|
Checking out the
Online Site Selection and RFPs Options
©2000 Corbin Ball Associates
Throw
out the meeting facility guides and dusty stacks of hotel brochures. Forget
about faxing or express mailing your RFPs (requests for proposals) to many
individual hotels. These
inefficient paper-based means of finding and booking meeting facilities are
falling way to web-based products that provide richer detail in faster, more
convenient, and, sometimes, completely new ways.
The
first online RFP site appeared in January 1996 with the Radisson Miyako Hotel
San Francisco, offering a simple online meeting space request form. In short
four years, a plethora of Web sites have sprung up offering everything from
extensive, searchable meeting facility databases, automated RFP forms that can
send to multiple facilities with a click, Hot Dates, and, most recently, online
auctions. These sites vary
considerably in the size of their databases, the richness of meeting facility
detail, and how they generate revenue.
This
article will help sort them out. It includes all of the major and some of the
minor sites with detailed information regarding database size/usefulness,
pricing models and special features, to help choose which will be the best one(s)
for you.
The
sites have been listed alphabetically and have been examined with the following
criteria:
Hotel
and Meeting Facility Database:
Key
parameters for site selection are the size and usefulness of the online database
-- the larger the database and the more meeting space related detail the better.
The larger sites have more than 10,000 meeting facility listings.
The sites also vary considerably in the amount of meeting related detail
such as floor plans, pictures of meetings space, and meeting room
specifications. A real-life search
was done on a sample city, Seattle, to get a specific number comparison.
Filtering:
Generally,
the more filtering capability, the better. If you are looking for a 4-star hotel
will at least 800 sleeping rooms, with a meeting room of at 10,000 square feet,
in a warm climate with golf nearby and a business center you will want a site
with extensive filtering capabilities to help sort out the hotels that
specifically meet these criteria.
RFPs
A
number of the web sites in this article allow you to fill out a single request
form and send it to all of the selected hotels electronically. Some sites are
simply an online form to generate leads for a third-party site selection firm.
Others distribute the leads directly to the hotels or to the appropriate
convention and visitor bureau. There are great differences in the ease of use,
and the extensiveness of detail requested. A few sites will allow you to save
your RFP in order to copy it for future use further automating the process.
Hot
Dates/Rates/Space:
There
is nothing more perishable than an unused airline seat or hotel sleeping room.
Once gone, they can never be recovered. The airlines have understood the
principle of yield management for sometime. This is the reason why you may have
dozens of fares on an average flight. The Web is now enabling hotels to start
filling up the soft dates with “hot dates/rate/space” offerings.
The web’s ability to widely broadcast this rapidly changing inventory
at a low cost is the perfect match. However, the sites listed below vary
considerably in their effectiveness to do so.
Revenue source:
All of these sites are in the business of making money one way or another
– through commission on rooms booked, listing fees, advertising, and others.
Knowing the revenue model (what are their drivers) will help planners and
hoteliers decide the best options.
Additional features:
Many of the sites offer additional content to attract site visitors. Some
are coming up with novel ways to selling meeting space – such as online
auctions. This additional content will be noted as well.
AllMeetings
(www.allmeetings.com)
Hotel and Meeting Facility Database:
AllMeetings
has 4,000 hotels in its database, less than half of some of the larger listings.
In searching a specific example, Seattle area yielded 42 listings. These
listings were not very complete as well. For example, two of the major meeting
properties in Seattle (the Westin and the Sheraton) were not included. Also,
many of the listings had only very basic information without photos, floor
plans, or other meeting related detail.
Filtering:
Under
the Venue Search, you can filter by region (US only), state and metro area,
minimum capacity, number of guest rooms, star rating, hotel type, and a variety
of amenities (golf, fitness center, business services, etc.).
RFP:
AllMeetings
provides an on-line RFP form that is sent to their in-house site selection
staff. The form is straight forward
asking for meeting space, sleeping room, catering and contact information, and
contact method. A 24 to 48 hours response time is claimed.
Hot
Dates/Rates/Space
The hotels can pay for promotional
packages noted below. For this, they are allowed to list special deals in this
section. However, the listings are not as complete as some other sites.
