Effective Hotel Negotiating Means Doing Things Early

Many inexperienced individuals, when dealing with hotels and their banquet/ food and beverage department, falsely believe that there is no urgency to agreeing to terms. In the last three decades, I've witnessed how costly this can be. I have observed these individuals request information, and fail to assure that their request was followed through on in a timely manner. I have witnessed these individuals adopt the attitude that they had a terrific relationship with the Event Manager assigned to them, only to end up either being disappointed by that individual, or even more often, that individual "moving on" from their position. Many positions in hotel's food and beverage and event management departments are often transitional, and the reason that so many of these individuals are so young and energetic when you meet them, is that they are "auditioning" and getting experience for a better opportunity. While this is often the nature of the industry, and you have no control over that aspect, experienced negotiators realize the importance of negotiating thoroughly, getting the best deal possible on a "win-win" basis, and never assuming anything. Everything must be in writing, and you need to save all correspondence, both written as well as digital/ electronic. It is therefore essential that you review all confirmations and commitments carefully and thoroughly, and make sure that the terms, etc., are all "crystal clear" to anyone looking at the correspondence.

Failure to do the above steps puts an organization holding in event at the "mercy" of the hotel - - never a smart position to be placed in. I have often "cringed" while listening to inexperienced, naive individuals say that they didn't need that, or that they feared it might offend, as their explanation of why they didn't follow the proper and effective protocol. Unfortunately, because of the fact that so many of an organization's leaders are inadequately trained, they "innocently" make extremely costly errors in judgment. These individuals should come to realize that it is often difficult enough to get everything you expect from a hotel, even if you take every precaution, and that if you don't, the results are often far less than ideal. These individuals should realize that hotels are businesses, and while they will honor the terms of their contracts (in almost all cases), failure to "lock things up" properly, getting the "I's" dotted and the "T's" crossed, can give the hotel an undesirable advantage.

It is also important to lock up details of a future event, especially in times when the hotel industry is experiencing less than "ideal" circumstances. Negotiators have to realize that the Food and Beverage division of a hotel traditionally experiences the second greatest profitability for the property (the bar is first, of course), and thus, an experienced negotiator can discuss various methods that might be used to reduce the hotels costs without negatively impacting event quality, and thus give the hotel some "wiggle room" to offer better pricing. It is important to realize that most things regarding food and beverage are often "flexible" and "negotiable," and if approached with a win- win, non-adversarial negotiating style, an experienced negotiator can secure "more bang for the buck."

I urge organizations and their leaders to avoid what appears to often be their natural tendencies to procrastinate and delay. Doing so can be a financially costly behavior!