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Have you recently sent out an RFP, and received limited or no response? Are you finding it more and more difficult to find the right hotel at the right price? Are hotels passing on your business without an explanation? If you answered yes to any of these questions, welcome to the club! Many meeting planners are facing these same challenges. In order to succeed in this hotel seller’s market, planners must first understand the role of revenue management.

Revenue management is not new. Hotels have used it for years. Simply stated, the goal of revenue management is to maximize profits based on projected demand. What is new is how involved hotel revenue managers have become in the sales process, and how influential they are in overall decision-making. More likely than not, it is not the Director of Sales or General Manager that has the final say on whether a hotel signs your business, but the revenue management team that makes the final decision. (more…)

It’s the evening of the first day of your company’s most important conference of the year. Everything’s gone smoothly so far and you’ve finally got some free time to do a little schmoozing at the evening reception party. As you enter the reception there’s a hushed crowd gathered around a man lying face down on the floor. A co-worker rushes over to you. The man tripped on a power cord and is unconscious. He’d been drinking. An ambulance is on its way. Are you protected if the man decides your company was somehow liable?

In a society where people sue for millions over missing pants and hot coffee, it’s imperative to be proactive and take the necessary risk management steps to limit one’s exposure to financial liability. ITEX has put together some guidelines for you to consider when conducting your next conference. (more…)

Hello everyone and welcome to our blog!

The IT Exchange group is a dedicated group of marketing professionals with over 40 years experience. We have set up this blog as a forum for a free exchange of ideas. We hope you will visit and participate often.

Our first entry pertains to negotiating hotel contracts. I’m often amazed to learn that many conference hosts don’t write their own hotel contracts. I’m further amazed that many of them don’t even negotiate special terms and/or concessions for their groups. Ideally, a contract should be mutually beneficial to both parties. But if the host company permits the hotel to draft the contract and stipulate all the terms, will it be mutually beneficial? Not necessarily. It’s important for conference hosts to become more involved in the contract process. Industry experts predict a 14% increase in conference costs collectively during 2007 and 2008. What have you noticed in your contracts? (more…)