Searching on the Southwest for the first 3 months of 2000, yielded only 7
results.
Revenue
sources:
Commission:
A
10% commission is charged on all sleeping rooms booked through the RFP or
Special Deal areas.
Listing fees:
Basic
directory listing is free to hotels. This includes property contact information,
rates, 2 images (photo or floor plan), 1,000 character description, meeting room
capacity and sizes, amenity Information, quality ratings and credit card info.
Advance and superior promotional packages for the hotels ($750-1500/year) add
more contacts, photos, hyperlinks and special promotions.
Additional features:
This site takes a different
and quite interesting approach to all of the others. It incorporates a “budget
estimator” right from start asking for air travel information, catering
information, and room rates desired. It then prepares a detailed budget for your
meeting on the fly based on estimated meeting costs will the costs including
airfare, room rates and meals itemi
zed.
The
site also offers eight “meeting
planning checklists” include including everything from
setting up the meeting plan to the after-meeting follow-up.
Convention
Company (www.theconventioncompany.com)
Hotel and Meeting Facility Database:
This
site has no online database.
RFP:
The
online RFP form includes fields for contact information, group history,
location requirements, sleeping
rooms, meeting room information, and group history with several comment boxes
for free form information.
The site is an online lead collection for their in-house site selection firm.
They claim that, due to volume business and experience, they specialize in
negotiating rates that are lower than a client can get on their own.
Hot
Dates/Rates/Space
A
basic list of hotels is included in the Hot Rate/Dates section. For the first
three months
of
2000, only one hotel is listed. There is no charge for the listing.
Revenue
sources:
10%
commission is charged on sleeping rooms booked
Additional features:
There is somewhat annoying
music that is played on the homepage.
EventSource
(www.eventsource.com)
Hotel and Meeting Facility Database:
EventSource
is one of the larger on-line databases with more than 10,000
properties listed. This site is especially good at including non-traditional “unique
spaces” venues with 2,000 non-hotel venues listed.
In searching on venues in the Seattle metro area as an example, 115
venues were listed. The information
about the meeting facilities is quite detailed, including a picture of the
property, a profile and full listing of meeting space dimensions and capacities.
Floor plans are sometimes included. An
interesting feature is the member review section where comments of people who
have used the property are listed.
This database is also accessible through Trade Show Central (www.tscentral.com).
Filtering:
The
facilities can be searched by facility name, city, region, facility type, number
of
guest rooms, golf availability, beach availability, and 4/5 Star/Diamond
rating. Facilities can be sorted by city or facility name.
RFP:
The
“Bookit” feature is an RFP form asking contact information, event dates,
desired location, rate, sleeping rooms, meeting space needed, food and beverage,
and group history. This is
accessible in a number of ways: through general facility searches, from the hot
dates section and from clicking on directly on the “Bookit” link from the
home page.
The RPF form, once filled out and submitted is automatically distributed via
email and batch fax to qualifying hotels. Hotel responses are automatically
forwarded to the planner. EventSource follows up the lead to the hotel and
promises quotes with rates within 24-48 hours via email. With the Event Tracker
feature, a planner can archive and retrieve pasts RFPs to be used for future
events.
Hot
Dates/Rates/Space
EventSource
also has an extensive Hot Date section searchable by city, metro area, region,
state, and country. A search on all hot dates for the year 2000 yielded 1777 listings.
Revenue
sources:
There
is no charge to the hotel or any listing. Revenue
is generated by charging 10% commission to the hotel on gross guestrooms booked.
Additional
features:
On-line
Auction:
This
site has offered the first on-line auction for meeting space in the industry.
Although
the process is early in the development stage, the general procedures is as
follows: The meeting planner desiring to participate in an auction contacts
EventSource who then lines up 4 to 6 equally matched bidders. The auction is
held online in 15-minute time intervals with four rounds of bidding. The hotels
know who the other bidders are, but the online bids are blind except to the
planner. This E-bay approach to purchasing meeting space may be just the ticket,
especially for short-term, small group business. It also may serve to
standardize and streamline the contract process.
Other content:
EventSource also offers a
destination guide: including links for maps, airports, weather, golf courses,
attractions, restaurants, and event supplies.
