With the ongoing trend toward more small- and medium-sized meetings happening in the context of business travel, organizations are faced with the challenge – and opportunity – of optimizing both meeting and travel spend. Driven by remote work and decentralized teams, this increase in group travel means travel managers are managing not just transient travel, but a broader spectrum of events.
This shift raises some critical questions: How can companies negotiate more effectively across both meetings and travel budgets, and ultimately, can these strategies lead to higher-quality meetings that deliver better results for organizations?
Negotiating meetings and events spend is fundamentally different from transient programs, which rely on consistent data, like volume trends, competitive benchmarks and rate history, to support more standardized, data-driven outcomes. Meetings, on the other hand, are typically more bespoke and event-specific, often managed through Master Service Agreements (MSAs) that focus on expectations, spend goals and flexibility.
“For meetings, hotels factor in expected demand, length of stay, F&B contribution, room block size and total ancillary spend to build offers, including pricing and concessions,” says Ryan Plemmons, vice president of strategy and global sales at IHG Hotels & Resorts. “Our hotels are a bit like a puzzle, always working to piece together the right business at the right time. Because of that, flexibility in dates, booking patterns, or meeting space requirements can go a long way in unlocking added value for both sides.”
As a result, customers who clearly share their priorities and are open to understanding a hotel’s business needs are more likely to arrive at creative, mutually beneficial outcomes. “There’s also a strategic advantage in securing multi-year or rotating annual meetings across cities, which increases leverage and deepens hotel partnerships,” Plemmons says.
Wendy Ferrill, vice president of worldwide sales at BWH Hotels, agrees that negotiating meetings and events requires a broader, more multifaceted approach than transient travel because it’s not just about room rates, it’s about total value. This includes meeting space, food and beverage minimums, A/V needs, cancellation clauses, etc. “Negotiations for groups and events require a level of flexibility and personalization,” Ferrill says.
Gerilyn Horan, vice president, group sales and strategic accounts at Hilton Worldwide Sales, notes an increase in customers who are interested in taking an integrated approach to contracting meetings/group and transient travel spend. “It’s a complex discussion,” she says. “While we anticipate a rise in various online management and booking tools, as with most customer needs, there isn’t likely a one-size-fits-all solution.”
Having a strategic meetings management program is essential for ensuring success, according to Kari Wendel, vice president of meetings solutions for HRS. “There’s a concept in the meetings world that more is not necessarily better and so one of the sub-strategies needs to be about what share of your hotel spend is the right share,” she advises. “Figuring that out is important. The right mix of businesses is what’s important and it takes good data to get to the point where you can employ those strategies.”
Consolidation Matters
Consolidating small- and medium-sized meetings into a larger, aggregated spend can be a savvy negotiation strategy when dealing with venues and service providers. “Larger events offer hotels and venues more substantial and predictable revenue, which can unlock better pricing, priority access to premium space and enhanced concessions,” Ferrill says. “We hear from clients that, in addition to cost savings and increased negotiation power for more favorable contract terms, the process is streamlined. The on-site experience fosters greater cross-collaboration within the organization and ensures consistent messaging from key stakeholders.”
Consolidating this spend can help increase buying power and translate into cost savings through larger spend commitments, as well as negotiating more flexible terms and conditions, notes Shauna Whitehead, vice president of customer solutions for BCD Meetings and Events. “Working to drive market share through strategic partnerships and volume deals can lead to lower prices, more value-add services, possibly VIP treatment and other special opportunities for both an organization and their attendees,” she says. “It can also simplify contracting where a larger governing MSA is in place.”
Additionally, aggregating smaller meetings into a larger spend may allow organizations to negotiate preferred agreements with hotel groups, shifting share and offering better distribution across properties. “However, hotels must also evaluate each piece of business to ensure healthy margins and allow owners to deliver on brand service level commitments,” Plemmons says. “Customers who share meeting history, such as booking windows, pickup rates, cancellation trends, ancillary spend and flexibility, can help hotels tailor offers more effectively.”
As a best practice, organizations should also engage their global sales representative to act as a strategic advisor across both transient and group travel needs, helping to connect the dots and unlock greater value, Plemmons adds.
In the near term, Horan says there are actions that customers can take to maximize their total spend. “First, understand and align on your company’s total travel spend across transient and group, meetings and events,” she says. “Tracking across categories empowers customers to have the necessary data and insights to negotiate favorable terms.”
Additionally, Horan recommends expanding venue selection to secondary and tertiary markets. “Customers could benefit from identifying high transient volume and/or highly preferred hotels in secondary and tertiary markets and consider these properties as options for meetings and events. This is especially important to consider for small- and medium-sized meetings and regional events. In one negotiation, you can align on the legal and commercial terms – as well as any additional negotiated benefits – saving money and time for the company.”
