Chapter 9 Sales and meeting planning.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Marketing
II. Group Sales
Types of Groups
Making the Group Sale
After the Sale
III. Servicing Groups: Catering/Banquet Department
Menu Planning
Room Setup
Special Services
IV. Individual Sales
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LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this chapter, you should be able to
* Describe the function of the sales department.
* Describe the function of the catering/banquet department.
* Trace which departments of the hotel/motel are involved in banquet preparation.
* List sources of group business for a hotel/motel.
* Explain how a hotel/motel advertises.
The profit or loss of revenue of a motel/hotel depends on the number of rooms rented at any given time. Renting these rooms means selling them. Since the sales department of a property is responsible for selling the rooms, naturally, it is a vital division. In addition to selling rooms, the entire hotel product includes selling food and beverage, space for meetings, and recreational facilities. The job of those in the sales office is to bring increased business hence profits, to the hotel. They strive for more rooms rented at the highest rates possible, more dinners served, and more meeting rooms rented.
The sales staff in a small property most likely will be a sales manager and a secretary. Larger establishments, of course, have at least three people actively selling and might have an international division as well. Sales fall into two categories: group and individual. The aim is to sell sleeping rooms and meeting rooms. Group sales are then further subdivided into two types: meetings and packages.
MARKETING
Advertising, direct mail, publicity, and public relations are basic to the marketing, or selling, of any product. The sales office formulates the advertising for the hotel. Of course, if the property is part of a chain, only local advertising is needed. Sometimes the food and beverage department is responsible for the restaurant and bar advertising, and the sales department handles room and meeting space advertising. Most often an advertising agency designs the ad campaign and recommends what media to use. It might be newspapers, magazines, or broadcasts.
Brochures for individual, group, and internal sales must be prepared by the sales department. A direct mail campaign may be implemented. Multiple-page packets of information for meeting planners are designed. These would contain such information as the hotel's amenities and location, dimensions and capacity of meeting rooms, sample menus, and types of available guest rooms. Again, the sales office might use a sales promotion agency to design and write these brochures, or they may be done "in-house." Posters and signs for internal sales also must be produced.
The sales department also handles publicity, which may be considered free advertising. If a famous movie star stays at a property, for example, and the newspapers print the name of the hotel, it is worth thousands of dollars in print advertising. News releases are sent to newspapers on such items as personnel changes or major renovations. Radio and television stations are notified about events such as trade shows. Public relations activities involve becoming active within the community. Certain properties are primary members of a city or region's conference and visitor bureau (CVB). These are organizations with dues-paying members from various businesses that benefit from tourism. In addition to accommodations facilities, attractions, restaurants, and tour companies are members. Joint efforts are made to lure travelers to the area. Participation by hotel staff in charitable events also puts the name of the property before the public in a positive manner.
In order to direct marketing activities, the sales department relies on research from the controller and the general manager regarding the best days of the week and the best months of the year for business. The night auditor, as stated in Chapter 6, compiles figures at the end of each day. These help sales and management to make projections. These projections are important for staffing, ordering linen supplies, and food purchasing. Percentages are derived for overstays, understays, walk-ins, no-shows, and number of reservations. Using formulas, forecasts can be reasonably accurate as to the number of guests to be housed on any given day. Chapter 4 discusses yield management statistics that are vital to the sales staff. Decisions on the availability of rooms and prices charged are based on yield management predictions.
The sales department should continually research why the hotel's guests are there. The staff needs to know if the guests are there on business or pleasure. How long the average guests stay and where they are from are also vital statistics. Whether the guests arrive by car or plane is important as well.
Why a guest chooses the particular property is vital information. The front desk or reservationist can assist my merely asking where the guest heard of the property. The registration card can include a simple question:
"How did you hear about our property?"
--Chain
--Travel agent
--Hotel representative
--Passing by
--Friend
--Yellow Pages
--Advertisement
--Other
Many hotels find out this type of information, as well as how to improve services and facilities, by placing questionnaires or "report cards" in each room. Guests are asked to fill them out and leave them in their rooms for housekeeping to turn in to management, or guests give them to the front desk when checking out.
GROUP SALES
Group sales are sales of more than one sleeping room or of one or more meeting rooms. A group sale might include selling a meeting room for the Twin Rivers Garden Club luncheon, or selling every sleeping room in the hotel to 500 members of the American Bar Association attending a convention. Cities with large convention centers hold events that place guests in many properties within the town. Group sales may also involve parties, weddings, bar mitzvahs, and graduations. Some hotels profit greatly from the wedding reception business.
