Best of the Best:INSIGHTS FROM CVENT’S TOP 3 MEETING HOTELS

To be the best at group business, start here:

1. Make the customer the top priority – always.2. Apply a consistent and optimized approach to group business sales and marketing.3. Know your hotel, and continually invest in the experience.

In part, this simple approach is how the Omni Nashville, JW Marriott Austin, and Aria Hotel and Casino have made it to the top of Cvent’s 2019 Top Meeting Hotels list. Compiled by analyzing meeting and event booking activity through the Cvent Supplier Network (CSN), the annual list ranks hotels based on group business performance according to criteria such as total requests for proposals (RFPs) and conversion rate.

As a result, these are the “Best of the Best” for 2019.

We sat down with leaders from all three hotels to learn a little more about what they do. All three offered unique and practical ideas about what makes a successful group event operation – and how other hotels should consider applying best practices to their own group efforts. Ultimately, each conversation centered around three points: be first, always be friendly, and commit to the evolution of the venue experience. Even though each hotel is fundamentally different (Music City vs. Keep Austin Weird…and Viva Las Vegas!) all touched on similar points, such as the application of technology, the keys to a good site visit, and the importance of establishing a human connection. The priorities and tactics applied and suggested by each serve as good ideas and positive reminders of how to best grow and own group business.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Omni Nashville: Technology Powers a Human Connection

JW Marriott Austin: The Science of Success

Aria Hotel and Casino: Excellence by Analysis

Cvent’s Top Meeting Hotels

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INCREASE IN AWARDED RFPs35%KEY 2018 RESULT

#1: OMNI NASHVILLE: TECHNOLOGY POWERS A HUMAN CONNECTION

When Omni builds a hotel, they always do something new – and original. It’s part of the company’s local color commitment and one of the reasons why the Omni Nashville is unique. After all, it’s all about Music City, southern cuisine and homemade Pimento cheese.

But that doesn’t make the Omni Nashville a one-of-a-kind meeting hotel.

It’s the people who do that. After all, anyone can build a beautiful building, and serve a fine dinner. It’s the experience that makes a difference – and that comes from people. At the Omni Nashville, everyone is a part of one team, with one goal: to make every single guest feel something special so they want to come back again.

We spoke with Tod Roadarmel, area director of sales and marketing, and Cindy Berdan, director of sales, to pick up a few of the best practices driving their success as a Cvent Top Meeting Hotel. The verdict? It’s all about connecting with people in meaningful ways – and using technology to power that experience.

What’s Your ‘Top Meeting Hotel’ Approach?

Collaboration and communication are the keys to learn how to move forward with group business. Here’s an example: Every single workday at 8:15 am, pretty much all teams go through every single lead that came in the day before – as well as interesting new business. In that daily review, we look at the business model of the hotel, the pattern, and history – to understand the fit. It’s very strategic, very analytic and very collaborative. We make decisions as a team; we train and teach, and we work together to create the right site visit and plan.

INCREASE IN AWARDEDRFP VALUE TO $20M121%

#1: OMNI NASHVILLE: TECHNOLOGY POWERS A HUMAN CONNECTION

What About the Planner Experience?

Well, we have a beautiful hotel. And that helps, especially with the site visit.

Which is the most important thing: having a transformative site visit that starts a relationship. Don’t just sell to them! You can’t just look at the RFP and give a quote. No. Sit down and spend some time with the planner. Understand their perspective and goals and get to know them a little… then follow up. If you make an experience special – if you make the planner feel special – they will remember.

How Does Technology Help You “Grow and Own” Your Group Business?

We remember the days when we would get faxed RFPs! And we find it very fortunate that the vast majority of all our leads now come through Cvent. Sales knows the platform, market research coordinators know it, and that familiarity helps us find options that cover open time slots.

Using technology gives us options. And options give us power.

One way technology helps us is by managing the business we currently have. And by managing our business, we mean making the most of our opportunities. For example, many times we get leads that seem like they won’t go anywhere…maybe we don’t have the availability, or there’s another factor we can’t solve. Technology helps us find a different pattern or an alternate solution. Then, we have a chance to make a connection, talk about the program and see how we can optimize the group experience. Once we’ve engaged and we have created that next step – when they come in for the site visit – we want to create “wow” moments and show the uniqueness of the Omni Nashville experience.

