CONFERENCE MEETING FACILITIES: VARYING PERCEPTIONS OF HOTELIERS AND CLIENTS Jodi McCoy, University of Northern Colorado ABSTRACT This study examines the differences in what business clients look for in selecting a hotel site for meetings and conferences and what hoteliers perceive as being desired by business customers. Based on the literature, twenty-one of the most frequently mentioned variables were examined in a survey of Colorado hotels and business associations. Analysis revealed that there are differences in the importance of these variables as perceived by hoteliers and business customers. INTRODUCTION Many people do not realize the importance of selecting a hotel site for their meetings, conventions, conferences and retreats. But, a hotel site and everything it offers can either "make" or "break" a business transaction. Variables such as catering service, quality of food, amenities, privacy, group coordinator, and size of the meeting rooms can either irritate the business executive if the variables are considered unsatisfactory, or help the executive make important business decisions if he/she is in a comfortable working atmosphere with extraordinary services. The business person selecting the hotel site must identify the purpose of the meeting as well as the important traits desired before he/she begins searching for a hotel. Then, he/she should choose the hotel that offers most of the important traits desired. The hotel should match the organizer's needs. More and more each day, hoteliers are realizing the importance of catering to small businesses. The market is rapidly growing with groups requiring 30 guest rooms or less, consisting of 10 to 20 people. Hoteliers think that these groups are important because they require assistance in selecting a hotel. For example, larger groups usually have a professional organizer to plan their meetings. But, the smaller groups usually assign a secretary or sales manager to plan the meetings, usually someone with no experience in this field. Hotels are discovering that with small business meetings, they get lots of repeat business if they do a good job catering to their needs. This is where the small numbers add up (1). Previous Research Within the last year, new hotel construction, spurred by favorable tax laws, has been taking place all over the country. With this added space, the hotel industry is beginning to realize that there is a new lucrative market to tap into. Now, not only do hoteliers need to promote themselves to their regular overnight traveling guests, they also need to consider marketing themselves to the business clients and the convention clients. There is a strong demand for meeting space by business clients who use the hotels for meeting, conferences, conventions, and retreats. More than half of all sales in most large U.S. hotels can be attributed to meeting business. In order to utilize their space as efficiently as possible, hoteliers are going to need to learn exactly what their business clients is looking for in a hotel. The factors are numerous and can range from the size of the meeting rooms and the fee for the rooms to the amenities offered

and the quality of food provided. Granted, each business or association utilizing the hotel service will more than likely have heterogeneous needs. Therefore, the hotelier should be specific in classifying his target market so he can best suit their desires. However, several experts have differing views on what exactly the business customer is searching for. Actually, the business customer is searching for a variety of factors in a hotel. One conference organizer, who plans about 500 meetings a month, rated the following five factors in order of importance when selecting a hotel for his group. 1. Personality of the hotel 2. Physical capability of the meeting rooms 3. Price 4. Level of service 5. Distance from the airport (2) Jan Hillman, event director with World Trade Promotions, said that she looks for the following attributes in a hotel: good location, competitive discounts, good exhibition facilities, and decent catering and banquet facilities (3). But when Gerry Niesen, meeting planner for Honeywell Avionics, scouts a hotel, he mostly concentrates on the staff. He wants to know how the hotel people get along with each other, the morale of the hotel, how the staff responds to each other, and how they treat the average customer. So many planners are looking for different traits when selecting a hotel (4). But, sometimes what the planner is searching for will not be offered all in one hotel. "Many professional event organizers claim fundamental differences remain between what the customer needs and what their hosts are prepared to offer (5)." Simon Pearson, director of marketing for Hyatt International's Asia/Pacific sales office, thinks that he needs to offer suitable space, technological support with simultaneous translation, amenities and services, and innovative food, beverage, and theme parties in order to best provide the needs of his meeting planner (6). So, there are likely to be conflicts in what the customer desires and what the hotel has to offer. Besides these factors, one variable seems to remain constant. It seems that the size of the group and the size of the hotel is important to both the customer and the host. It seems that, for the most part, small groups want small hotels and large groups need the larger hotels. Mostly, the small group seem to feel that they can "dominate" the small hotel and, therefore, receive the best service and most attention possible. And the large groups need the larger hotels for the obvious reason that they need more meeting space and guest rooms. It seems to be that whether the group is large of small, they want a hotel that they can "take over" so that they can benefit from extra service. However, in rare cases this is not true. For example, one small group consisting of five members felt that they needed to stay in a large hotel to insure privacy rather than at a small motel or inn where there would be other guests present most of the time (7). One other aspect of size is also important. That is the fact that small groups area becoming increasingly important to hotels for small meetings. "Small groups area 60% of Marriott Meeting Business (8)." These are the groups requiring 30 guest rooms or less. Since the meetings are small, most hoteliers are discovering that non-professional meeting planners are organizing the set-up. These would be people such as secretaries or a vice-president of sales, etc. Many hotels decided to penetrate into this market because they realized that small businesses often return to the hotels that offer the traits they desire (8). This repeat business really starts to add up.

