Originally Posted by
Global
1. Should we try to negotiate directly with Hotel, or instead with the National Group Desk? Am I right that the NGD would charge a commission to the hotel, so contacting Hotel directly will likely result in lower rate?
I'd start with the hotel sales person, they will be able to liase with the group execs and negotiate you the best deal.
Being brutally honest, I often don't have the time to negotiate a deal - I've got 5 groups arriving, 5 groups departing, proposals to issue, contracts to issue, payments to chase, rooming lists to enter and check...etc etc etc.
Depending on the size of the property, they may not have their own sales person - in that case, ask for the groups executive attached to the hotel.
Don't know about a NGD, I don't have one.
Originally Posted by
Global
2. With so many room nights, is there a rule of thumb as to how many rooms or nights we can get free for a given number of rooms / nights? Perhaps 1 free night for every X Room Nights.
In a standard contract, I would offer the following:
1 per 30 rooms per night FOC, to a maximum of 3 rooms per night.
1 per 30 rooms per night upgraded to the next room type, to a maximum of 3 rooms per night.
I think that with a continuous occupancy group like yours then this would be negotiable, this is why you need sales involved
Originally Posted by
Global
3. What other amenities should we expect or ask for?
What, aside from
Originally Posted by
Global
complimentary breakfast, health club, internet, daily transportation to and from airport
?
Originally Posted by
Global
4. How many Reward Points can the organizers get? Is it feasible to get regular points for all the rooms for all the nights? We would like to divert these to our company rather than the occupants of the rooms. Or does issuing RPs cost the Hotel money which they don't want to spend in view of giving us rock-bottom rate? How can we maximize the points coming to the organizing company? If we can't capture all the RPs, can we capture some and the rest go to the occupants of the rooms?
Here's the official propoganda:
"A ‘qualifying’ event is any event such as a meeting, wedding or conference contracted through the sales or catering department with a minimum value of US$1,000* spent on eligible charges.
Eligible charges include guest room revenue, meeting room revenue, catering revenue and any other revenue associated with the event - exclusive of “paid out” items (costs that are not settled in the final event invoice), service charges and taxes.
Only the person stipulated in the event contract is eligible for the Event Bonus. Recipient does not have to be a registered guest or attend the qualifying meeting to receive HHonors Points & Miles.
** Max accrual per event of 100,000 HHonors points and 100,000 miles"
You
will need to ask for the Event Bonus, this is not a standard thing that I would offer to a corporate client.
You will also need to pay for all of the rooms - that may sound odd, but many event organisers choose for their delegates to pay their own accounts.
I suggest that you speak to sales (yes, again!) who will be able to tell you what the particular hotel can offer.
Originally Posted by
Global
5. If regular points for all the rooms for all the nights is not feasible in your opinion, how much of a block of points would be expected? Hopefully, more than the 50,000 maximum normally offered by NGD.
Don't know, sorry. I don't deal with a NGD, as I'm atatched to an "international" property.
Originally Posted by
Global
6. Do you think we could negotiate with NGD or perhaps Hotel directly to give one or more of our Executives one year, multi year, or maybe lifetime Diamond (or unpublished higher than Diamond) status?
As a groups executive, I basically don't know enough about HHonours to negotiate a deal like this, and I seriously doubt I'd have the powers to do that. I would suggest speaking with the hotel sales person, who should liase with the HHonours guys on your behalf.
Originally Posted by
Global
7. Any other items you might mention you think we could obtain.
Exec lounge access at a corp discount, if they haven't already offered?
Our exec lounge includes a continetal brekky with a couple of hot options, so you get the benefit of brefast AND lounge acess without paying for both.
Originally Posted by
Global
Many thanks for your input.
:-: