Westchester”™s hotels still have the “For Rent” sign hanging from the doors of their business meeting rooms. They say bookings of business meetings are running at about the same pace as last year, but events are shorter in duration, booked closer to the start date and contain fewer meals, coffee breaks and attendees.
“I recently attended a webinar from one of our vendors,” said Ana Barreto, director of sales and marketing at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Tarrytown. “They said there are more meetings going on, but they are spending less money, less time and having fewer people. We see the same thing.”
Barreto also said the booking window ”“ the number of days from the initial request to the day of the meeting ”“ is down. “It used to be 250 days, now it”™s 150. For large meetings of 100 people or more, they used to book six months out, now it”™s four months out.” She said companies are much more budget-conscious than they used to be. “They”™re cutting breaks in the afternoon, coming in at lunch instead of in the morning, then starting the next day.”
But most importantly, said Barreto, concessions are driving event planners”™ decisions.
“The top meeting planners say their decisions are made based on flexibility, especially on dates.” She said at one time, before the recession, the hotel would not book a meeting to start on Wednesday, because it would displace transient business. “But now, since it is so competitive, at slow times of the year, like January and February, we will make a concession.”
Another big issue, she said, is attrition, that if a company books a meeting for a certain number of people, it has to supply, or pay for, a minimum number of people. And rates on Wednesday were traditionally higher, she said, but now that is flexible too at slower times of the year. Other offerings include complimentary rooms ”“ one room free per 50 paid, for instance ”“ and free Internet service.
She also said being on top of your email is where it”™s at right now. At the webinar, she said it was noted that 33 percent of the leads generated went to the hotels that answered within six hours of the request.
As for how all this works out financially, “We are ahead on corporate meetings in terms of profit and revenue from it. But we are flat in this hotel because the social market ”“ weddings ”“ is not as strong as last year.” She said revenue from the corporate business from January to May 2012 is up 7 or 8 percent from the same period last year.
Dan Conte, general manager of the Westchester Marriott in Tarrytown, said the year started out a little stronger, then slowed down, mimicking the fortunes of the economy.
“The economy was pumped up a little, showing some stability, but as concerns about Europe started picking up bookings slowed down as well,” he said. “Our industry suffers the same as many industries from a lack of confidence. Companies hold back on travel. Year over year in general terms we”™re equal to last year. We”™re crawling back, but it”™s certainly of no significance.”
One statistic that is significant is the average hotel room rate in Westchester. According to statistics from Natasha Caputo, the county”™s director of tourism and film, the rate is $143.16 so far in 2012. In 2008, it was $167.59.
“That”™s a $24 drop, a 15 percent decline. Even one or two dollars is big to a hotel. This is huge, it”™s unheard of. If a hotel has 30,000 room rentals a year for groups that”™s $735,000 in profit lost on group rooms,” Conte said. Business meetings, he said, are 30 to 40 percent of the business to many hotels.
At the Tarrytown House Estate and Conference Center, Joe Santore, the general manager and former president of the Westchester Hotel Association, said, “We saw a modest rebound in 2011 and are still seeing improvement this year. And for the second half of the year, we”™re seeing about a 6 percent increase in bookings over what we had last year.”
He confirmed the meeting trends mentioned by other hotel managers, but said, “We”™re also seeing longer days during meetings. Sessions are starting at 7 to 7:30 a.m. and continuing until after dinner. Companies are trying to get as much productivity out of their meeting time as they can since the recession.”
