I was working in a travel MNC a couple of years ago. We always used to plan our annual meetings somewhere at a tourist destination.
For that, we needed a good hotel/resort with meeting rooms. We tried various online and offline channels to find a perfect property, but that wasn’t easy.
Every time we liked a property, one or the other nook gave it a red flag. Sometimes the meeting rooms didn’t have enough capacity or lacked the gadgets we required for our presentation. And, if everything else was fine, the budget became an issue.
It took us a while, but finally, we found a property that matched our requirements and expectations. But I wondered why meeting room bookings are so underrated even though they form an integral part of banquet sales.
So, in this blog, I will address some unique ways to increase meeting room bookings for maximizing your hotel’s revenue.
Table of Content
How hotels can increase meeting room bookings?
You can sell hotel meeting space either as an independent area or clubbed with accommodation facilities for better benefits. Let’s take a look at the ways that can help in maximising your meeting room sales.
1. Move beyond corporates
Hoteliers often believe that the only way meeting rooms can be booked is by pitching out to corporate companies. However, that’s far from reality.
There are many other guests who look for hotels with conference room facilities, such as schools (for annual teachers meet), government offices (to host retirement parties), college students (for get-togethers or any other celebration).
For instance, in India, after the 1st wave of covid, the government has restricted the guest count for marriages and other events between 15 to 50. So, hotels can market their meeting rooms among guests for such small informal functions.
There’s another segment that can be beneficial for you. Whenever military personnel turn veterans, a toasting ceremony is held in their honour for their service to the nation.
For such functions, the military boards look for conference halls that can serve food and alcohol, with the provision of a toastmaster to raise a toast. If you can successfully strike a deal with them, you are sure to get recurring business (considering your hotel provides an impeccable experience to them).
2. Adopt co-working culture
Offering your hotel’s conference room as a co-working space is another smart way to increase meeting room bookings. In fact, co-working culture is trending these days.
We should thank the start-ups for being the driving force behind this innovation.
Start-ups are usually on a strict budget. For a product to be launched, marketed, and sold it takes a lot of time, manpower, and money. Moreover, for meeting with clients, they need to have a well-maintained office which is an add-on expense.
To address this problem, the co-working concept came into existence. It allowed start-ups to work from well-maintained and fully-furnished offices in a sharing model.
Hotels can offer their meeting room as co-working space to such companies. You can charge them on a per seat basis.
Let’s say, you have a meeting room that can accommodate 20 people. So, you can calculate the amount per seat for a period of a month (excluding weekends and holidays). Don’t forget to include any maintenance costs, service charges, and any other additional fees.
You can refer to this post for more inspiration.
3. Invest in advance gadgets
We all say that technology has made our lives easier, but have we adapted to the latest one?
Meeting rooms need to have certain facilities like a smart tv/monitor for presentation, high speed internet (such as giga fibre), and a casting device.
Hotels need to check on such trends and adopt accordingly.
4. Focus on providing experience
Experience is one of the prime components that compel guests to choose your property again. This applies to meeting rooms as well.
Just by investing in some small steps, you can deliver a perfect guest experience. Try things such as:
- Providing hot or cold beverages on request (you opt for installing vending machines)
- Keep stationeries
- Serene atmosphere
- Comfortable sitting arrangements
- Regularly cleaned washrooms
Such small things improve guests’ experience leading to maximum retention and thereby increases meeting room bookings.
5. Ease-out the booking process
Nowadays, almost everything can be booked online; be it, food, flights, or any product. Hotels should also utilise online platforms to increase meeting room bookings.
When I say online platforms, it includes your hotel’s website, metasearch engines as well as OTAs. Here are some of the well-known OTAs that facilitate meeting room bookings:
Although it might cost you a certain commission, the booking flow would surely be better. For maximising meeting room bookings from your website, you need to focus on optimising it for SEO.
Let me explain about it in the next point.
6. Use SEO to be in search results
For any business to appear among the top search results, SEO optimisation is a crucial step. It’s easy, just update relevant keywords and PAA (People also ask) in your hotel website’s content.
Let’s say you have a conference room with a seating capacity for 15 pax. So, you ideal keywords should be:
- Book meeting room
- Meeting room for 15 people
- Conference room
- Sales Conferences
- Business Meetings
- Venue for function
- Conference Organisers
- Meeting Rooms
Here’s a free keyword finder tool you can use for a better website SEO optimisation.
Google Keyword Research Tool
Also, focus on local SEO. It’ll help you garner attention among guests looking to book meeting rooms in the vicinity. However, don’t go gaga over the keywords as too much stuffing would jeopardise the entire purpose.
7. Advertise on social media
Social media has reformed the way businesses approach customers. It has become a platform for connecting with their target audience and promoting their products across the world for free.
Hoteliers can leverage social media to maximise their meeting room bookings. How?
Well, it becomes easy if you have a Facebook page. You can start by creating a post about your hotel’s meeting room and use relevant hashtags for better reach.
Alternatively, if you are opting for co-working space, you can connect with such service providers and they can share your listing on their page. In fact, if you promote your meeting space on their Instagram page, it would reach a wider audience.
Moreover, with the book now option, guests can easily book a meeting room or contact you for their enquiries. If you want better visibility, you can promote your hotel’s page using Facebook ads.
8. Promote with banquet halls
Many hotels promote banquet halls over meeting rooms to capture a lead with maximum guest count. But it shouldn’t be that way. Remember,
Little drops of water, make the mighty ocean.
Julia Carney, Little Things
As I said earlier, meeting rooms are not just limited to hosting formal events, you can utilise them for other informal functions.
While promoting banquet halls, keep meeting rooms as a viable option. It’ll intrigue the guests looking forward to hosting a small celebration.
Ensure you leave no stones unturned in your efforts.
9. Try meeting room booking software
Hospitality industry is now becoming tech savvy. We have a software dedicated for almost everything, be it for booking rooms, managing revenue, improving online reputation, or any other task.
Now, there are various meeting room booking software available in the market. What are those?
Like a PMS, these software assist you in managing your meeting room by updating the schedule, analyse monthly performance, and provide assistance with other sales tasks.
Such meeting room booking software can help you in saving time as well as the arduous task of managing inventory and enquiries.
I would recommend you check this list of software providers, if you are looking forward to investing in it.
Meeting Room Booking Software to invest in 2021
Conclusion
Meeting rooms are similar to other verticals of the hospitality industry that require different sets of strategies for a fruitful business. They might seem too small considering their limited seating capacities, but they can generate a good revenue if marketed properly.
So, what are you waiting for? Deploy these strategies and see an increase in meeting room bookings yourself.