Although there may be controversy on the customer's needs and wants, there is no doubt that the majority of hotels are beginning to discover what a great potential there is for small businesses using hotels for meeting places. For example, the USA-based Marriott Corporation chain recently created a new position in order to cater to this market. The new position is called the executive meetings manager (EMM). This person is responsible for handling all of the details of setting up meetings and conferences for businesses. Some of the things the EMM is responsible for are catering, direct billing, room reservations, and meeting room setups. The new growing market also spurred USA-based InterContinental Hotels to publish a Meeting Planners Guide. "The guide is a 60-page handbook offering checklists and basic instruction on aspects of conference planning such as site selection, financial planning, contracts, and food and beverage (10)." So, the hoteliers do realize that they must become competitive in order to accommodate this market. Research Methodology A questionnaire was developed based on the literature review. The questionnaires were mailed to both hotels and associations in Colorado to determine the differences in what is actually desired by associations using hotels and what hotels perceive as being desired. The results will be discussed in a following section. Sampling Procedure Questionnaires were mailed to 30 hotels and 100 associations, all located in the Denver/Boulder area. Out of the hotels surveyed, 22 were returned for a 73% response rate. The associations had a 40% return rate. The Denver/Boulder area telephone directory was used as the sampling frame for hotels. The Directory of Associations served as the sampling frame for associations. Only the hotels and associations that are considered "small" were evaluated. The hotels that were evaluated did not earn more than $3.5 million average annual gross receipts over three years which meets with the Small Business Administration's definition of small for the hotel industry (11). The associations that were evaluated all stated that they used small hotels for their conference sites. Analysis of Results A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted to determine the differences between what hotels perceive as important and what associations think is important in selecting a hotel site. The twenty-one variables that were developed based on the literature review are listed in Table 1. A MANOVA was appropriate, rather than separate ANOVA's, in order to preserve the alpha level. (12). ------------------------------------------------------------------Table 1 Variables Ranked by Hotels and Associations 1. Number of meeting rooms 2. Size of meeting rooms 3. Fee for meeting rooms 4. Number of guest rooms 5. Rate for guest rooms 6. Audio-visual price

7. Catering service 8. Quality of food 9. Amenities offered (pool, lounge, health club, etc.) 10. Business service--typing, etc. 11. Geographic location of hotel 12. Location of hotel within city 13. Privacy 14. Competitive discounts 15. Good exhibition facilities 16. Reservation facilities 17. In-room video checkout 18. Lockable cupboards/storage 19. Message system 20. Group coordinator 21. Setting and surroundings ------------------------------------------------------------------The MANOVA resulted in an F-value of 1.79 and a p-value of .016 (d.f. = 21). This indicates that the means of the two groups do differ across the twenty-one attributes. Univariate F-tests were conducted to assess whether the group means differed on each of the individual variables. The univariate F-values and the mean ratings on the twenty-one variables are shown in Table 2. Three variables did differ significantly. They are the availability of a group coordinator, amenities offered, and the fee for the meeting rooms. ------------------------------------------------------------------Table 2 Univariate F-values and Mean Ratings Hotel Assoc.

Number of meeting rooms Size of meeting rooms Fee for meeting rooms Number of guest rooms Rate of guest rooms Audio-visual price Catering service Quality of food Amenities (pool, health club, lounge, etc.) Business service--typing, etc. Geographic location of hotel Location of hotel within city Privacy Competitive discounts Good exhibition facilities Reservation facilities In-room video checkout Lockable cupboards/storage