Hot
Dates/Hot Rates (www.hotdateshotrates.com)
Hotel and Meeting Facility Database::
The
database includes about 1,500 listings (including contracts with Doubletree
hotels). A search of Seattle, for example, yielded 11 properties.
Filtering:
The
database is searchable by city, state/region/country, individual property, and
chain.
RFP and promotional dates and rates:
Hot
dates are also searchable by city, state/region/country, individual property,
and
hotel chain. The RFP’s go directly to hotel via email or fax, or, if desired,
planners can use the Tracker feature, which submits your RFP to Helms Briscoe
Performance Group, a third party site selection firm to do the searching for you
(10 room minimum).
Revenue
sources:
A
listing fee of $8.50 per room annually is charged to hotels. There are no
additional fees or commissions charged to hotels for space bookings, unless the
Tracker feature bringing in Helms Briscoe is used, and then a 10% commission of
room revenue is charged to the hotel.
There are also banner ads available to suppliers as well for up to $500/month.
The
International Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus (IACVB) (www.iacvb.org
and www.officialtravelinfo.com)
IACVB
is currently migrating its database of information from its current web site (www.iacvb.org)
to its new one (www.officialtravelinfo.com)
that is designed for both the meeting professional as well as general traveler.
Hotel
and Meeting Facility Database:
The
www.iacvb.org site features 450 meeting
destinations (the IACVB member sites), but, as the consumer site develops, non-IACVB
member locations will be included as well.
Filtering:
Destination
information (links to IACVB members) can be found by following the links to
IACVB members’ sites broken down and listed alphabetically by US and Non-US
members.
RFP:
Planners
can also submit an on-line RFP by drilling down on a clickable map beginning
with continent to region to state and then city/metro area. You are given
the option of either attaching your existing RFP document or filling out the
on-line RFP form which asks contact information, meeting profile, exhibit
information, service requirements (AV, car rental, golf, etc.), meeting history,
other future meetings, and a general comments section.
Hot
Dates/Rates/Space
No
special deals or promotional dates are offered through this site.
Revenue
sources:
The
site links and RFP process is a benefit to IACVB members. No commissions are
charged for sending RFPs.
Additional
features:
As
the www.iacvb.org is also a member service
site to convention and visitor bureaus, there is substantial additional
information including a meeting industry event calendar and members resources.
Industry
Meeting Network (IMN) (www.industrymeetings.com)
Hotel and Meeting Facility Database:
About
250 luxury properties are listed in by drilling down on a world map.
As an example, drilling to Seattle brings 3 properties.
RFP: The
online form feeds to the staff at IMN to handle the site selection information.
A 48-hour response time is promised.
Hot
Dates/Rates/Space
Specials
are searchable by month or by location. Seven listings were available for the
last three months of 1999.
Revenue
sources:
Revenue
is produced from commission to the hotels
MADSearch
International, Inc (www.madsearch.com)
Hotel
and Meeting Facility Database:
More
than 4,500 meeting facilities are listed in MADSearch’s online database. The
facility search starts with a global map and drills down to desired location. In
checking the Seattle area example, 44 facilities were found. The basic hotel
information generally has basic information such as number of meeting rooms and
largest room square footage.
More
information is listed with the sites using the marketing partnership program
listed below – only one of the hotels in the Seattle example had this expanded
listing. The expanded listings, when available, are fairly comprehensive
including site descriptions, several pictures, meeting space specifications and
diagram, menus, and a hotlink to the facility web site.
Filters:
The
MadSuperSearch has numerous filters including selections for golf, fitness
center and other amenities.
RFP:
A
“Request for Information” form is provided for every property found with
fill-in boxes for contact information, and a general comment box in which to
place the meeting request information. This is provided to the hotel for free
(via email or fax) with a follow-up to the hotel from MADSearch.
Hot
Dates/Rates/Space
Although
the site does not list special rates, it does have a sign-up for a free weekly
email newsletter (distribution 17,000) that features special rates and dates
from properties paying for the expanded marketing package. This email newsletter
model is an effective way of distributing the short-term hot date room
availability and is a widely used resource.
Revenue
sources:
No
commission is charged for leads generated from the site.
