Conventions can spell big profits for hotels and their home cities. Your hotel may already have everything it needs but targeted marketing.
It’s no secret that business conventions bring in big business for hotels. However, hotels can creatively market themselves to companies, small gatherings, and groups even with smaller meeting spaces by offering simple amenities. If your hotel has a conference room, here’s how you can promote yourself for business conferences and conventions.
Why Convention Hotels are Important
Conventions are big business, and the competition between metro areas to attract big gathering is fierce. As a result, convention business extends far beyond occupied rooms. When hotels can attract conventions, they boost the local economy by generating business and revenue for restaurants, bars, attractions, transportation and car rental companies, and retail stores.
Since quality and condition are essential for reputation and repeat business, convention hotels perform frequent upgrades and employ a large staff of workers. In addition, convention hotels have a symbiotic marketing relationship with metro areas; the hotel uses area attractions to help sell conventions, and the city uses conventions as an attractive draw.
10 Features of Convention Hotels that Attract Visitors
1. Perks and Services
If you have a hotel with conference rooms but aren’t bringing in much business, you may need to add services or adjust your marketing plan. Whether you’re operating a luxury resort in a desirable location or a reasonably priced hotel convenient to downtown, benefits, and perks can help attract meeting planners looking for the right event venue.
Event Planning: Planning meetings means coordinating meals, rooms, schedules, seating, technology, and more. If you can offer professional event planning services to help coordinate the event, you’ll have a better shot at luring lucrative business events.
Concierge Services: Event managers want to know their attendees can get help with anything they may need during their stay. In top convention center hotels, concierge services typically include:
- Providing recommendations for nearby restaurants, entertainment, and shopping
- Booking reservations for dinners, clubs, and shows
- Reserving tickets for attractions and events
- Coordinating transportation around town and to the airport
- Scheduling private services such as hair and nail salon appointments, massages and spa services, dry cleaning, and personal shopping or delivery
- Assisting with business services like mailing, shipping, and receiving packages or communications
Group Rate Partnerships: Local businesses may be willing to extend group discounts for shows, dinners, or attractions arranged through the hotel. Negotiating attractive terms for your convention guests is a great hotel promotion idea!
2. State-of-the-Art Technology
The world is changing, and with it, the way we meet, communicate and do business. Modern standards include an on-site 24/7 business center and high-speed WiFi in individual rooms, meeting rooms, and common areas. However, to make your venue stand out, you need to take technology to a higher level. For example, you can equip your meeting spaces with innovative ways to host state-of-the-art virtual meetings to accommodate global attendees along with in-person guests.
You’ll also need to provide multimedia support, high-def big screens, conference tables with built-in outlets, and audio equipment for excellent sound.
3. Activities
Top convention center hotels are stepping way outside the box to offer convention-goers team-building, wellness, and work/life balance opportunities. Examples include:
Break Activities: Some event planners are taking downtime to new levels of engagement by offering more than the old standard coffee and donuts. In what used to be unscheduled time between meetings, hotels now offer mindfulness programs such as meditation, yoga, and breathing exercise classes to promote relaxation, activities designed to stimulate the brain or fun activities like coordinated flash mob dances.
Team Building: Depending on the location of your hotel, you may be able to take advantage of local outdoor or indoor features to create team-building challenges and exercises for recreation and engagement building. Team building exercises foster collaboration and promotes creativity, problem-solving, and trust. In addition, it helps team members get to know each other. They may even help you identify undiscovered strengths and abilities in individuals and partnerships.
4. Food & Beverage Service
Enticing food and beverage services are crucial elements to keep convention attendees on-premises. Food and beverage arrangements should fit the convention schedule and be capable of feeding a crowd efficiently between meetings or on lunch and dinner breaks. Regional foods are popular menu choices, and local cuisines can be an effective selling point.
5. Decorator Services
Staging a convention can be a big job. It requires signage, seating, arranging fluid meeting spaces, and endless details. An in-house decorator is invaluable to busy event planners.
6. Corporate Responsibility
Consumer trends are clear; they expect businesses to participate in “giving back.” Conventions are a unique opportunity to tackle a social cause and build company culture by building a charity event into the schedule. In addition to building the camaraderie and goodwill that comes with community involvement, charity events are great publicity. Offer ideas for local or global involvement with broad appeal. Community involvement can be combined with a team-building or wellness activity to make the most of your guests’ time.
