Best Practices for Short Term Meetings Convention Services

Get involved in the Selling process  Conventions Services involvement during turnover stage.  For short term business, Convention Services to reach out even prior to official turnover to start working on details.  Conventions Services could also participate on site visits prior to short term business turning definite so they are present if important details for BEO’s / resume may be discussed.

Maximize your menus  Introduce eMenus very early in the process to the customer noting the ease of use, access and that it instantly provides financial spend information.  Send draft BEO’s along with contract. This may include set-up as well as food and beverage.  Create library of pop-up menus. For groups hours prior to arrival, work with Chef to develop pop-up menus for easy items that are typically in house or easy to get from vendors.

Don’t forget about food cost  Consolidate menus with other in-house events already taking place that day. Remember that Delphi helps you with this function and any menus that are already in use that day will appear in blue when you go to select the menu.  For those hotels with a restaurant, use restaurant menus at banquet prices for short term bookings. This helps keep the food coming off the main line versus a banquet kitchen.  For bookings within the same day or that may not be profitable due to a smaller number of attendees, use pre order menus or send to restaurant for meals. This helps keep groups in-house and Catering can still get room rental and possible AV revenue.

Think they could be a little busy…. Some ideas to consider  Rotate Catering inquiries within department, not necessarily within specific markets. This gives all Managers experience in all markets and also helps avoid one person getting overwhelmed.  Look at current deployment. Is it working? Does it need to be adjusted? Is one person in the local corporate market overwhelmed and unable to get back to customers? If so, perhaps it’s time to shake it up a bit! In this culture it’s important to be the first person to respond or the customer will go elsewhere. Time is of the essence and you can’t afford to make a short term customer wait a day or even an hour for availability. It needs to be immediate.

 CSM’s could work further out on definite business to help maximize space sooner. This will assist team to book into need dates and fill in those holes.  You could have your Social Catering Manager working Tuesday-Saturday. A star EMM could assist on Monday’s with proposals or things that the Social Catering Manager may typically handle. This is a great way to help create your bench with a star EMM by giving them additional training.