Date: Mon, 17 Nov 2003 13:30:44 -0500
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
From: Elspeth Kovar <ekovar at worldnet.att.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: I have reservations
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

At 11:11 PM 11/16/03, Keith F. Lynch wrote:
>Samuel Lubell <lubell at boo.net> wrote:
>
> > Unfortunately, for several days the hotel was telling people the
> > block was full when it wasn't.  This puts us in a bad position.

>Do we have proof that people were told this by the hotel?  If so,
>could it be used to excuse us from a failure to meet the room block?

It certainly may help but will take some work.  They'll need documentation
rather than word-of-mouth: the dates that people were being told that the
hotel is full, emails from people saying that they're sorry that they won't
be able to make it because they couldn't get rooms, when the hotel was
contacted to get the block reopened, who was contacted, who was responsible
for the error, etc..

If the pickup is close to one of the break points, those being 50%, 75%,
80%, 85%, 100%, and 120%, it may be enough to get them over the line.  A
lot of that depends on how solid the relationship is between the liaison
and the hotel, particularly the CSM (Convention Service Manager, at smaller
hotels often the same as the sales rep) but other factors apply.

One of them is how full the hotel is.  In theory attrition (or penalty)
clauses are written so that a hotel doesn't lose revenue from having set
aside a block of rooms for a convention that then doesn't use them, which
could have been sold to other people.  Many contracts have a clause saying
that the hotel will make every effort to sell these unsold rooms.  In this
case, with the block not closing until the day before the convention
starts, having such a clause probably wouldn't help.

Useful data for arguing this point is how full the house is on each night
compared to how many rooms they have. Depending on the percentage, high or
low, there are ways of going about it but that information will be needed.

Also useful is knowing how other hotels in the market are doing.  There are
about six hotels in that area  (See below.)  The Days Inn and Travelodge,
depending on how useful their numbers are, can be eliminated as not being
comparable hotels.  The numbers can be gotten from the hotels but the
Montgomery County CVB - http://www.cvbmontco.com/ - would probably be the
best place to start.  I worked with Sharon Groff, their sales manager, a
couple of years ago when first trying to find hotels for Capclave and she's
good.

Also useful is the getting the revenue from the bar and restaurant compared
to comparable weekends.

So there are several things that might -- that's might -- get Capclave to
the break points.  The best, obviously, is people taking rooms.  Another is
the convention buying rooms when that's determined to be cost
effective.  The third is getting sufficient data and successfully
negotiating.  Sam and Peggy Rae may have to make a choice between buying
rooms and hoping that they can do that.

All of this, obviously, depends on getting the needed data as quickly as
possible.

For what it's worth, Torcon did manage to get the Royal York to forgo
attrition.  There was a good, solid relationship between the hotel
management and the liaison, which had been carefully built over some
time.  That was also a case where we brought in a *lot* of revenue, the
other hotels were full, and the Toronto market was in a documented slump
because of SARS.  Using all of that, the Torcon folks and the hotel reached
an agreement.

Elspeth

Days Inn - Silver Spring
-  8040 13th St

Ramada Limited Silver Spring
-  7990 Georgia Ave

Travelodge - Silver Spring
-  8040 13th St Bldg A

Courtyard By Marriott Silver Spring
-  12521 Prosperity Dr

Hilton Hotel - Silver Spring/Washington
-  8727 Colesville Rd Book Reservations

Holiday Inn Washington Silver Springmd
-  8777 Georgia Ave (rt. 97)