Going “dark” in the meetings and conventions business is a bad thing.
It means the space didn’t sell.
Properties say they plan for that because selling blocks of rooms to big groups always leaves odd lots of space to fill.
“You work with accounts over time—call on clients, check in with them—to know their needs,” said Robert Donahue, director of resort and park event sales and service for Disneyland Resort in Anaheim.
“Work with people early on,” said Gerard Widder, general manager of the Island Hotel in Irvine.
That lets hotels “break up the space”—hospitality parlance for filling the gaps. And put one person in charge of doing that streamlines the process.
“It needs to be handled in few interactions,” said Giuseppe Lama, managing director of the Resort at Pelican Hill.
He said the contact covers all aspects of the equation—rooms, the spa, golf, food and logistics.
Solving a Puzzle
“Filling gaps is what I do,” said Christina Mytinger, an account director at St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort in Dana Point.
She said conversations between sales teams about available days advance efforts to fill those spaces.
“Collaboration among teams is vital,” said Peter Rice, general manager at the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort & Spa. “Filling gaps is a lot like a jigsaw puzzle.”
Other general managers echoed the flexibility and the solving-puzzles mantra.
“We may accept some business on a Sunday that we couldn’t take for Tuesday,” said Hotel Irvine General Manager J.D. Shafer.
He said hotel staff and outside meeting planners coordinate to bring in business.
“It’s all about planning.”
One wrinkle: Different clients might do their own planning on different time frames.
Chad Ceretto, sales director at Newport Beach Marriott Hotel & Spa, said that the time between when a space gets booked and when the group arrives is growing because companies are booking further in advance since the end of the economic downturn to get spaces they want and because they have the budgets to do so.
He said the booking window grew from about a year in 2013 to 17 months last year.
“As the economy turns around, 2015 and 2016 are going to be stellar years.”
Other local properties said smaller groups book on shorter time frames.
“Smaller groups are booking four to five months out,” said Sam El-Rabaa, general manager of Balboa Bay Resort. “We’re used to that short window.”
Other windows are even shorter.
“I’ve got managers booking January and February from all around the country,” Kay Cochran, who directs sales and marketing for the Hyatt Huntington Beach, said last month. “These ‘pop-up’ meetings are where companies call and might say, ‘I need something in three weeks.’ ”
Sometimes a gap is good.
Hilton Anaheim General Manager Shaun Robinson has pursued them.
“We actually created some gaps,” he said.
It added seven 1,000-square-foot rooms two years ago.
The property’s main business is from the Anaheim Convention Center within walking distance of the hotel. It’s known for its two 29,000-square-foot ballrooms for large groups.
The new smaller spaces have a dedicated sales manager and are on a separate floor from the ballroom, Robinson said.
“It’s so you’re not swallowed up among larger groups.”
That client desire for individual attention actually becomes a selling point for smaller venues, said Peggy Trott, general manager at The Inn at Laguna Beach.
She has only about 2,100 square feet in two rooms, one of which has a terraced ocean view.
“Here’s the difference between large and small venues,” she said. “Big fish in a small pond. You could … be our whole day.”
Likewise at DoubleTree by Hilton Irvine Spectrum.
“We don’t have many gaps,” said John Philipp, sales director.
He said he understands that the fly-in-and-out corporate customer will likely opt for meeting space closer to John Wayne Airport.
The Spectrum area is about seven miles away he said—more of a trek than most will take. And his space is limited, with two board rooms good for 10 to 12 people each, and a 2,500-square-foot ballroom.
It fits the hotel’s hyperbusiness, hyperlocal focus—90% of weekday meetings traffic is the corporate client. And when there are openings, on weekends for instance, that shifts to social events, such as weddings and bar mitzvahs.
When properties do have gaps to fill, Disney’s Donahue said discounting isn’t de rigueur.
Instead, he might offer setup time on Monday to a group booked that Tuesday.
“We’re trying to build a long-term relationship.”