Going green is another attractive hotel feature and company culture issue. Institute energy-saving policies and local sourcing where possible.
7. Personal Comfort
Spacious rooms, comfortable beds, and luxury linens are standard and expected by business travelers. In addition, some convention hotels throw in robes, slippers, spa-quality hair and body products, and other perks designed for sheer comfort. Comfortable rooms make for happy guests, and happy guests leave great reviews.
The concerns of the pandemic are not likely to subside, so cleanliness remains a top personal comfort concern. Create a well-defined plan to assure event planners and guests that your hotel and grounds are sanitary and adequately maintained.
8. Event Planner Incentives
Everybody likes swag, and that includes people in charge of making plans. If you’re competing with other area hotels with conference rooms, swag can be the ace up your sleeve. Offer free rooms or room upgrades, meals, drinks, massages, or other enticing amenities to help edge out the competition.
9. Repeat Business Discounts
Many businesses hold annual events, and excellent stays coupled with discounts for repeat business can keep you busy for years to come.
10. Provide a Memorable Experience
When creating your hotel promotion ideas, consider how you can leverage history, nearby entertainment, attractions, and natural features, and local cuisine and culture to your advantage. For example, local businesses may be happy to participate in a courtyard food festival, a neighborhood charity fun run (with stops at every bar on the strip), or an on-site marketplace featuring locally made goods.
Embrace whatever makes your area special. You may be able to maximize stunning views with a sunset terrace dinner or sunrise morning yoga session. If your city has an active music scene, like Austin, Nashville, or New Orleans, hire local musicians to perform during events. Tie into history with architecture, decor, and antiques.
The Top Convention Hotels in the US
Each year, Cvent rates convention hotels in the US. Here are Cvent’s top 5 meeting hotels for 2019 and top 5 small independent hotels, and what makes them unique:
Top 5 US Meeting and Convention Hotels
1. Omni Nashville Hotel
- Location: Downtown Nashville, connected to the Country Music Hall of Fame and adjacent to the New Music City Convention Center
- Number of guest rooms & suites: 800
- Meeting space: 80,000 Square Feet of Meeting Space
2. JW Marriott Austin
- Location: Austin, TX
- Number of guest rooms & suites: 1,012
- Meeting space: 115.609 sq. ft.
3. ARIA Resort & Casino
- Location: Las Vegas, NV
- Number of guest rooms & suites: 4,004
- Meeting space: 100,001+ sq. ft.
4. Fairmont Austin
- Location: Austin, TX
- Number of guest rooms & suites: 1,048
- Meeting space: 100,001+ sq. ft.
5. Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center
- Location: Nashville, TN
- Number of guest rooms & suites: 2,888
- Meeting space: 100,001+ sq. ft
Location is essential, especially to big convention hotels. Nashville, Austin, and Las Vegas are the top large convention destinations. In each case, the hotels are located near convention centers and in the heart of bustling city centers. In addition, each is conveniently located within walking distance of various entertainment options, shopping, and historic locations.
Top 5 US Small Independent Hotels
1. Hotel Valencia Riverwalk
- Location: Overlooking the Riverwalk in San Antonio, TX
- Number of guest rooms & suites: 213
- Meeting space: 7,000 sq. ft.
2. The ART, a Hotel
- Location: Denver, CO
- Number of guest rooms & suites: 165
- Meeting Space: 5,000 sq. ft.
3. Battery Wharf Hotel, Boston Waterfront
- Location: Boston, MA
- Number of guest rooms & suites: 150
- Meeting Space: 7,000 sq. ft.
4. The Magnolia Hotel Dallas Downtown
- Location: Dallas, TX
- Number of guest rooms & suites: 325
- Meeting Space: 8,000 sq. ft.
5. The Palms Hotel & Spa
- Location: Miami Beach, FL
- Number of guest rooms & suites: 247
- Meeting Space: 8,000 sq. ft.
Location is also vital to smaller venues, but proximity to convention centers is not. Small hotels rely on boutique atmospheres, luxury accommodations, excellent service, and locations surrounded by local flavor, rich history, or breathtaking scenery.
The way we do daily business may be permanently affected following the pandemic. Still, a Las Vegas business traveler survey found that 91% of businesspeople can’t wait to get back to in-person meetings. It’s a great time to rethink your advertising, harness local flair, and position your venue as a convention hotel with a lucrative future.
