Convention Connections’ founder Diane Malloy has 18 years of experience negotiating hotel and convention center contracts. Following are 5 tips to get the most traction from your negotiations.
 1) Never accept a standard hotel contract. Standard hotel contracts are typically one-sided to benefit the hotel. Multiple performance-driven clauses that are written in favor of the hotel are typically included in the hotel’s contract. Make sure you understand all of these clauses before signing the contract.
2) Fully understand the value and history of your event. It is important to know how your meeting has performed in the past as related to what you are requesting in the contract. Hotels will become much more agreeable to items in the contract if you have a proven history. Specifically, make sure to track your room pickup, food and beverage expenditures, audio visual expenditures, shipping costs and any other ancillary costs.
3) Request that the hotel assign meeting room names in the contract. In most hotel contracts, they will only list your agenda with the type of room set-up and the number of people anticipated in attendance for each function. If pushed, the hotel will sometimes identify the meeting room assignments by name in the contract. It is very important to crosscheck their meeting space assignment with their capacity charts.
4) Always have multiple options available to leverage your business. Having multiple options creates a more competitive bid environment. There is nothing better than having a Plan B when negotiating with the hotel that you prefer.
5) Remember: Everything is negotiable. This is an overused phrase, but when you review the contract provided by the hotel, look at each contract clause and prioritize what items are most important to you. Yes, rate is important, but there are many other items that hotels will negotiate to earn your business.
