How to position your hotel as the authority for meetings and events in your destination.
Every hotel wants a piece of the meetings and conference market. In just a few days, one conference can generate hundreds of room nights, cause revenue from ancillary outlets to skyrocket, and jumpstart hundreds of attendees’ return visits.
The competition can get intense, with planners first selecting a destination, conducting site visits of various hotels, then creating a shortlist before finally deciding which venue to award their event contract to.
Outshine your comp set and win meeting planners’ trust from the very beginning by doing this one rare thing:
Start a meetings and events blog.
Most likely no other hotel in your city, or even your DMO, will have a blog focused solely on holding meetings and events in your destination (In fact, only a few DMOs in North America have a meetings-focused blog). Starting one would set you apart instantly, while also building up your sales staff’s reputation as thought leaders who are the go-to resources for holding events in your region.
But..be mindful of content!
A meetings blog isn’t meant to sell conference space or to solicit RFPs. It should be focused on helping planners maximize the meeting and attendee experience in your city. Write about fun offsite activities and venues, offer suggestions for attendees on what to do pre- and post-event, unveil local secrets, talk about new teambuilding activities they can arrange in town, interview event partners, etc.
When planners narrow down their destination choice to your city, your hotel will come up first in their mind as a meeting venue.
