Worth getting out of bed for?

Worth getting out of bed for?

Rob Spalding, in Association Meetings International this month looks at the rise of the Convention Hotels for large conferences rather than using convention centres and surrounding hotels for bedrooms.

Chain hotels in recent years have started building bigger hotels abroad to compete with the Convention Centre business.  So do delegates and conference organisers really have a preference of where events are held?

Many organisers prefer to use hotels for the comfort factor but most of all you don’t lose delegates as easily, coupled with not having the tiresome commuting at the start and end of the day.  Hotels in general tend to have a more relaxed atmosphere and better facilities such as leisure at no extra cost.

For the tired delegate it is much easier to dump their stuff in the bedroom and have a rest and not have to worry about catching a bus to the event.

Its worth also noting that Convention Hotels come with the negatives the negotiation over the contracts is much harder, at an earlier stage you have to commit to booking a minimum amount of bedrooms making the financial implications more significant.  Plus every bedroom is contracted at the same costs no allowing a choice in room rate for the paying delegate.

Delegates however do like a change of scenery and if the Convention is taking place over 3- 4 days the same hotel and meeting space ‘cabin fever’ can set in.  Also Convention Hotels are situated in the centre of a city so you can easily loose delegates to the shops leaving sessions empty.

There is no doubt Convention Hotels are becoming more popular with organisations in particular the Associations market.  From  IHG Hotels, Hilton, Concorde Hotels or Maritim Hotels there are lots to choose from!

As always we are keen to hear your views or if you would like to guest blog please contact sarah@mosaicevents.co.uk