Meetings Beat: Renaissance Offers Points For 2007 Events
Renaissance Hotels and Resorts North America, in a promotion to help launch its new online meeting planner forum, is offering buyers who book and hold an event by Dec. 31 up to 100,000 Marriott Rewards bonus points, which can be used for free nights, air travel or vacations, among other rewards. Meetings must include at least 10 room nights on a single night of the event. Bookings must be done directly through the hotel and applicable dates vary from property to property. The forum offers an online community in which buyers can share strategies and experiences, as well as a destination locator and an executive chef showcase. It is available at www.rhr-standout.com.
Avis Budget, Groople Offer Online Group Car Booking
Car rental company Avis Budget Group Inc. last week launched a private-labeled car rental booking engine designed for Groople, a resource for online group travel booking. Customers will be able to see a side-by-side comparison of Avis and Budget car rental offers. The service, extended to groups of five or more, will offer group rates on multiple car rentals and automatically will upload the rate when a customer books five cars or more.
NYC Buyers Feel Attrition Squeeze
At an event held last month by the Greater New York chapter of Meeting Professionals International, talk turned to contracting trends. Many buyers said that though green issues had yet to affect contracts, other issues were making it tougher to negotiate. Attrition clauses were seen as getting tougher, including those on food and beverage. Some buyers reported resort fees of anywhere from $10 to $30 per person added to contracts, and that hotels have upped the number of rooms required for a complimentary room. Technology also is fast becoming a sticking point in contracts, as buyers said that the availability of wireless Internet connections, not just in hotel rooms but in meeting spaces, could be a make-or-break point in choosing a venue. And, showing that security concerns haven't lessened since 2001, many contracts continue to have terrorism clauses.
Avaya Launches Integrated Audioconferencing Tech
Business communications company Avaya recently launched audioconferencing software that works with Webconferencing and other applications from Adobe, Microsoft and IBM. Avaya Meeting Exchange Express, based on the technology of the company's Meeting Exchange Enterprise, is aimed at small to midsize companies that want to reduce the cost of outsourcing conference fees. "The ability to collaborate with coworkers and customers in different locations is at the heart of intelligent communications," said Eileen Rudden, vice president and general manager of Avaya's Unified Communications Division. "With easy-to-use interfaces for instant conferencing, as well as the ability to manage complex seminar-style collaborations, Avaya Meeting Exchange software helps businesses of all sizes speed decision-making and optimize business operations." The software can support up to 300 participants on a single server and is available globally now, with further language support coming in mid-May. Avaya also announced Customer Interaction Express, a contact center solution.
Genesys Survey: Meetings Travel Causes Pollution
In a survey of more than 18,000 users of remote conferencing vendor Genesys released this month, more than half said their company has green policies in place. Respondents also said that meetings travel was their biggest polluter, with 88 percent saying that car and air travel involving meetings had the largest impact on the environment of their corporate activities. Genesys is offering a free calculator that not only will take into account such travel costs and the amount of man-hours used, but also the expected amount of carbon dioxide emissions.
RFP Site, Hotel Database Debuts
A new Web site designed to allow for quicker and more efficient meetings planning process recently was launched by Elite Meetings International. EliteMeetings.net will offer a free database of hundreds of hotel properties that have been approved by the Elite Meetings Advisory Board, comprised of meetings and hospitality executives. Users can search for properties by features and amenities, and site profiles will list information about meeting space, guest rooms and average prices for food and beverage. The Web site also will feature an electronic request-for-proposals form and a link to phone the sales department of each listed property. Planners can post reviews of properties and hotels can show group dates they would like to fill. Registration is required to receive the electronic request-for-proposals form.