TYPES OF GROUPS
MEETINGS
A meeting may be called a convention, a conference, a seminar, or any name invented by the group holding it. The size and "personality" of the group may vary widely. For example, compare the nature of the National Mary Kay Cosmetic Convention to a county CPA seminar.
In order to host meetings and conventions, a hotel must have adequate meeting rooms or be located near a large convention center. Some hotels depend on conventions for the majority of their business. For example, the Shoreham in Washington, D.C., and the Sherman House in Chicago receive over 60 percent of their dollar volume from conventions.
Resorts in such areas as San Juan and Honolulu are seeing more and more convention business. Hotels and motor inns near major airports are seeing a great increase in convention business, particularly in medium-size meetings or seminars. Today many organizations holding conventions are including the entire family in their planning. It is estimated that 60 to 75 percent of convention goers are accompanied by their spouses.
What are the sources of these meetings? Associations, companies, fraternal organizations, common interest groups, professional organizations, and political groups, to name a few, all hold meetings in hotels for one reason or another.
Associations. There are thousands of personal and professional associations in the United States and around the world. There is a trade association for every industry. We've all been amazed to hear of some of the specialized groups which hold meetings, for example, the Association of Yellow Pansy Growers, or the National Association of Pickle Packers. The groups have annual conventions for all of their members and often hold regional meetings as well. Some groups meet quarterly.
Companies. Large companies, many of which support smaller companies, are holding more meetings than ever before. An example would be the Ford Motor Company holding a meeting for a group of its distributors. Also, some companies award top sales representatives incentive travel, or vacation awards, often in conjunction with sales meetings.
Fraternal organizations. Fraternal organizations sometimes hold meetings at hotels. These might be the monthly Lions Club luncheon, a Greek sorority national meeting, or Kiwanis International holding a convention for thousands.
Common Interest Groups. Common interest groups include garden clubs, sports booster clubs, even science fiction fan clubs or Hummel figurine collectors. These groups meet to compare and share materials on their common interest.
Professional Organizations. These usually are made up of groups of lawyers, doctors, CPAs, or other skilled professionals. Their meetings might center around the presentation of scholarly papers or research that has been done in the particular field. Trade shows are often held in conjunction with these meetings. For example, textbook trade shows are staged at teachers' associations meetings.
Political Groups. The National Democratic and Republican conventions constitute two of the largest gatherings in the United States. Only a handful of cities can accommodate these conventions. For these major conventions all hotel space in the chosen city is blocked. On a smaller scale the county's political parties might also hold meetings.
Trade Shows. Trade shows are often held in conjunction with conventions, or they can be held without a formal organized meeting. At a trade show connected with the American Medical Association, for example, pharmaceutical companies, medical supply companies, and a variety of other commercial businesses set up displays and exhibits. An example of a trade show not connected with a meeting would be some of the large travel shows where travel agents, wholesalers, and destinations exhibit and invite the public to attend. These are usually organized by professional commercial exhibit organizations. Keep in mind that even though a trade show might not involve an association, all the exhibitors require lodgings and usually stay at the hotel where the exhibit is held.
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Mini-exhibits. The mini-exhibits held in hotels/motels are individual company shows or auctions. The oriental rug dealers who rent meeting rooms to display their merchandise and advertise in the local paper for a showing are prime examples of the mini-exhibit. These exhibits provide a property income for a meeting room that might otherwise be empty, particularly on weekends at commercial hotels. They also bring people to the hotel who may decide to have dinner there.
TOUR GROUPS
The second type of group sales is accomplished through package plans organized by tour operators. Tour operators deal with the transportation, accommodations, and sightseeing facets of travel. Package plan refers to a trip or travel arrangement that involves two or more components of tourism. For example, a package might include air and hotel arrangements. These would be offered together under a single price. Packages might include some or all meals. They might include transfers to and from the airport to the property. The transportation and the accommodations are the largest portion of any package.
A hotel sales manager's dream would be to have a tour operator block 50 rooms for a group tour that arrives each week. Even a remote motel between Atlanta and New Orleans might be the stop over for such a tour.
MAKING THE GROUP SALE
How do hotel sales offices reach the organizations that buy group accommodations? One way is through mass mailings conducted by the hotel's sales staff. Large hotels also have brochures directed to group business that describe their facilities for meetings.
