Why the dedicated conference venue will always win over hotels

Despite the need to tighten their corporate belts during this grim economic climate, many companies are still opting to hold their conference and training events at dedicated conference venues rather than take the cheaper option of renting a hotel room.

So why is this?

In the eyes of a customer, a successful meeting venue must be able to offer four key factors; environment, people, service and facilities. We know that the needs of our customers are totally different to those of a tourist.   Ambience is crucial, and purposes built venues set in calm and peaceful surroundings provide a 100% business-focussed environment, conducive to learning.”

In comparison, hotels primarily offer overnight accommodation for a wide range of customers from transient business visitors to holiday makers.  Because bedrooms, restaurants and bars are the main revenue streams they focus their investment and marketing on these facilities, which are not the primary needs of the business customer.

Ongoing customer focussed training is a key differential between a dedicated venue and a hotel. Dedicated business venues train all staff to understand and service the specialist needs of our business customers. Some hotels believe that if they install video conferencing in a room that normally hosts wedding discos, then they will attract business customers.  We know that it is more important for our customers to have a light and airy purpose–designed meeting room, with air conditioning, data projectors, whiteboards and Wi-Fi as standard fixtures, rather than high tech gizmos which are probably only needed in 2% of bookings.

Peter Smith of London Management Consultants has been using Chartridge for over ten years and explained why he would not use a hotel again for his business events..  “Although hotels make rooms available for business meetings, they are not geared up for the business customer.  Their staff don’t understand our needs, it’s the little things that matter such as doors flung open at 10.30 for coffee because that’s the time it was ordered, whether we are ready or not; children running up and down the corridors and extraneous noise from the bar, all of which disrupts the smooth flow of the event.” 

Peter added  “Chartridge have well trained staff who understand what I want and what I am trying to achieve, and who work with me to make my event easy and stress free. In a hotel lunch can be a real problem as time is crucial.  At Chartridge, no matter whether it is a hot or cold lunch we can be in and out of the restaurant in 30 minutes.  This means my delegates can have half an hour for fresh air and checking their emails before returning to the meeting room.  Dedicated venues are really geared up so the trainer can give the maximum time to delegates.  There have been instances where the hotel has told the trainer that, despite the fact that all his expensive equipment was set up in the room, he had to be out by 6pm because it was needed for another function, which is disconcerting to say the least!”

Customers are becoming ‘foodies’ and now want good quality dishes served brasserie-style in a restaurant which is specifically for residential delegates. Chartridge have targeted that need and focussed on providing quality food using local suppliers whenever possible.

At Chartridge we have also seen a change in client mix.  There is a marked reduction in business from large companies and local government departments, but an increase in business from the retail sector which has become more focused on customer service and sales training.  Emphasis is now placed on improving business performance rather than management and skills development

Despite the fact that multi-usage venues such as sporting venues are now competing in the commercial meetings market, they are not considered a threat by dedicated venues.  Choice for many businesses holding general management and training meetings.  Multi-faceted centres such as the Emirates Stadium at Arsenal may be good for large conferences, but by trying to be all things to all men, they fail to focus on the specific needs of the smaller business customer.

We believe that the market will continue to change and this is reflected in the different products now available from Chartridge.  Our customers no longer want standard packages, they want flexible ‘mix and match’ packages tailored to their needs..  We recently introduced our ‘coffee morning’ package for micro meetings, and this has been well received by customers looking for a venue for short informal off site meetings.

I believe that the dedicated venue can be summed up as a business centre for business people.  I am confident that as long as we continue to give our customers what they want, then dedicated conference centre will always be the venue of choice for business customers.

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