The housing process was established many years ago to meet the specific needs of meetings and conventions which required more than one or two hotels in order to accommodate their attendees. The process has evolved throughout the years to its current status. In the history of the convention industry, there has, as yet, been no close scrutiny of the housing system which is so vital to large conventions and trade shows. The PCMA Committee on Multi-Hotel/Citywide Housing has examined every aspect of the housing process to discover strengths and weaknesses. The committee's conclusions are presented in this white paper which identifies the changes required to make the traditional housing process viable for the future.

Multi-Hotel and Citywide Housing

The housing process no longer meets the needs of its participating constituencies. Attendees, associations, hotels, and convention bureaus are all victims of this antiquated process. For example, only a very small percentage of group room blocks in citywide conventions are ever fully maximized. Pickup reports do not reflect the total number of rooms occupied by group attendees because convention-affiliated transients and small groups related to the meetings are not included. These non-inclusive pickup reports negatively impact the ability of associations to secure maximum room commitments for future years' conventions. In addition, hotels and cities cannot accurately reflect the economic impact of occupancy from conventions. Moreover, the current housing process seriously penalizes outlying hotels that have disproportionately large no-shows. As the core hotels open up late in the housing process to fill cancellations, the attendees shift to the centrally located hotels. Perhaps, most importantly, many conventions experience a drop in attendance because members are constantly frustrated by the housing process. Although many members respond early, they do not get any of their hotel choices. On the other hand, late registrants frequently have access, at a potentially higher rate, to the primary hotels which take reservations directly to fill cancellations.

Lack of consistency between housing systems in cities across the nation created particular problems for national conventions which rotate to various sites. Reservation processing and delivery systems differ. Some bureaus are initiating toll-free numbers for telephone reservations and for accepting fax requests. Others have the capacity for electronic transfer of reservations directly to the hotels' computers, and a few are still functioning manually. Most telling, is the inconsistency in the relationship and the level of cooperation between hotels and the housing systems. There are no industry standards. Thus, cooperation in the housing process is too often based on the market demand in a particular city and the pressure for maximizing revenue, rather than on the contractual obligations between hotels and associations.

The housing process is the function of three main components: associations which book conventions, their members, guests, and exhibitors; housing bureaus which coordinate room availability and process reservation requests; and hotels which accept the reservations and ultimately accommodate the attendees in their guest rooms. In analyzing the housing process, several key areas of concern have been identified:

• guest room reservations and the means by which they result in occupied rooms;
• processing reservations and tracking convention-related occupancy;
• the relationship between accurate pickup reports, accurate room blocks, and future bookings;
• the interaction and levels of cooperation between housing bureaus and hotels;
• the respective roles of each component in the housing process;
• and problems specific to subgroups and exhibitors.

Major revisions are necessary in all of these areas to make the housing process optimally beneficial for all constituencies.

Reservations

In scheduling a major convention, associations enter into contractual agreements with various hotels. As with any agreement, the obligations are mutual. Associations are obligated to secure only the number of guest rooms in any given city which can be legitimately utilized by attendees. Conversely, hotels are obligated to provide, through a workable and cooperative reservations process, the number of rooms they have contracted with the association.

Advance room deposits have been common practice in resort meetings for many years. They have not typically been a part of large convention housing processes. Deposits must be differential from guarantees. A deposit requires that a check be sent, or a debit be made to the attendee's credit card, at the time the reservation is made. On the other hand, with a guarantee, the credit card is debited only at the time that the attendee fails to occupy the room reserved. In the long run, deposits, by encouraging customer responsibility, are the most effective and positive step to maximizing group pickup of contracted rooms. Associations are strongly encouraged to incorporate advance deposits in their housing systems and to make concerted efforts to educate their members about the negative effects of no-shows.

In order for a deposit system to be effective, it is paramount that both hotels and housing bureaus establish effective methods of dealing with deposits, transfer of monies, and refunds. The most effective means of handling deposits is by using credit cards which provide a quick and convenient method for attendees to make advance deposits. Convenience will greatly increase compliance and is particularly important to international attendees because of the difficulties in transferring funds. As another step to convenience and consistency, it is recommended that the housing bureau serve as the central repository for hotel deposits; the amount of the deposit should be standard for all reservation requests regardless of the hotel the attendee is assigned.

In order to work effectively in partnership with the housing process, hotels must institute, in all instances, a standard policy for cancellation and replacement when participating in multi-hotel housing processes. That is, when a reservation is canceled through the bureau, prior to cutoff, it will automatically be replaced by a new reservation. Name and date changes through the bureau would be dealt with as replaceable cancellations.

In order for the reservation process to function, hotels must allow housing bureaus to control the room inventory throughout the housing process up to the cutoff date. The bureau is obliged to provide pickup status reports to the participating hotels and associations on a regular basis. In order for each hotel to provide the association with the number of occupied rooms that they have contracted, a sufficient number of reservations must be accepted to assure that (after attribution through cancellations and no-shows,) the number of rooms contracted will equal the number of rooms occupied. Because the housing process is a partnership venture, the number of reservations which are initially required to ultimately fill the number of rooms contracted must be mutually agreed upon by the hotel and the association. Although the maximum number of reservations in any one hotel may vary throughout the housing process, (at cutoff) each hotel should have sufficient reservations in place to assure the number of rooms contracted will be filled despite continued cancellations and potential no-shows. It is the association's responsibility to transmit this information to the bureau so that the proper number of reservations will be sent to each hotel.

