Hotel professionals are always on a look out for the latest insights to understand what really matters to meeting and event planners when sourcing event venues. What influences the planner decision-making process can help hoteliers to enhance the effectiveness of their sales, marketing and event support teams, as well as improve their client services.
To discover planner sourcing behaviours and equip our hospitality partners with important insights, Cvent surveyed meeting and event planners across Europe, Africa and the Middle East (EMEA) in the autumn of 2017, and launched Cvent’s 2018 Global Planner Sourcing Survey Report – EMEA Chapter. The report unveils responses from over 500 planners and provides a glimpse of what they’re truly looking for when sourcing, choosing and working with the perfect venue. The survey respondents include:
- 50% — Corporate Planners
- 20% — Third-party Planners
- 17% — Social/Occasional Planners
- 7% — Association Planners
- 6% — Others
The findings of this report are extremely valuable for hoteliers as it will allow them to understand how they can partner with planners to deliver unforgettable meetings and events.
So, let’s dive into the key takeaways from the report!
- Venue sourcing process continues to go digital – 18% of the EMEA survey respondents ranked Search Engines highest amongst all other venue sourcing influence factors. For hotels, venues and destinations, this means that it’s vital to ensure a strong online presence so that their brand has high digital visibility. This will make Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), paid digital marketing, and social media marketing even more significant.
- Only 13% of EMEA planners are sure of the venue at the start of the sourcing process – That’s the greatest opportunity for all the MICE hotels and venues in the region. With a stronger digital presence and a great marketing plan, hotels and venues can maximise their share of MICE business. This also means that hotels and venues should not ignore an RFP just because they lost that group’s business previously.
- Price is a huge deciding factor — 81% of the planners said that they would switch to their second-choice venue for cost saving of at least 1%. Therefore, hotels and venues must market their competitive deals and discounts to attract a greater share of the business. Survey respondents also count transparent pricing, accurate quotes and quick response to RFPs as other important factors that influence their booking decision.
- Planners are looking for unique atmospheres and experiences – The second highest reason (39%) a planner would not return to a venue (after venue variety) is venues’ limited ability to support networking or experiential activities. With planners listing live music and entertainment, social media displays and attendee messaging as their top three strategies for memorable experiences, hotels and venues need to consider adapting to this new opportunity to monetise their flexible and customisable MICE space. Ask yourself is your venue’s Wi-Fi fast enough? Do you offer adaptable networking spaces?
Our survey report compiles planners’ preferences during their venue sourcing process — from deciding the event budget to hotel’s RFP response. The report will also chalk out the differences between 2017 and 2018’s results, along with suggested areas of improvements for hotels from the viewpoint of meetings and events planners – take a look, you might be surprised!
Check out the in-depth report here
