5 Tips for hotel contract negotiation
Whether you’re contracting a hotel for a wedding or a convention, here are 5 tips on how I review and negotiate hotel contracts:
Attrition: Attrition means the number many sleeping rooms you are required to book. Generally hotels require 80% of the contracted room block to be “picked-up” aka reserved, before paying for penalties, however some require as high as 90%. Take time to review what your final room block pick-up was for a previous event. If you don’t have that data, see if you can put out a survey to gauge this. It can save you thousands of dollars. If the required attrition is above 80%, see if you can negotiate it down.
Room Rental: Often times if you are paying to reserve a meeting space at the hotel they may charge you a room rental. If you are also providing food and beverage to your guests, you can ask if room rental can be waived as a concession. Sometimes it is even more valuable to ask for a higher food and beverage minimum in order to reduce room rental. This way - at least you are getting something (can add on coffee, snacks, etc) for the $ vs paying in fees.
Cut-off Date: If you’ve already launched registration with a pre-determined close date, make sure this lines up with your contract and be sure to give yourself extra time to review your final rooming list and follow up with attendees if needed. Hotels internally meet weekly to review rooms so updating the with your dates of having a staff list, attendee list, etc is super helpful on their end! Often times if you need a bit more time than the standard 21 days before check-in date to submit your rooming list or close your hotel booking link, hotels will allow some wiggle room.
Concessions: Does your bride need a bigger suite to get ready in? Or CEO needs the presidential suite? How about complimentary welcome amenities, 1 free room for every 40 rooms picked up? Ask for it all and see what the hotel will give you. I generally feel like if your list is 10 rows long then a hotel will meet with 5, whereas if your list is 4 rows long, they’ll meet you with 2. Ask away! They can always say no. I have a detailed list of corporate concessions I ask for. Let me know if you’d like these and I’m happy to share.
Room Rate: In my experience, the average room for rate negotiation is around $20, but sometimes as much as $80 per night. Generally there is some room there, and if you can give some insight into the group, their future bookings (if applicable) and just picking up the phone and calling to ask, can all be well worth it!
Lastly - I like the perspective of seeing negotiation between meeting planner and hotel sales as not on different sides of the table but on the same side of the table trying to find how do we make this customer happy.
A photo of me and an incredible Sales Manager I’ve worked with (Jose) to show that we can be on the same side of the table and build great relationships!