BEST PRACTICE, OMNI NASHVILLE STYLE

“When a lead comes in, drop what you’re doing. It’s simple. They’re sending it to you for a reason, so it should be your team’s number one priority. Jump on it right away – no excuses! And when you do connect, offer solutions to the customer and respect their time line. That’s the best way to build a relationship.”

TOD ROADARMELArea Director of Sales & Marketing

CINDY BERDANDirector of Sales

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#2: JW MARRIOTT AUSTIN: THE SCIENCE OF SUCCESS

Looking to take a large group to Austin? It’s likely you’ll wind up at the JW Marriott. Granted, it’s among the largest properties in the area – and one that caters to large groups and conference-goers. But it’s also because the hotel is located right at the heart of this dynamic city – at the center of all things Austin, whether that’s live music, street eats or SXSW. The JW Marriott is the place that’s always just next door in a city that has made neighborly experiences commonplace.

Being at the center of this richly unique downtown poses its share of challenges, however. It’s hard to stand out when you’re surrounded by special experiences; the goal becomes less about isolating the Austin experience to moments spent on property and more about facilitating unique off property excursions that allow new groups and conventions to embrace and explore Austin culture in a more authentic, hands on format.

We spoke with Matthew Inabinett, director of sales and marketing, to pick up a few of the best practices driving their success as a Cvent Top Meeting Hotel. The verdict? The science behind JW Marriott’s success is built on patterns, consistency and technology that helps drive meeting business forward.

What’s Your ‘Top Meeting Hotel’ Approach?

For starters, it’s about having a true sense of client needs and understanding how to utilize pattern management to meet the goals of both the group and the hotel.

Working closely with our planners to understand their date and pattern flexibility is integral to the success of the hotel and allows our sales team some flexibility in meeting the client’s needs if alternate dates or pattern are considered. We also don’t focus too much on the competition. We look at our own performance – and improve. Things like lead management, group rate, food and beverage, they get day-by-day analysis. Simply put: Know what you’re up against and know what your planners are shopping for. Most of all, make sure you’re set up to meet those needs.

TOTAL INCREMENTAL REVENUE GAINS THROUGH PASSSKEY$1,247,534KEY

RESULT

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#2: JW MARRIOTT AUSTIN: THE SCIENCE OF SUCCESS

What About the Planner Experience?

If it’s all about the experience – and you’re sitting in the middle of Austin – how can we improve on that? We don’t.

So, what we do is first make sure our planners are happy (and our guests) by executing on the basics. If you can’t get those done, the whole experience part falls apart and you lose the planner relationship. Then we map the diversity of Austin experiences to great ideas that make planners want to come back. Here’s an example: We had a large group that had been with us for three years. We had always tried to do something unique, but that third year – we wanted more. So, we worked with their team of planners and came up with a street festival idea. We literally closed the street in front of the hotel and had a party.

How does Technology Help You “Grow and Own” Your Group Business?

Technology is hugely important. Lead management, room block management, and business intelligence, all help us optimize and create efficiencies. It’s used in all aspects of our group operations and is increasingly a vital part of revenue growth and enhancing the group attendee experience. A perfect example is Cvent Passkey: we’ve done a terrific job of figuring out how to enhance the group reservation experience by ensuring optional experiences are “on the shelf” at the time of booking. For example, if and when we have hotel room availability for nights before or after a groups contracted arrival date, we ensure primary inventory is loaded via passkey which allows the guest to add pre or post nights at the time of their booking without the hassle of contacting reservations via telephone. Additionally, group guests can pre-purchase Spa by JW gift cards, guaranteed early arrival, or even a late departure. Promotional Cubes are used to inform future guests of upcoming city-wide or hotel specific events happening during their group dates. When it comes to technology, our advice is to push Cvent Passkey to all planners.

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BEST PRACTICE, JW MARRIOTT AUSTIN STYLE

“Be the first to respond and take the time to genuinely understand the clients specific demands. Getting to the planners first, that’s something I really stress to my team – along with the expectation that they are all over leads. I can’t tell you how many times being first has won group business for us. It’s the same with providing options; if you don’t have the dates, give options…in a popular destination like Austin, having options ready to present to planners is practically a requirement so ensuring you have an in-depth understanding of their unique challenges and needs empowers our sales team to find unique options to offer the planner.”

