Last-Minute Traveler Mtgs. On The Rise

Travelers have begun conducting more impromptu business appointments in hotels—requiring last-minute use of a hotel meeting room, office or private restaurant dining room, sometimes at a cost—which should prompt travel managers to address the growing trend.

Unlike traditional meetings that are booked in advance through a company's meeting planning arm, these meetings typically are arranged directly by the traveler, often on the same day they take place and usually for as few as three or four people. While some properties provide meeting rooms and offices free of charge for these spur-of-the-moment gatherings—depending on availability—some hotels charge a fee.

Buyers expect their top preferred suppliers to fill these requests free of charge whenever possible, considering the number of room nights the account generates. Hotels typically attempt to accommodate the requests, seeing it as a way to build repeat business and loyalty from travelers and as a value-added service they can provide to strengthen their relationship with the buyer.

However, as such meetings rarely involve more than eight or nine attendees, they fall between transient and traditional group bookings and have not been addressed in many companies' travel policies.

"It's something we're starting to look at. The direction we're taking is more on the contractual side," said Tina Itschner, travel manager at HNTB Corp. in Kansas City, Mo. "In other words, we only get involved when there's a contract. Absent a contract, travelers are pretty much on their own. Though when they're in a city where we or a client have an office, they'll try to find a convenient space to meet there, when it makes sense."

According to hotel managers, requests typically fall into one of three categories: sales presentations to existing or prospective clients, recruitment interviews and law firms conducting depositions. Gatherings of this size are too numerous for some buyers to try to capture. "It's a lot of the kind of business travel we have. A mission leader will bring together one or two consultants and a couple of economists and meet," said Anne Tanine, contract manager in the general services department of The World Bank, in Washington, D.C. "We consider them transient reservations and handle them individually. We don't define it as a group."

It also is a gray area for Bill Davidson, manager of corporate travel and meeting services for International Sematech in Austin, Texas. "Travelers always are free to contact the meeting planning department for help with arrangements, but that assumes there's some prior notice," he said. "Often, these gatherings are spontaneous and involve a restaurant meal, so travelers use their own discretion."

The incidence of this kind of request is up, acknowledged Tom Downing, general manager of Trump International Hotel & Tower in New York. "We use a special meeting space we added last year to accommodate them. It holds up to eight people. Situations like this always happen when you're a business traveler. The client is due to meet you at the hotel, you think you're going to sit in the lobby and have a chat, then all of a sudden he shows up with three people, so it's clear you need a real place to sit down, but where are you going to go? You're not going to do it over cocktails."

At the same time, a regular meeting room may be too formal. "We have a couple of small rooms that are on the guest floors as opposed to the meetings floor. These have become particularly popular for depositions," said Phillip Pool, general manager of the Four Points by Sheraton in Bethesda, Md. "We certainly have a lot of law offices in the area that might want to pull somebody in to do a deposition. It's an environment that's private but, at the same time, it's not somebody's guest room, which most people wouldn't find comfortable for this sort of thing.

"People want to be able to come in and not draw any attention to themselves," Pool continued. "They don't want any big message board with the firm name on it, for example."

Both the deluxe Trump and midprice Four Points find travelers still place a high value on privacy, despite the last-minute arrangements. "We focus on discretion. That is really one of our trademarks because of the business we cater to," Downing said. "They don't necessarily want to be public."

Unlike the midprice offering, the Trump offers use of its room free of charge. "It's complimentary to guests up to a certain point, usually two-and-a-half hours, so guests can call ahead or on the day of as long as that room is free," Downing said. An office adjoining the property's business center is available on the same terms.

In designing the facilities of its $83 million convention center that opened in January, the convention and visitors bureau in Palm Beach County, Fla., tackled the demand for small meetings that could be scheduled within a few hours.

"It was an unfilled niche, so we set about addressing it," said Christine Hamblin, vice president of sales for the center. Board Room Express is scheduled to open later this year. "You could call at 10 a.m. and by noon all the arrangements would be in place, including wireless high-speed Internet access, teleconferencing uplinks and the rest of the technology built into the center."

Hotels located in the suburbs are more likely to attract last-minute strategic planning or brainstorming sessions.

"It almost is in the nature of a retreat. They want to get away from the city, so they can clear their minds," said Richard Cimilluca, director of sales and marketing at North Maple Inn, which is located in Basking Ridge, N.J. "More senior-level people are involved and they want different settings than the traditional meeting room or board room."

In some cases, the parlor portion of a suite fits the bill. "The smaller the number of participants, the less time they're here," Cimilluca said. "It could last three-quarters of a day. They come in in the morning and depart before rush hour. They'll even meet during lunch in a private dining room in the restaurant."