down to this…

First and foremost, the primary goal of the housing company, on behalf of the show organizer, is to provide the event participants – exhibitors and attendees, a robust and competitive housing package.  The housing package is an attractive combination of hotel, amenities, price point, and location, which will minimize the cost for all involved parties, especially event participants, and guarantee full contracted room block utilization for the event hotels.

Housing is a key component of any successful trade show.  It is a component that is critical when illustrating the show’s overall economic impact in the city.  High economic city impact translates into a better destination and show experience, as well as significant cost savings to the event participants.  Additionally, supporting the show increases profitability which is then reinvested into enhancing the quality of the show, and smart housing negotiations means extra concessions, and lower rates passed down to the show goers. 

It is widely recognized that there are many show participants who go “outside the block” for various reasons: 

• Prefer to deal directly with hotel.
  

• Unaware of official housing partner.
  

• Can secure better rates and/or do not want to work with a third party.
  

Good or bad? Short term, this is plausible. Long term, this will slowly erode the credibility and value of the show due to rising costs and non-support of key exhibitors. If the show organizer does not have the support of key exhibitors, how can they deliver a quality show?  Shouldn’t we all support and be loyal to our industry associations? Bigger is better if delivered with quality and value.

This is where housing policies come into play.  The end goal of housing policies is to assist in guaranteeing full room block utilization.  When a true housing partner can consistently “deliver” a fully-utilized contracted room block to a hotel it strengthens the credibility of the show thereby strengthening the buying power for cost-effective rates, additional room inventory, and overall cost minimization.  A win-win-win for all:  show participants, show organizer, housing company, hotel community, convention bureau, and city.   

Let’s take a look at your “Hoops”.

Hoop #1: Make absolutely sure you’re sitting next to your phone waiting for it to ring on that specific day and time the housing bureau is calling your company to take your request for the hotel of your choice. If you miss the call, you may end up at the Cockroach Inn miles away from the convention center.

Assumptions: I am going to cautiously assume the intent of the scheduled call is to provide you with preferred service and hotel choice.  Depending on the size of the show and room block in comparison to the size of the hotel market could cause supply to diminish quickly.  Therefore, your preferred standing grants you with a scheduled time to assist you with ensuring your preferred hotel.  In the absence of the scheduled time and you were subject to general hotel booking, there could be a flood of calls booking the premium hotel, and 20 minutes later you may have lost your preferred hotel and/or rooms to a first-time exhibitor that has no preferred status over your organization. 

I am going to make another cautious assumption - the reason the housing company asked for the room block names four months prior to the show was that they were trying to “shake” some rooms out of the room block as they were running low on inventory.  The goal is not to cheat you out of rooms but to ask for a commitment from you that you will require the fully intended room block. 

Standard Practices: It is a common practice for housing companies to ask for names six  weeks out in an effort to resell rooms.  Admittedly, four months does seem a bit extreme - I suggest talking to the housing company and getting to the root of the request.  

A hotel contract with a show organizer will typically only hold the guaranteed rate and block until three to four weeks prior to the meeting (cutoff).  After that, the hotel has the legal right to take back unused inventory from the group block and sell it on their own at any rate they choose.  If a group is holding rooms until that cutoff day and decides then that they only need to use 80% of what they were holding from the initial time they booked, that does not give the housing company time to resell that unused 20% before handing them back to the hotel.   

Solution: How about signing a subcontract for your rooms with the housing company?  If you can guarantee that you will need the rooms you have selected and are willing to sign off on any financial liability associated with those held rooms, I can guarantee that you will not be solicited for names in the same manner as if there is no financial liability. 

Hoop #2 : You must put down a deposit (one night’s room and tax) when you reserve the rooms 14-16 months prior to the show.

Standard Practice:
Within the hotel industry it is standard protocol to put down a credit card guarantee or deposit. and the reason for doing so is a commitment to buy the sleeping room.

Reasons: 

Solution:  Consequently, the short term and most immediate impact of putting down a deposit is it will provide further protection from loss of rooms should the hotel and or housing company oversell a room block.   

Hoop #3: If you want to keep your entire room block, you can’t make changes online because the moment you shorten someone’s reservation,  you have now lost those room nights in the block.

Standard Practice:
This is a standard practice within the hotel industry. 

Solution: Reach out to the group housing manager at the housing company to discuss your situation. Discuss the reasons why you need to make the reservation changes, and find a solution that will fit your needs. 

Mutual Goal for All:
The goal is to make sure that your needs are met, to keep you happy, and ensure there is enough available inventory for all show participants. It is a balancing act and, if the lines of communication are open, there is always a way to find a solution. 

Seven Good Reasons to Stick With the Block

1. Service:
   Attendees staying in the block have a go-to for room changes or customer service and an advocate working on their behalf if and when issues arise with the hotel.
2. Safety:
   Booking in the block provides protection from potential scams involving hotel room wholesalers or fictitious booking companies.
3. Protection:
   Attendees in the block have the ability to manage their sub-blocks of rooms without a separate hotel contract. This alleviates worry about attrition, billing or cancellation issues.
4. Extra Services:
   Access to free transportation provided by the show and other amenities.
5. Security: Housing is secured well in advance.  Hotels often oversell the amount of rooms they have available  - booking in the official block protects you should this situation arise and assures you a room on peak nights and even during high seasons or city wide events.
6. Rates: The lowest room rates available have been negotiated at official hotels and are exclusive only to event participants and not available to the general public. Event rates are even re-negotiated if a lower rate is found somewhere else.
7. Credibility: Continued loyalty to the block gives attendees buying power to be able to  push for room or hotel changes and helps the show negotiate lower rates in the future.

No two shows are alike, therefore no show will have the same rules or regulations.  However, a solid show organizer and housing company will listen to its participants and make any changes that will benefit the good of the show.  So, I encourage you to have that beer and open up a dialogue. 

What’s next? 
Would you like to continue the conversation?  Send your thoughts to
advocacy@tsea.org

*Ann Exhibitor and Lodging for all Parties are pseudonyms of members of the Trade Show Exhibitors Association.  The views and opinions expressed herein are of the writer and do not necessarily represent TSEA’s view.

TSEA’s official position statements are available at: http://www.tsea.org/tseapositionstatement.