MATTHEW INABINETTDirector of Sales and Marketing 7

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#3: ARIA RESORT AND CASINO: EXCELLENCE BY ANALYSIS

Aria is the kind of place where you want to linger. Located in Las Vegas, its design keeps it fresh, and unique, compared to the rest of the hotels in the city. It’s just not like anything else around. It’s a calming breath of fresh air in a busy city of bright lights.

All of which is by design.

MGM Resorts set out to build Aria as an alternative experience focused on conventions. As such, Aria was made to be a friendly, convenient high-end corporate type of hotel, with plenty of natural sky and breathable places. It’s in the little things: Aria guests are less than a five-minute walk from sleeping room to convention, for example. And the hotel’s world class restaurants are within easy reach. It’s all because the Aria customer is paying a premium – and getting an exceptional experience.

We spoke with Tony Yousfi, Vice President of Sales, to pick up a few of the best practices driving their success as a Cvent Top Meeting Hotel. The verdict? The secret behind Aria’s success is built on the careful and strategic study of analytics and insights.

What’s Your ‘Top Meeting Hotel’ Approach?

From the hotel perspective, things are always changing. That means, to me, that we must always have our foot on the throttle just to keep pace. So much change at such a fast pace, tells me that tomorrow’s Top Meeting Hotels will be constantly upgrading their venues, applying an analytical approach, and making sure they are prepared to meet the needs of planners and attendees. People are constantly changing, and hotels need to keep pace.

OF LIFETIME BIDS ARE THE FIRST 3 BIDS A PLANNER RECEIVES AND ARE OVER 57% OF AWARDED BIDS.36%KEY

RESULTFASTER BID RATE THAN COMP-SET OVER PAST 12 MONTHS.27%

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#3: ARIA RESORT AND CASINO: EXCELLENCE BY ANALYSIS

What About the Planner Experience?

When planners come to Aria, they come for a flawless event.

And you can only achieve that when people are able to touch someone. As great as technology is, planners need to express what they want, look someone in the eye, and explain it to them. On that basis, we want to completely engage with our planners and understand their business, the corporate meeting they are trying to achieve, and how we can bring the show to their event.

How Does Technology Help You “Grow and Own” Your Group Business?

The first thing is that technology is only as good as the people utilizing it. It’s important that everyone know how to leverage the power of technology – especially when it comes to analytics and marketing. Both are crucial to our success. It’s about fine tuning and understanding what the data means.

I’m not just talking response rate – though that is very important. We understand that the first six properties that respond have a 30% better chance of winning the RFP. What I’m talking about is in leveraging analytics to develop a strategic plan. For example, let’s say we aren’t doing well with smaller social events. Is it because of availability, or resources? If we’re letting those opportunities go because we can’t get to them, maybe there is a person we can hire to capture that business. Analytics also showed us that we were missing some opportunities in west coast tier 2 cities – and we were able to adjust our marketing in those areas.

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BEST PRACTICE, ARIA STYLE

“Three things are most important when it comes to best practice: First, you have to listen to and understand the golden objectives of your customers. Next, you must study and identify who you are as a hotel – and how you should best cater to the right needs and wants of customers based on that. That’s especially important if you focus on group business. Finally, you have to continually invest in your property.”

TONY YOUSFIVice President of Sales

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2019 CVENT TOP MEETING HOTELSThe 2019 Cvent Top Meeting Hotel lists are compiled by analyzing meeting and event booking activity through the Cvent Supplier Network (CSN), one of the world’s largest venue sourcing platforms. More than $16 billion and more than 42 million room nights were sourced through the CSN in 2018. Cvent’s Top Meeting Hotels lists rank hotels based on group business performance according to various criteria, including total requests for proposals (RFPs) and conversion rate.

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2019 CVENT TOP MEETING HOTELS: POPULAR FEATURESCvent has compiled Top Meeting Hotel lists based on increased demand and buyer preferences, shown in commonly searched attributes such as meeting space square footage, and more.

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ABOUT CVENT

Cvent is the global meeting, event, travel, and hospitality technology leader. Cvent provides easy-to-use, integrated technology solutions to maximize the impact of meetings and events of all sizes. We help organizations plan and market events, execute onsite, engage audiences, and measure and analyze results.

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