Revenue is generated from the hotels participating in the expanded
listing marketing program. The price ranges from $1,000 to $5,000 per year based
on the number of sleeping rooms. With this, hotels can then enter their “hot
dates” and manage other listing information online. Also, advertising in the
newsletter (up to 4 times per year for two weeks at a time) is included in this
marketing program.
Also,
banner ads and pictures are also available at the site ($125/week for the home
page) as well as advertising opportunities on the email newsletter.
Meeting
City Inc. (www.meetingcity.com)
Hotel
and Meeting Facility Database:
This
site claims the largest searchable database of hotels on the web with 60,000
properties. It is especially strong for non-US destinations as well as smaller
properties with minimal meeting space. The individual property detail, however,
is very basic, and does not any information specifically about meeting space.
There
is also and extensive non-hotel supplier database with more than 10,800 listings
in 59 categories.
Filtering:
The
basic search criteria are by city and facility name.
RFP:
On-line
form which feeds to a site-selection service (Windsor Consultants) and requires
a 10-room minimum.
RFPs are provided for meeting facilities, corporate cruises, charters, air
charters, and Caribbean estates,
Hot
Dates/Rates/Space
Not
included
Revenue
sources:
There
is no charge for hotel listing. Banner ads are available at $299 year.
The major revenue producer is the commission (5-10%) charged to the hotels on
room nights booked.
Meeting
Locations (www.meetinglocations.com)
Hotel
and Meeting Facility Database:
1,000
properties are listed in the online database with expansion plans to 1500 by the
end of the year 2000. Four hotels were found when searching Seattle.
Filtering:
Searches
can be narrowed by state, city, total meeting space, square footage for largest
room, and number of peak room nights.
Hot Dates/Rates/Space
Hotel
will have direct access (hotels responsible for)
RFP:
No
RFP module is included.
Revenue
sources:
Basic
listings are free to the hotels. Expanded listing will be available for
$1000/year or $100/month.
MeetingPath
(www.meetingpath.com)
This
is a regional database covering six New England states. It is a collaborative
promotion for 21 regional convention and visitor bureaus. However, this site is
very much worth checking out just for design ideas and, of course, if you are
looking for space in New England.
Hotel and Meeting Facility Database:
500
meeting facilities in 6 New England states are listed. There is extensive
meeting facility detail for some the listings including meeting room
specifications, floor plans, menus, web links, contacts and more.
There
is also an extensive database of other suppliers – 5,000 businesses total in
80 categories.
Filtering:
There
are several drop-down box filters including: facility category (hotels, inns,
conference centers, etc.) state, location, sleeping rooms, number of meeting
rooms, largest meeting room, capacity of largest reception and banquet areas,
and exhibit space.
RFP:
The
cleanly designed and extensive RFP form takes the visitor through seven steps:
contact information, meeting information, response preference, sleeping room
block, optional meeting/banquet requirements, optional exhibit information, and
meeting history. These leads go
directly to the appropriate convention bureau members and are then posted to the
CVB members. Hotels are not charged directly for the RFPs. The RFPs can be
archived and retrieved for future meetings as well.
Hot
Dates/Rates/Space:
This
site has one of the most useful hot dates sections on the web. The STARdates
section lists only short-term dates (12 weeks or less). You choose the region
and the specific week. Once selected, a substantial list of hotels appears with
day-by-day inventories of sleeping room availability. This real-time inventory
is very useful information from a meeting planning perspective!
The planner can then elect to send a message directly to the hotel or select
multiple facilities to send the same RFP to all of them.
Also, there are links to any special promotions and deals as well.
Revenue
sources:
Funding
for this site comes from the CVBs. Also,
there are subscription fees for “preferred listings” for the hotels that
range from $400 to $10,000 annually based on the size of the property and
extensiveness of the listing. The hotels can self-mange their listings by using
password-protected updateable areas on the site.
Additional
features:
A key differentiation of this nicely desinged site is that it tightly integrates
with the CVB sales process – the CVB has total access to the information in
real time.
PlanSoft
(www.plansoft.com)
Hotel and Meeting Facility Database:
Plansoft
has one of the largest facility databases with the most complete meeting
facility information of any site on the web. The site was developed through
funding from MPI, ASAE, Hyatt, Marriott, Sheraton (now Starwood), and GES.