Processing and Tracking

The manner and timeliness of acknowledging reservation requests and providing hotel confirmations is very important for attendees. Housing bureaus must process confirmations within 48 hours of receipt regardless of whether the reservation request is made via telephone or a reservation request form. In addition, hotels must also confirm the reservations within 48 hours after they receive the reservation assignment from the bureau.

Traditionally, convention pickup reports have reflected only those rooms occupied by individuals who made their reservations through the housing system. Accurate room histories, which reflect rooms occupied as a result of the convention, are essential; they serve as a basis for effective future bookings and as a means of documenting the percentage of occupancy - both for hotels and cities - which results from convention bookings. In order to provide complete convention pickup data, the following procedures are suggested:

1. Hotels must verify potential group affiliation at the time of check-in for all transient reservations. This would include frequent traveler program participants, corporate travelers, etc. Group participants identified at check-in must be recoded or subcoded, without rate change, for inclusion in the group pickup report. It should be noted that it is important there be no change at the time of recoding. To do so, rewards individuals who have circumvented the housing process.
2. A list of small group travel agent blocks, which are inhouse over the convention dates, should be submitted to the association for review. Those identified as being related to the convention will be included in the convention report. Occupied rooms from small blocks will not be included in the convention "comp" room allotment totals.
3. Post-convention pickup reports should be provided by the hotels to both the association and to the convention bureau within 14 days of departure. The pickup report should include the number of reservations for each day, the cutoff date, the total number of rooms occupied by day (from rooms which were reserved via the housing process), transient rooms identified at check-in as group-affiliated, and rooms occupied by small group bookings which are associated with the convention.

Housing Bureau

Housing bureaus are the primary access point where convention attendees enter the housing process. It is imperative that they function effectively in order to handle the large volume of reservations. To do so, the housing bureau must have control of the room inventory throughout the housing process maintaining the capacity and authority to cancel reservations and reassign rooms, do name changes, and keep waiting lists to meet special needs. They must be capable of receiving deposits, crediting them appropriately, and initiating refunds. The housing bureau must be sufficiently staffed, adequately funded, and have the necessary equipment for processing citywide convention reservations. It is expected that they will be consistently current in technology, provide rapid configuration of reservation requests, produce timely reports to both the association and the hotels, and be easily accessible to the attendees.

There appear to be many benefits to a centralized multibureau housing service. These include uniformity of services from city to city, convenience to attendees, reasonable costs, and direct interface to hotel and association computers. Establishing such a service as soon as reasonably possible is strongly recommended.

Exhibitor Subgroup Housing

In order to accommodate the needs of all attendees, it is imperative that associations make an equitable allocation of rooms in primary hotels available to exhibitors and subgroup attendees. Exhibitor and subgroup attendees making individual personal reservations, or less than 10 reservations should be held accountable for rooms reserved in their names and be subject to any deposit and housing policies that apply to the general attendee.

Associations, in order to administer the housing process fairly, should develop a priority/allocation system for hotel assignment to companies and subgroups requiring major blocks. Those blocks of 10 or more rooms must submit their final rooming list of 60 days prior to the major arrival. In addition, a deposit for each room must be submitted with the final list. In exceptional circumstances and with association approval, exhibitors may make other arrangements with the hotel or housing bureau to guarantee payment for no-shows or for rooms canceled after the cutoff date. It is essential that any rooms, which will not be occupied by the exhibitor/subgroup block, be released into the general housing inventory in sufficient time so that they can be reassigned prior to cut-off.

Exhibitor and subgroup attendees are expected to participate in the established housing process in order to make their hotel reservations. Direct negotiation with participating hotels by subgroups and exhibitors erodes the integrity of the housing system. This practice has serious long-term effects on the association's ability to secure maximum room blocks in prime hotels. To cooperate fully in the process, hotels must refer convention-related group room requests to the association headquarters. In those instances where exhibitors elect to go outside of the established housing block, they may do so without penalty provided that the rooms secured are not taken in participating convention hotels (from the association's contracted block), and provided that the association and convention bureau are given written confirmation of the arrangements made.

In order to protect the integrity of the housing process, associations may legitimately impose restrictions or penalties on exhibiting companies or convention subgroups which would circumvent the housing process. These penalties may include reduction in space assignment, priority points for exhibitors, reduction in priority housing status, restriction on future room blocks - or in the case of exhibiting companies - restriction on future floor space assignments.

Moving Into the Future

Analyzing the current status of housing and making recommendations is the first step in revamping the traditional housing process. Real change, however, can occur only through action. The responsibility for initiating that action has to be shared by all parties. Meeting planners must know and understand the new procedures that can work in their behalf and insist on instituting them each year. Hotels should exert pressure on both their clients and their local bureaus to incorporate these new approaches which will assure that contracted rooms are fully occupied. Housing bureaus function as they interface between the associations and the hotels. Thus, they are in a unique position to establish standard housing procedures which exemplify the recommendations contained in this white paper. Housing is a cooperative process. Changing it to meet our needs into the future must be a cooperative venture as well.

Note: At this point, after four hours of deliberation, the committee faded off into exhaustion.

Streamlining the Process

Editor's note: On the advice of PCMA's counsel, it is noted that the guidelines set forth in this "Housing White Paper" are not mandatory. They are recommendations intended to help all parties - bureaus, hotels, planners, associations, exhibitors, and attendees - to streamline the housing process.

PCMA invites comments about the white paper recommendations and reports about its implementation in the field. Please address all correspondence to:

Cheryl Nordstedt, c/o American Academy of Dermatologists
930 North Meacham Road
Schaumburg, IL 60173.

This white paper was published in the 1992 April issue of Convene