Successful Collaboration
Although it might make sense in negotiations, Wendel notes travel managers and meeting planners are unlikely to partner, though travel managers and meeting strategists are. “To that end, it’s really important to start from a common understanding that some of your goals are at odds and some are not,” she cautions. “Find those places to meet the company’s objectives and be responsible with the company’s money, and if you can find those common goals, it’s the best way forward to partnership.”
Still, when travel managers and meeting planners collaborate more effectively, it creates a unified negotiation and sourcing strategy that benefits both parties. “Travel managers and meeting planners historically have operated in silos, but integrating their strategies ensures consistency in supplier relationships and strengthens total spend leverage,” Ferrill says. “A Strategic Meetings Management Program (SMMP) enhances efficiency by offering a holistic view of an organization’s total travel and meeting spend. This comprehensive perspective enables organizations to align their goals and engage in partnerships with greater intention and strategic focus.”
It’s also important for them to build strong, responsive relationships with hotels and venues that can accommodate fluctuating meeting needs while providing better value.
“Strong relationships are built on transparency, mutual trust and regular communication,” Ferrill says. “Organizations should share long-term needs and fluctuations with hotel partners upfront, allowing hotels to plan capacity and pricing more effectively.”
Tech Tools
Recently, with the post-COVID resurgence of meetings and steady increases in transient business travel, there has been an influx of new technological tools and platforms emerging to help organizations gain better visibility and control over their combined travel and meetings spend.
For example, Ferrill points out that BWH Hotels leverages a number of these tools to better control its business meetings portfolio. In 2020, the company signed an agreement with Cvent to drive business growth across its entire global portfolio. “We leverage the Cvent Transient system to establish and promote corporate hotel rates and manage proposals from the world’s largest corporations,” Ferrill says. “There is also an increasing opportunity to leverage AI tools to analyze internal data to better inform our approach by optimizing supplier selections, recommending preferred hotels and automating processes.”
Whitehead notes many of the new tools have AI built-in to drive efficiency, productivity and guide the user. “As companies further their technology strategy and ecosystem, there are many more opportunities to drive deeper insights to the program and assist with informed decisions and even more effective spend management opportunities,” she says.
At HRS, the company is solving one of the biggest pain-points in the meeting industry – the payment process, with its Connect platform. “If payment is easy and you don’t have to issue cards to multiple people, and everything gets paid and reconciled beautifully with the help of AI, that’s the nugget to advance the industry and the practice of meetings,” Wendel says.
Commodity Trade
There’s a common belief that leveraging a larger aggregate spend will have a negative impact on the quality and customization of meeting experiences for attendees. “While aggregate spend can unlock stronger value, organizations need to work with hotel partners who understand the importance of maintaining personalized experiences,” Ferrill warns. “The risk of commoditization arises when negotiations focus solely on price, but the best partnerships ensure attendee experience remains a priority.”
If anything, Whitehead says consolidating spend should help maximize budgets and drive better value experiences. “While leveraging the greater spend, many of the event choices and specifics are negotiated and curated at the event level, still allowing for customization for the attendees,” she explains.
“I would recommend keeping Master Service Agreements at the aggregate level less restrictive and informing of the specific event experience, and more about governing the relationship between the supplier and buyer,” Whitehead says. “Having certain protections and expectations should be the focus at the organizational level, and then meeting organizers are free to customize the experience within the event-specific agreement.”
Plemmons adds that spend can influence areas such as onsite AV or tech requirements, but understanding the needs of each group should remain the north star when designing budgets and delivering meaningful meeting experiences. “Multi-program commitments or longer-term partnerships may unlock enhanced concessions, such as waived rental fees, upgraded F&B offerings or other tailored perks,” he says. “Flexibility and collaboration are often what drive the most impactful results.”
Measuring Value
The success of any program that aims to connect meetings and travel spend can be measured in cost savings, improved service levels and more impactful meeting results. “Success starts with defining it, and there’s no one-size-fits-all answer,” Plemmons says. “Organizations must first clarify their goals across savings, service and outcomes. Whether they’re aiming for cost reduction, improved attendee satisfaction or greater sustainability, it’s critical to establish clear KPIs and identify which tools will be used to track progress.”
As the push toward greater integration of meetings and travel gathers momentum, key trends are emerging around cost management, duty of care and attendee recognition, alongside a strong focus on time savings for travel managers and planners. “Innovations include deeper loyalty integration across all stays, transient and meetings, addressing a major customer need highlighted by corporate travel and meetings buyers,” Plemmons says. “Consolidation of data remains critical, as group travel is still decentralized for most companies, limiting leverage at the hotel level.”
Evolving objectives are reshaping this space, and the hotel industry is adjusting strategies based on developments such as the increased demand for hybrid meetings, more flexible and modular meeting spaces, and sustainability and ESG priorities influencing venue selection.
“We are embracing technology and the advantages of AI to enhance our capabilities, while continuing to recognize the critical value of relationships and the personal touch in our business,” Ferrill says. “Maintaining that human connection remains a top priority for us.”