Mailing lists can be made up by carefully reading newspapers to find out which organizations hold meetings. The American Society of Association Executives has mailing lists of its members.
Additionally, there are several different nationwide associations of meeting planners. Businesses on the local, regional, and state level are sources of potential meetings. Certainly working with the local CVB, chamber of commerce, and state tourism office will help identify meeting prospects. These organizations feed leads generated by advertising or general inquiries to various properties. The sales staff can then contact the potential group business. These offices will also help in making presentations to persuade large groups or associations to come to a property. If a meeting is so large that it uses several properties within a town or area, a CVB might act as a housing bureau, referring or handling reservations. The American Society of Travel Agents 1999 World Congress held in Strasbourg, France, expected 6,000 delegates to be placed in 80 hotels. Central reservations in such instances are required.
Close contact with tour operators is helpful in establishing or maintaining package tour business. There are tour operator associations that hold trade fairs where various destinations, hotels, and other tour-related services can exhibit.
A way in which smaller group sales can be stimulated is by writing a letter to those involved when an engagement announcement appears in the papers. Small membership organizations, such as the Lion's club, can be identified from the newspaper and perhaps offered a permanent meeting space at reduced rates.
When potential business is identified, sales calls are made. For those in the sales department, standard training in sales methods is helpful. Knowing how to turn features into benefits, recognize buying signals, and close a sale are basics in group sales.
AFTER THE SALE
The work of the sales department doesn't stop with the closing of the sale. Contracts showing the exact room, menu, and number expected are filled out by the sales representative and the group representative. Figure 9-2 illustrates a typical sales agreement for a meeting.
Coordination by sales with all departments in the hotel is the key to successful group functions. The front desk must be given blocked room information and be told the group rate being charged. Food and beverage, housekeeping, and engineering also must be notified concerning their duties to make a successful meeting and thereby generate repeat business. When the sales department completes the contract in a larger hotel/motel, they would then turn the client over to the catering/banquet department.
SERVICING GROUPS: CATERING/BANQUET DEPARTMENT
Once the sale for a group meeting or meal is made, the catering/ banquet department takes over the organization and planning of the function. Think what a fulfilling job it would be to help an excited couple plan their wedding reception. For banquets or meetings, details such as the number of people at each table, placement of the head table, name tags, decorations, and microphones are involved. Large properties that schedule many meetings have personnel that are assigned to assist specific groups in making such decisions. The title used varies but often is convention services manager (CSM) or coordinator. Sometimes the catering/banquet department must assist with meeting details.
MENU PLANNING
The catering department works closely with the executive chef in planning menus for various events. Figure 9-3 shows a typical banquet menu or choice of meals that the catering department offers. With the client, a menu is chosen and thereby the price is determined.
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ROOM SETUP
The catering department explains to the client the room size and the possible setup arrangements (or styles of seating) available. Some possible options include lecture, classroom, or circular tables for dinners. Figure 9-4 illustrates such seating styles. In addition, the type and color of the linens are chosen, and the size and placement of the head table is decided. The catering department may employ a house staff to do the heavy work of setting up meeting or dining rooms, or these employees might work for the housekeeping department.
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Equipment needs, such as film projectors, VCRs, and microphones, are discussed and arranged for by the catering department. When such equipment is used, the engineering department might be called in to do the "hook up." Some facilities charge extra for such services; others do not.
SPECIAL SERVICES
The catering department might be called upon to provide or subcontract for other amenities for a meeting, such as music in the form of live bands or tapes; it might also be able to provide flowers or other decorative items for the event.
At a wedding reception held last June, the bride and groom, who were on a limited budget, chose to omit flowers in order to keep wedding costs down. The catering department assured them they could provide a centerpiece for their buffet table. Fortunately, a close friend of the couple went immediately to the reception hotel after the wedding service and discovered a plastic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in the center of the buffet table! Disaster was averted when, after a quick discussion with the catering department, Rudolph was replaced with a sailboat. Though not ideal, the sailboat was much more appropriate as the groom was in the Navy.
The catering department acts as the conductor of an orchestra. It brings all the elements together to produce an event, working closely with the sales, food and beverage, housekeeping, and engineering departments. A willingness to work odd hours and a mind for detail can open the door to a most interesting career in this field.
INDIVIDUAL SALES
Individual sales are made primarily through repeat business--those guests that return to the property. This is accomplished through service. The guests must be impressed by the hotel. They must feel so at home that they wouldn't dream of trying another hotel.
