Learning is great although often it comes with some pain. Years ago as I began working with a new client, she told me about having to learn ‘the hard way’ about not asking for 24-hr hold on her meeting rooms. A few days ago, I had a new client explain the same learning she had earlier in her meeting planning career. Hotels and convention centres are designed to maximize space and profit, so if your meeting ends at 5pm, they will try and book an evening event as additional revenue for that day. By asking the hotel to hold the space on a 24-hr hold, they then are not able to sell the ‘off hours’ to others clients.
Often hotels will work with you and not charge extra pending your meeting size and revenue but if there is another potential piece of business for their hotel that you are competing for their space, it is important to understand that the hotel feels they are turning away business and losing revenue by having a hold on the space. Ensure that you communicate your move in and move out schedule as the venue is then able to tell you how it fits with their existing business. The last thing you want is to have to tell your audio visual team that they need to do an overnight setup as this almost always costs more.