F-Value

Mean

Mean

.2 .78 .01 .28 .40 .14 .87 .34 .002 .16 .20 .52 .12 .79 .38 .40 .68 .68

1.9 1.5 1.9 1.8 1.4 2.7 1.8 1.5 2.1 3.3 1.7 1.8 2.7 2.1 2.3 2.2 3.6 3.3

1.4 1.4 1.2* 2.2 1.2 2.2 1.9 1.8 3.2* 3.8 1.3 2.1 3.4 3.4 2.8 1.9 3.8 3,5

Message system Group coordinator Setting and surroundings

.76 .01 .62

2.5 1.7 1.8

2.7 2.9* 2.0

*Significant difference at alpha = .05 Twenty-one factors regarding hotel traits were examined in this study. A comparison of the importance of factors to associations and hoteliers was conducted. The associations rated the eight variables as being more important than hotels did. These variables include the number of meeting rooms, size of meeting rooms, fee for the meeting rooms, rates for the guest rooms, audio-visual price, geographic location, competitive discounts and reservation facilities. The variables that the hotels viewed as more important than associations did were the number of guest rooms, catering services, location of hotel within the city, privacy, good exhibition facilities, video check-out, lockable storage, message system, group coordinator, and setting and surroundings. The data analysis suggests that hotels and associations did not differ significantly on the importance of these variables. The three variables that differed significantly were the availability of a coordinator, amenities offered, and the fee for the meeting rooms. The hotels thought that the amenities and the group coordinator were more important than the associations thought. Then, the associations felt that the fee for the meeting rooms are more important than the hotels seemed to think. However, other findings in the literature show that the group coordinator is very important to the associations using hotels. Discussion The data analysis suggests that the most significant differences are in the availability of a group coordinator, amenities offered, and the fee for the meeting rooms. Of these three variables, the mean score of hotel respondents was lower on the amenities offered and the availability of a group coordinator. From this study, this indicates that the amenities and group coordinator are not as important to consumers as hoteliers perceived them to be. The questionnaires showed that the associations felt that these variables were only somewhat important, while hoteliers felt that these variables would be very important to their business customers. The mean scores can be found in Table 2. The other variable, the fee for the meeting rooms, is more important to the associations than the hoteliers thought. The hotels' mean is 1.9 whereas the mean for the associations is 1.2, which can also be seen in Table 2. This indicates that the associations feel that this variable is more important than the hoteliers perceived it to be. This study indicates that the hotels need to realize that their customers feel that the fee for the meeting rooms is very important. Perhaps the hotels felt that only the rates for the guest rooms is most important, ranking the fee for the meeting rooms as less important. However, this study suggests that the associations using hotels view the fee for the meeting rooms as very important. Our survey also suggests that the hotels are concentrating strongly on the amenities offered, when the associations do not view this variable as being very important. According to the associations, many other variables are more important than the amenities offered. According to the questionnaire, the associations do not view the availability of a group coordinator as being very important. However, the literature reviewed on this topic states that this is a very important variable to many businesses using hotels for conferences. The

justification for the difference is that the businesses discussed in the literature were large corporations and businesses utilizing large hotels for meeting space, rather than small businesses, or clients using small hotels, as was the case in this study. The results of this study suggest research in other related areas. Suggested areas of investigation include whether or not the availability of a group coordinator and the amenities offered in a hotel are really important variables to associations or business using hotels. Also, finding the importance of the fee for the meeting rooms could be another area of research. The study should be expanded from a local area to a regional or national study utilizing various types of hotel customers in addition to associations. Difference between wants and needs of large and small clients should also be examined. REFERENCES (1) Rounds, Kate. Meetings and Conventions, "Think Big When Negotiating Small Meetings". July 1987, pg. 59. (2) Somerville, Janice. Hotels and Restaurants International. "Increase Meeting Business with Space, Style, and Service." July 1988, pg. 111. (3) Bailey, Thistle. Havmarket Magazines Ltd., "Suite Dreams: Conference organizers are still on the trail". June 2, 1988, pg. 43. (4) Lieberman, Gregg. Meetings and Conventions. "Boardroom Meetings: Haute Places for High-level Aces". October 1988, pg. 26. (5) Bailey, Thistle. Havmarket Magazines Ltd., "Suite Dreams: Conference organizers are still on the trail". June 2, 1988, pg. 43. (6) Somerville, Janice. Hotels and Restaurants International. "Increase Meeting Business with Space, Style, and Service." July 1988, pg. 111. (7) Reamy, Lois. The Institutional Investor. "Conference Hideaways". November 1986, pg. 223. (8) Somerville, Janice. Hotels and Restaurants International. "Increase Meeting Business with Space, Style, and Service." July 1988, pg. 111. (9) Rounds, Kate. Meetings and Conventions. "Think Big When Negotiating Small Meetings". July 1987, pg. 59. (10) Somerville Janice. Hotels and Restaurants International. "Increase Meeting Business with Space, Style and Service." July 1988, pg. 111. (11) Telephone interview with David Leavitt, Assistant Regional Administrator of the Small Business Administration. (12) Hair, J.F., Jr., R.E. Anderson, and R.L. Tatham. Multivariate Data Analysis, Second Edition, New York: MacMillan Publishing Company, 1987.