Hotels should keep profiles on repeat guests, particularly those using concierge floors. Profiles would include information such as type of room preferred, method of payment used, and the need of transportation, business services, or valet. Using such information to save the guest time and certainly using the guest's name produce many return visits. The entire hotel staff is involved in the capacity of sales manager to influence repeat business. Chapter 2, "The Hospitality Business and You," and Chapters 4 through 6 on front-office operations discuss at length the "service equals repeat sales" theory.
Frequent-user programs have flourished in the last 10 years. For each night a guest stays at a property, points are given. After the points total a certain amount, a free night is earned. This establishes brand loyalty on the part of individual travelers. Most large chains have such programs, and some are tied in with airline frequent-flier plans.
Internal sales are an offshoot of individual sales. We discussed this in Chapter 4, when while rooming the guest, the bellhop had a casual conversation about the hotel restaurant being excellent.
Some hotel restaurants suffer from a misconception that their food isn't as good as that of the stand-alone restaurant a mile down the highway. Elevator ads showing a delicious meal or the elegant dining room may help to overcome this. Golf or tennis club memberships also are internal sales that might be made. In each room brochures describing the hotel's amenities further internal sales.
TRENDS
Several years ago there was widespread worry that telecommunications or videoconferencing would lessen the group-meeting business of hotels. This has not proven true. There are some companies that are equipped to videotape a meeting and simultaneously transmit it to be received at the home office or by other interested parties. Obviously this means hotel room-nights are not being utilized. Some properties have installed the equipment necessary for such transmissions. Fortunately for the industry, the success of such has been limited. Perhaps the reason is people want face-to-face interaction. Perhaps typical business travelers enjoy different atmospheres more than is professed.
More and more cities are jumping on the conference center bandwagon. The goal is to bring in more tourists, which in turn spend money in the region. This is, of course, advantageous to all the properties within the area since attendees at conference center events must have lodgings.
More meeting planners are contracting with local-event coordinators for meeting activities. Entertainment and/or sightseeing may be organized by professionals at an area. There are several schools that offer programs for those who want to become meeting planners or event coordinators. There are certifications that can be obtained through professional meeting planner organizations.
As organizations and businesses become more international in scope, more travelers from overseas are attending meetings. Knowledge of a second language is helpful, not only in the sales and catering departments, but by all staff at convention hotels.
CHAPTER ACTIVITIES
SALES AND MEETING PLANNING
1. The Sands Hotel is located in Bueno Beach, Florida. It is on beachfront property and has 250 rooms. There is an outdoor swimming pool, a tennis court, and golf course. There is a beautiful lobby and front-desk area. A poolside restaurant and bar serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Two large rooms can be combined and used for conventions or for large meetings seating theater-style up to 700 people. These same rooms can be used for banquet-style dinners for 400 people. A great deal of the hotel's business is meeting and banquet service.
John George, executive secretary of the State Association of Piling Contractors, approaches you, the sales manager, about holding an annual dinner at your hotel on May 15. His address is 5445 Flintlock Road, Baltimore, MD 21122-1343, and his phone number is 301-555-5666. He guarantees 350 guests. He wants an open bar for one hour, 6:30-7:30 p.m. He wants to keep the cost at $30.00 per person.
Fill out Event Order (Figure 9-2) using the sample menu (from Figure 9-3). Fill it out by role-playing with a classmate. Don't forget gratuities, taxes, and special needs such as a microphone or flowers. Use the Event Order given on page 161.
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2. Write a survey to give to guests that will provide information that the sales department would find useful.
3. List 20 organizations in your area that hold meetings.
4. Write a letter to one of these organizations inviting them to meet at the Sands Hotel as described in Activity 1.
CHAPTER PROJECTS
1. Bring in hotel advertisements from three hotels.
2. Write a report on standard sales techniques, as discussed in this chapter.
3. Obtain copies of sales materials from a hotel in your area.
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| Author: | Weissinger, Suzanne Stewart |
|---|---|
| Publication: | Hotel/Motel Operations, An Overview, 2nd ed. |
| Geographic Code: | 1USA |
| Date: | Jan 1, 2000 |
| Words: | 3610 |
| Previous Article: | Chapter 8 Food and beverage department. |
| Next Article: | Chapter 10 Accommodations: references and ratings. |
| Topics: | |