Marriott Meeting Demand

By Chris Davis / June 11, 2000

Marriott Meeting Demand

Ellen Wright, Marriott Hotels & Resorts vice president of marketing for the meetings segment, recently spoke with Meetings Today editor Chris Davis about the continued strength of the seller's market and why online booking of meeting space is unlikely any time soon.

Meetings Today: There have been several reports and statistical studies lately documenting a softening in the hotel seller's market. Is Marriott seeing the same thing?

Ellen Wright: We have seen all that because demand is so high, and the increased supply of hotels hasn't really countered that at this point. Because demand is still high, everyone wants to buy at the same time, so we look for the best possible piece of business. But we're finding that planners are more savvy in negotiations because of the information through the Internet. Meeting planners can do their homework before they make a call to a hotel, so they already know the specifications.

MT: Many buyers also are noticing increases in ancillary meeting fees such as banquet room rental and more stringent food and beverage attrition rates. Is the same occurring at Marriott?

Wright: We see all of that too. Again, it's due to demand. We still like to negotiate each meeting on its own merits, with the particulars of location and timing determining rates and ancillary charges. In some recent focus groups--in response to our inflexibility, so to speak, to those charges--we offered some alternative dates where we could have more flexibility in terms of room rentals and F&B. But we find in the corporate market, unlike the association market, there's less flexibility. They have a need to meet and the options are limited. But we're at an advantage because we can share alternatives within the portfolio at different price points if there's price resistance on the part of the planner.

MT: What other trends in the corporate meetings market have you seen?

Wright: The booking window is certainly tighter. Demand for corporate meetings in the short term is extremely strong all over the country. I was on the phone with a couple of directors of marketing for some convention and resort properties that do a great deal of corporate business, and they echoed there's strong business but short term. As a result, we have put a distribution channel in place to make it easier and more convenient for meeting planners. Because business is strong, it's harder to get availability in the short term. The number of Marriott Event Booking Centers, our distribution channel (Meetings Today, May 18, 1998), has reached 53 across the country. Through these, we can check availability and rates throughout the portfolio.

Another trend in the corporate meetings segment is that because there's so much merger and acquisition activity and great demand to get the message out simultaneously to a lot of different locations, videoconferencing has really taken off. We have our own videoconferencing department, and that department will go so far as to contract space with a non-Marriott affiliated location, if the Marriott property doesn't have the capability or space.

MT: That's interesting, because some chains seem to have backed away from videoconferencing (Meetings Today, July 5).

Wright: We have seen a lot of positive growth in that segment. Obviously, we haven't seen any decline in meetings, as was the fear when it first came out. Technology has isolated a lot of businesspeople, and relationships are key to success.

MT: How has Marriott's concept of total account management been integrated into the meeting sales philosophy?

Wright: It allows us to evaluate corporate clients' total business in all the different segments they bring to Marriott and gives us a far greater perspective on their business, so they're finding better deals and better negotiating power than if we employed a decentralized approach. Even buyers who go meeting by meeting see a benefit, because we wouldn't be able to negotiate things like meeting room rental rates across the board. They have to be executed one by one, but we take the whole business into account.

MT: Do some meeting buyers, however, prefer to negotiate with single properties on a meeting-by-meeting basis?

Wright: Initially we got some resistance to event booking centers because people like the one-to-one rapport, especially in this segment. But once they were able to establish a personal rapport with our associates at an Event Booking Center, their comfort level went up immediately.

MT: How do you plan to integrate the Internet and your Web site into corporate meetings and negotiations?

Wright: We're working on a lot of enhancements to do some customized profiling for planners, so if some corporate planners visit our site regularly, we can customize our communications to them based on their preferences, providing deals in properties they frequent or new property openings in areas in which they have meetings.

MT: Is Marriott developing the capability to book meeting space online?

Wright: It's an interesting question, but it's not easy to do. There are space requirements at each property and it often takes lots of juggling to fit meetings in. But from what I've seen in focus groups, planners love to use the Internet to do research on properties but they are not yet comfortable doing their booking online. It's one thing for a single guest room or an airline ticket, but it's a riskier proposition for meeting planners. Their job can be on the line for a big meeting, so they're not always willing to take chances with technology.

MT: Is there even an interest in developing it, then?

Wright: The personal relationship is so important that planners are not willing to give it up. So it's not something we're working on until we find that's the preferred way for customers to book and do business.

MT: Are you seeing more leads and business from third-party meeting portal Web sites?

Wright: They've grown in popularity and our hotels are getting more leads from them, and planners like them particularly in the research stage. Our own site has grown tremendously in terms of leads, and we're drawing more in that area from our own site than the others.

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