The previous webinar in this series discussed some of the biggest issues associated with the hotel corporate travel programmes including inaccurate data, inefficient manual processes and availability of rates. If you missed the webinar, you can read this blog for key highlights.
The next webinar in this series, Grow your Room Block Management Revenue discusses the costs, risks and missed revenue opportunities associated with rooming lists and how hoteliers can avoid these pitfalls to generate more revenue and profits for their property. This webinar was presented by Cvent’s very own Passkey Vice President – Sam Fahmy. In this blog, we’ll share the important takeaways from this webinar.
The Pain of Traditional Room Block Process
For event planners, the traditional process of compiling excel spreadsheets with guest names, arrival and departure dates etc. is quite painful. Manually compiling these can result in errors and take a great deal of time. When hoteliers receive the rooming lists, they feed the data into their PMS, again manually. Each planner may have a different format, so hotel staff have to clean up the data before entering and once again it is time-consuming and error-prone. This process can happen multiple times in the lead up to cut-off. We feel the data entry pains, especially when hoteliers receive a rooming list from the event planner at the last minute. Phew!
The Tragic Story of Planners
• Now if we talk about the attendee experience, it is quite painful too. Rooming lists don’t provide attendees with options. Their arrival, departure and room type are all dependent on the planner.
• This leads to higher attrition risk. Since attendees don’t make their own reservations, they are more likely to no-show or make their own arrangements, creating duplicate bookings.
• Chances of making human errors are higher while creating manual spreadsheets for rooming lists. The task in itself is tedious and time-consuming.
The Consequences
The consequence of doing nothing but going the conventional way could be dangerous. Top hotels are embracing the concept of creating a unique experience for their guests, which starts not from when they check in but from the very first touchpoint, including all digital interactions. Therefore, it is vital that we are cognoscente of this and use this insight to shape how we communicate and market to these individuals.
The Solution
The solution – embrace a Room Block Management Tool, which will help you achieve success in the following ways:
1. Planner dashboard: One of the most important features that a technology solution should provide to hoteliers is the planner dashboard. It allows hoteliers to review their performance in real-time and optimize their MICE business in terms of pickup space, upselling opportunities, chain level and property level. Dashboards also provide ongoing feedback on your results.
2. Branded event experience: A good tool will enable you to create dedicated event websites for your planners and guest events. It will have an easy-to-share and easy-to-remember URL and facilitate bookings on any device. Based on Cvent’s data, we know that on an average up to 60% guests book on the web, vs. 5%-10% who choose homemade or other systems. When the websites are personalised for the event with its own URL, guests don’t need a code to remember and most importantly because the planners are engaged, so they are motivated to market them, which leads to more bookings.
3. Connected to event registration: Thanks to those custom websites! The same online system that allowed attendees to enter their own booking information also lets them make changes to their reservation, saving them the time of contacting either the planner or the hotel. The best part is that the planner has real-time visibility of that change because the reservation is integrated with the attendee’s registration.
4. Room upgrades: There are three ways to upsell and a good technology solution should enable you to do this effectively and seamlessly. The first way is to offer room upgrades to your groups. While there are some groups where this may not be possible, in the vast majority of cases, you can offer room upgrades. Industry research has shown that 13% of guests will purchase an upgrade if offered at the time of booking. It should also be non-intrusive and actually enjoyable to the user. Certainly, easy for the hotel management team to facilitate as well.
5. Extended stays: This is the second upsell opportunity and very much like room upgrades. More importantly, it’s not just offering the extended stays but offering compelling and interesting reasons for guests to extend their stay. That could be anything from entertainment, concerts and cultural events to local or regional attractions to events, sports and the many other reasons for people to stay a day or two longer.
6. Hotel add-ons: The last up-sell component is called hotel add-ons, and that can anything from early check-in and late checkout to breakfast and dining packages, spas, room clean options and anything else your hotel has to offer.
7. Targeted email campaigns: Circular journey of reaching your guests at every stage is crucial. When you are considering a room block technology tool, make sure that it includes this functionality as this ability fires off any upsell offers you want during the event. It is a powerful feature that will help drive more revenue opportunities. And with this functionality, you’ll have endless email options, with most popular categories being pre-arrival upsell emails, on-site promotions and post-stay emails.
The Conclusion
With an efficient Room Block Management Tool, you’ll be able to:
• Work smarter not harder – eliminating manual spreadsheets
• Streamline & simplify – with intuitive web booking processes that drive measurable cost savings.
• Take advantage of the opportunity to market to guests before, during and after the events to help increase repeat stays, but most importantly to add incremental revenue.
• Give Planners what they really want.