More than 10,000 meeting sites are currently listed. This is rapidly
expanding and should be up to 22,000 by the end of the first quarter of 2000.
Many of the additions are for non-North American venues as well as smaller
meeting properties.
The facility and meeting space information is extensive! It is sites like this
one that will replace paper-based facility guides. The basic listings include:
main phone/fax, sales phone/fax, web address, number and type of sleeping rooms,
location, proximity to convention center and airport, staff directory with
phone/fax/email, and complete listing of meeting space specifications. Also,
meeting industry awards, golf, fitness centers, swimming, tennis, and MPI/ASEA
member affiliations are listed as icons appearing in the initial search.
Enhanced listings provide up to 40 photos, 360°
panoramic views of meeting space, scalable floor plans, maps, and more. The
expanded listing amount to fairly complete meeting facility web sites within the
Plansoft site. In fact, some properties such as Adams Mark, simply link their
sites to the Plansoft database to provide their meeting facility information.
This database can also be accessed through the web sites of Adams Business Media
(www.meetingsnet.com), MPI, ASAE,
Meeting News, and GES.
There is also a searchable supplier database (other than meeting facility
properties) with more than 15,000 supplier listings.
Filtering:
With
one of the most extensive set of filters available, planners can search by
facility name, metro area, region, city, state/province, country, number of
guest rooms, size of largest/second larges meeting space, exhibit space, ceiling
height, special rates, hotel chain, facility type, facility location (airport,
downtown, resort, etc.), and climate information.
The results can be sorted in numerous ways as well – if you want the
list sorted by the largest meeting room, or by hotel chain, or by largest number
of guest rooms – these are but a few of the sorting options.
RFP:
PlanSoft's online RFP form
submission is fully integrated into the hotel & facility search database.
The planner selects the facilities under consideration, creates the RFP and
submits the request immediately to each of those hotels.
The form is quite detailed and the RFP can be archived, retrieved and
copied to automate the process for future meetings. It includes: a group
profile, contact information, dates desired, room block information, event
agenda, and multiple RFP reply and action options.
Once the RFP is sent, a PlanSoft staff will follow up with the hotel to make
sure that the hotels respond in a timely manner.
Hot
Dates/Rates/Space:
PlanSoft has recently added
a “Great Rates” section. These rates can be searched upon by date and rate,
but are automatically included in the general meeting facility information for
specific properties. The dates include specific dates available, a rate range,
and the number of rooms available. As it is early in the implementation, only 22
properties had hot dates for the first three months of 2000.
Revenue
sources:
A
basic listing is free to all hotels and suppliers. Enhanced and premium
marketing packages provide multiple photos, panorama shots, floor plans and much
more for annual fees starting and $1,500 to $5,000. Banner ads are also
available form $70 to $1100/month depending on location of the banner. Also, a
commission of up to 4% of guest room revenue booked through the RFP process is
also a major revenue source.
Additional
features:
In
addition to the above features, PlanSoft offers one of the most extensive
archives of articles for meeting planners on the web. In cooperation with Adams
Business Media and Meeting News, there are hundreds of articles about
facilities, destinations, suppliers, contracts and negotiations.
There are also numerous tips and tools (meeting timelines, meeting room
calculators, contract checklists, contract samples and more). There is also a
complete meeting industry event calendar with 79 listings for the year 2000
alone.
Site
Search 2000 – (www.sitesearch2000.com)
Hotel and
Meeting Facility Database:
The
site as of has 2200 meeting properties in its database, primarily in North
America. The plans are to expand into the Caribbean and Mexico and 5,000 listing
are expected by the end of the year 2000. Hyatt and Wyndham have many of their
properties listed.
RFP:
When
the online RFP form is submitted, it is sent directly via fax machines to all
sites matching the criteria. A verification service (a
follow-up call to the hotels to make sure that the RFP has been received and
being acted upon) is part of the process. This RFP is automatically archived and
can be retrieved and used again for future meetings.
Hot
Dates/Rates/Space:
Once
logged in, the visitor can search for Hot Deals by date, number of rooms,
preferred rates, and largest meeting room.
