How to Deal with Hotel Allotments when Bidding for Conventions 47 th ICCA Congress & Exhibition 2 nd November 2008 International Congress & Convention Association

Objective of session International Congress & Convention Association Exchange knowledge on how CVB’s handle pre-booking of hotel rooms Provide case stories on how room ’wash-down’ can be avoided or reduced Discuss best-practise measures

Introduction to session International Congress & Convention Association Most CVB’s offer complimentary pre-booking of hotel rooms Estimating the required number of rooms at bid-stage can be difficult Clients ask for more rooms than actually picked up during the convention As a consequence, a reduction (’wash-down’) of rooms takes place prior to (or during) the convention causing loss of money

Reasons for ‘wash-downs’ International Congress & Convention Association Insufficient knowledge about actual room pick-up Delegates book late and PCO/association won’t carry the risk Hotels sell at lower rate on Internet Delegates book outside officiel room-block

Consequences International Congress & Convention Association Hotels allocate fewer or insufficient number of rooms as required in bid guidelines Hotels require financial guarentees in advance of the convention making your destination less competitive Requests declined from other clients whose convention could be accommodated simultaniously if a smaller (and more realistic) room-block had been allocated

The expert panel International Congress & Convention Association Airy Garrigosa Convention Director Barcelona Convention Bureau Isabelle Lechtman Project Manager Stockholm Visitors Board Miranda Ioannou Managing Director SCS Limited