Taking the pain out of Congress organisation

For voluntary organisations, most of the time, negotiating with hotels is a nightmare - they often find hotels will struggle to understand why they can’t guarantee the room blocks while at the same time demanding huge deposits!

Significant disconnects exist between the voluntary sector and hotel industry; disconnects we would very much like to help overcome.

As we seek to get as close as possible to all our clients, AccorHotels has pulled together information, comment and best practice from both the voluntary sector and our own sales teams and hotels.

Armed with this knowledge, we have decided to train our staff to better understand the particular needs of the association sector.

To this end, the group is deploying a training module with a range of support materials, including a global Congress Charter.

This Charter’s primary objectives are to:

•     Ensure sales & operations within the AccorHotels group have good qualitative understanding of the congress market

•     Provide a suitable solution to meet organisers’ needs

•     Support our hotel destinations to attract congress delegates

•     Guarantee long-term business activity for a hotel destination

•     Respect clients’ response deadlines

•     Facilitate the internal decision-making process between sales and hotels

While the sales teams’ ambition is to gather as much information as possible from their clients with respect to past events and their hotel needs (destination, hotel categories, terms & conditions, etc.) and to provide a link between hotels and organisers, the hotels themselves also commit to specific elements including:

• Long-term pricing strategy
• Terms & conditions adapted to individual or group bookings
• A welcome package offering:

o   Dedicated lobby area for welcoming participants

o   Provision to participants upon arrival of congress information (programme, transport services, etc.)

o   Total readiness on the part of all hotel employees to assist participants in getting to the congress venue

Based on this Congress Charter, we have built the “Success in Congress” programme specifically to make organisations aware of the AccorHotels congress market strategy.

The aim of the AccorHotels “Success in Congress” programme is to develop innovative measures to meet the particular hospitality requirements of associations organising congresses. As volunteers undertaking the responsibility of both running their associations and managing their events, our clients are looking for personalised, practical and highly cost-effective solutions. In response, AccorHotels country and hotel experts have made 11 commitmentsfor any size of organisation in any non-profit sector.

AccorHotels not only ensures the need for excellent accommodation is met in destinations worldwide, but with half of the AccorHotels network offering meeting space, also offers an outstanding solution to conference requirements.

The AccorHotels group

AccorHotels is a world-leading travel & lifestyle group and digital innovator offering unique experiences in more than 4,000 hotels, resorts and residences, as well as in over 2,500 of the finest private homes around the globe. AccorHotels operates in 95 countries. Its portfolio comprises internationally-acclaimed luxury brands including Raffles, Fairmont, Sofitel Legend,  SO Sofitel, Sofitel, onefinestay, MGallery by Sofitel, Pullman, and Swissôtel; as well as the popular midscale and boutique brands of Novotel, Mercure, Mama Shelter and Adagio; the in-demand economy brands including ibis, ibis Styles, ibis budget and the regional brands Grand Mercure, The Sebel and hotelF1.

With an unmatched collection of brands and a rich history spanning close to five decades, AccorHotels, along with its global team of more than 240,000 dedicated people, has a purposeful and heartfelt mission: to make every guest Feel Welcome. Guests and event organisers also enjoy access to one of the world’s most rewarding hotel loyalty programmes - Le Club AccorHotels. 

Contact

AccorHotels Global Sales – Congress Market

Associationcongress.globalsales@accor.com

T. +33(0)1 41 33 71 10

http://meetings.accorhotels.com/gb/offers/conventions.shtml