Revenue
sources:
Listing
Fee:
A
listing fee of $1 per room/year/hotel is charged with a minimum charge of $350
per year. The hotel, once signed up, can access the listing and make changes on
the fly.
There is also a $5 charge for each RFP received with a maximum of $100/month
Hot date listings are added for an additional fee,
Banner ads are available at $1000/month (but must be a subscribing company).
No sales fees or commissions are charged.
Unique
features:
The site requires site visitors to initially sign up, and then log in with
password every time the site is used.
SmartRFP
(www.smartrfp.com)
Hotel
and Meeting Facility Database:
This
site has no online database.
RFP:
The
site is an online lead collection service for a site selection business. The
site claims a 24-48 hour response time to return to you proposals from which you
negotiate the final contract with the facility.
The
cleanly designed RFP form has a number of features. First of all, once you fill
out the your basic profile information, you can archive your RFPs saving time
when you post similar RFP’s in the future. The on-line RFP form includes
fields for contact information, the event (dates, rates, event title), sleeping
rooms, destination (region, property type, hotel brand preference, amenities),
function space needed, and group history.
Hot
Dates/Rates/Space:
No
listings at the present time.
Revenue
sources:
10%
commission on meeting rooms booked.
Unique features:
SmartRFP
is a basic online RFP form site with few other features. However, what makes it
stand out is its clean, easy-to-use design.
StarCite
(www.starcite.com)
This
site just opened on November 30th and has numerous and interesting
features.
Hotel
and Meeting Facility Database:
10,000
meeting properties and 50,000 suppliers are listed.
Filtering:
This
site as multi-level filtering capabilities, but, at first look, does not appear
to list as extensive of facility information as PlanSoft or EventSource.
The
site, however, can be customized to your company at no charge. If you have
preferred vendors, these can be listed with history of past events.
More than 100 companies have already signed up for this at the time of
site debut. ROI and vendor tracking are strong components.
RFP:
With
the “RFP Command Center” users have significant flexibility on how RFPs are
processed. If you have a list
of preferred vendors, for example, the site can be set up to remember them and
distribute as desired.
Hot Dates/Rates/Space:
Hot
offers, cancelled space availability and special promotions are offered.
Revenue
sources:
Hotels
can have a basic listing at no charge. However, there are several levels of
enhanced listing and marketing programs ranging in price from less than $1,000
to $15,000. There are also banner ads and other forms of revenue generation.
Commission:
The
major form of income is through a transaction fee (per room night booked) with
prices ranging from $2.90 to 3.90 per room night booked.
If hotel is a partner in marketing programs, no transaction fee is charged.
Unique
or significant features:
This
site has a number of significant features including personalized individual and
organization sites; meeting management tools and services; and supplier
directories with comprehensive search capabilities.
Online purchasing methods, targeted marketing opportunities, industry
news and community forums will also be included.
A
significant item is the on-line auction, which may revolutionize the way meeting
space is purchased, especially for the short term, smaller meetings.
You sent StarCite.com your RFP and let them know you would like to participate
in an auction. StarCite then contacts the facilities (up to a maximum of 8
bidders) and arranges a day and time that's convenient for everyone to be in
front of their computer when the bidding begins.
As the real-time auction progresses, the planner (buyer) can compare the various
suppliers' bids, which are displayed in a Matrix View on your monitor. This is
updated every time a new bid is entered.
The Matrix View clearly marks which is the current best bid, so a quick glance
will show you who's making the best offer.
While both you and the suppliers can see this information, only the
meeting planner will know who is bidding what - the competitors remain anonymous
to each other. You
can make comments and ask questions throughout the Auction - and receive answers
from the bidders.
In addition to the Matrix View, the auction's progress is tracked in a Graph
View, for a snapshot of the bidding history of any item up for consideration.
In both the Matrix View and the Graph View, announcements will let
participants know how much time remains in the Auction.
Although this is very new technology, the current model then requires the buyer
to choose one of the eight bidders at auctions end.
If you find this article helpful, please let me
know by signing the Guest Book in the Contact
Corbin Section..
BACK TO ARTICLES LIST
|
