“A Tale of Three Cities” - HIS Reports for April 2007 show dynamics of Meetings Business compared to previous April in Baltimore, Denver, and San Diego.
|
“A Tale of Three Cities” - HIS Reports for April 2007 show dynamics of Meetings Business compared to previous April in Baltimore, Denver, and San Diego.
|
Category: North America & West Indies / Carribean islands
This is a press release selected by our editorial committee and published online for free on 2007-06-15
“A Tale of Three Cities” - HIS Reports for April 2007 show dynamics of Meetings Business compared to previous April in Baltimore, Denver, and San Diego. Order of 10 Most Active Hotels shuffles as they compete for market share.
Hotel sales execs use reports by Hospitality Information Services to determine how well they are competing for organization business.
Walnut Creek, CA. June 8, 2007. Using market intelligence to increase market share is a time-honored technique for savvy sales and catering managers in the meetings market, according to Hospitality Information Services (HIS), which tracks the meetings industry in 44 markets in the U.S. and Canada.
A comparison of the April 2007HIS Monthly Market Summaries with the reports for the previous April for Baltimore, Denver, and San Diego shows the unique dynamics of their meetings markets, as well as of the “Ten Most Active Properties” in those cities.
HIS records the number and names of “unique organizations” meeting each month in these three cities, as well as some 40 other markets it surveys.
Baltimore
For Baltimore, April 2007 showed 436 total unique organizations/associations meeting in downtown and BWI airport area hotels, up from 256 in April 2006, a very healthy jump of over 70%. The “Ten Most Active Properties” in this market paralleled this performance with a 64% increase in their business with organizations and associations.
The HIS report for April 2007 showed somewhat of a reshuffling of the “top ten” most active hotels, compared with the previous March. However, the BWI Airport Marriott retained its place at the top of the heap, recording a 17.4% market share in April 2007, following its 14.9% share in April 2006 – both good enough to keep it at Number One. The Hyatt Regency Inner Harbor moved up from third place in April 2006 (11.4%) to second in April 2007 (14.4%). The Holiday Inn BWI made the biggest leap, April to April, moving from ninth place to fourth in market share.
Nearly all the hotels in Baltimore’s top ten recorded significant gains in the number of unique organizations they served, with the BWI Airport Marriott showing the largest increase in business – 65 unique accounts served in April 2007, up from 34 in April 2006.
HIS reports show that all nine “Most Active” organizations or associations in the April 2007 survey, in terms of event days booked, had not appeared on the list in the previous April. For the top ten Baltimore hotels, their most active organization/association business was all new, led by the National Catholic Educational Association with 10 “event days” and a total of 26 events.
Event Days are the bread-and-butter of hotel sales and catering managers. The differences in the compositions of the Most Active organizations suggest that hotel sales people were very active in finding new business for April 2007.
Denver
While the April 2006 vs. April 2007 story for Baltimore was one of seeming growth in new organization/association business, Downtown Denver’s is one of stability when these two months are compared. Total meetings business for Downtown Denver went from 941 to 953, April to April, a gain of 1.2%. The Top Ten hotels did not quite keep pace, recording 548 of these unique accounts, down from 567, or 3.5%, the previous April
Eight of the ten most active properties are the same, with just a bit of place-swapping among the top five. The Adams Mark Denver went from second place to first, with market shares of 11.8% in April 2006 and 13.9% in April 2007. The Doubletree Hotel Denver moved from first to second, with market shares of 13.2% in April 2006 and 11.7% in April 2007. The Grand Hyatt Denver moved from fifth place to third, with an 11.1% share of the meetings market in April 2007. The Westin Westminster stayed in fourth place, with a 10.4% share of that market.
The HIS Monthly Summary for April 2007 reported that United Airlines was the most active organization for Downtown Denver’s Top Ten hotels, accounting for 17 event days and 41 individual events. Three of the other most active accounts were also on the list the previous April: V2K Company (15 event days), UPS (8 event days), and StubHub (8 event days.)
San Diego
Judging from the HIS Monthly Summaries, San Diego experienced stronger meetings activity in April 2007 than in the previous April, with its Top Ten most active hotels getting the lion’s share of the business. While the total number of unique accounts for San Diego was up by 2.6% - 1,613 for April 2006, 1,656 for April 2007 - the city’s Ten Most Active Properties recorded a 25% increase in this business - 557 unique accounts for April 2006 and 696 for April 2007.
For April 2007, the San Diego Marriott recorded the highest meetings activity, with 111 unique accounts and a 15.9% share of the organization/association business. Following were the Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diego with a 13.1% share and 91 unique accounts and the Handlery San Diego at 11.2% and 78 unique accounts for April 2007.
Strength of meetings activity growth among San Diego’s Top Ten most active hotels is evident when one considers that the three most active recorded 111, 91, and 78 unique accounts, respectively, in April 2007. In the previous April, the top three had 70, 62, and 60 such accounts.
According to the HIS Monthly Summary for April 2007, the single most active account was POST, the Peace Officers Standards and Training organization, with 20 event days, followed by Weight Watchers (15) and the Learning Annex (14). POST and Learning Annex were among the top ten active accounts in April 2006, as well, along with two other repeaters, Lockheed Martin (11) and Testmasters (9).
What difference does all this make? For hotel General Managers and Directors of Sales & Marketing, this is crucial market intelligence.
For over 17 years, Hospitality Information Services, Inc., based in Walnut Creek, CA, has been providing the hotel industry with competitive market information just like this - revealing which companies and organizations are meeting… where… and for how long. In addition, HIS also provides event contact information for the corporate or association people in charge of the events.
HIS provides hotels with the intelligence they need to compete and increase market share in two important segments of their business – the meetings and catering market segments. Currently, HIS gathers data from over 1,200 properties in more than 44 markets in the U.S. and Canada.
Hospitality Information Services Gives the Advantage to Hotel GMs and Sales Directors in their Battle for Market Share. Among these advantages are
• The largest event planner database in the world
• 24/7 online access to real-time market intelligence
• Top accounts by comp set property
• Corporate individual travel account development resources
• Turnkey resources for targeted sales blitzes
• Market segmentation analysis for all accounts
• Catered vs. Non-Catered event analysis
“HIS provides powerful and comprehensive resources for new account development and helps us move market share within our market. By using HIS market intelligence services, we have seen incremental gains in both market share and RevPAR growth over our competitive set.” – Lori Shook, Director of Sales & Marketing, Hyatt Grand Champions Resort & Spa
|
|
