Tips to Increase Event Pickup Jenny Miller

Disclaimer: Find what works for your organization! GOAL PICKUP Disclaimer: Find what works for your organization!

Setting up your event: Pre-Launch Hotel Profiles Detailed information No links A variety of clear photos Ask the hotel! Tips for any event created in MMX: Hotel Profiles should include as much info on the MMX site so that your guests won’t need to go to the hotel site directly for information. Do not add links that go through to the hotels own site, sometimes this occurs when copying and pasting from the hotels website. Having links that go through to the hotels website will distract guests away from MMX to book. The goal here is to stay on the MMX site to increase pickup because if the guest is taken away from your page they may get confused and see the BOOK NOW button on the hotels own site and think that they should book there. Ensure hotel photos are clear and not grainy; include photos of not only the exterior, but the lobby, restaurant, pool, and fitness center to give the guest a good sense of what amenities the hotel provides. Some tips on gathering photos for your hotel profiles: -Ask the hotel directly for some images -Search for the hotel photos on the hotel site and save images from there -Google images works as well, ensure it’s from the correct hotel and if photo editing is needed use snippet or paint if you don’t have photoshop

2 Pre-Launch cont’d Marketing/Branding Header/Background image “How many clicks?” Find event owners website 2 In order to ensure that everything is ready for your upcoming event: Upload your header and background image with something that uniquely suits your event. Maybe it’s an image of a festival or a beautiful image of the city skyline that your event is in. As an option choose a primary colour that suits the events logo. A suggestion that we have is to keep in line with your clients branding so as not to confuse the guest. For example: the event is for a festival with a young, hip crowd, you don’t want the MMX site to look like it is for a museum event. If the header and background image have a crowd cheering there is no confusion that this is the correct site for booking. Search for event owner’s website and track down access to the MMX link for booking. Make sure it’s easy to find, clear, and links through correctly. You should be on the MMX landing page in no more than 2 clicks.

Live Event Rate Checks Audits – go through as a guest Before and during your event something that we do is rate checks. We want to ensure that our guests are receiving the best rate for their stay. This is something that we work in to our own agreements that we have the hotel sign. We check a variety of websites for rates, the hotels own website, expedia, priceline, and kayak. We do this about twice a month as rates will change. If we see a lower rate we will reach out to the sales manager directly and request that they change this so that our guests won’t be inclined to book through another channel. Audits: The best way to ensure everything is correct once you’ve built your event is to have a colleague look over the event that you’ve created. I’ve found it’s always good to have an extra pair of eyes! If they have a copy of the contract that you have with the hotel they can check the rates and dates with what you have in MMX. Have them check your event from the back and the front end and have them go through your event as a booking guest. If a guest is unclear with your event messaging they could possibly go somewhere else to book if they get confused. Fara even had her mom go through and book a room to test how seemless it could be. She figured if her mom can do it, anyone can!

Food for Thought Packaged rates Registration , Accommodation & Shuttle Fenced rate for hotel Non-cancellable & pre-paid If you are having a difficult time selling rooms or you are finding that you don’t have support from the hotels in your event’s city, we’ve found that a unique way to increase reservations is through packages. Example: Event ticket + 3 night room reservations + Shuttle Some benefits to the hotel are: The rate will be a fenced and opaque rate. Rooms are non-cancellable and pre-paid by the event organizer. The guest will not see the cost of the reservation. Generally this should be as low of a rate as the hotel is able to do so that it makes sense for the guest to purchase a package. We communicate in our RFP to the hotel that as the rate is non-cancellable and pre-paid that we are requesting rates with no liability or attrition to the organizer. We’ve had success in packaging for music festivals but this could be used for any event that is ticketed. Packages can seem like an ideal route to the guest as it includes everything and allows the guest some ease in booking since they don’t have to figure out each separate detail on their own. Some suggestions we have for hotel packages: Typically we find that depending on your audience guests will bunk together to save on costs for something like a festival. If this is the case, we suggest having the package rate include 4 guests. This will save you from any miscommunication from the hotel in regards to any additional costs per additional guest over 2. The goal is to have a flat rate that includes taxes and all additional guests’ fees to give to the event organizer when they are creating the packages. We then request that the event manager place the details on their festival website. When booking packages we have guests book through the event organizer directly, and then we have the event organizer supply us with a rooming list and we book the reservations through MMX. If you have individual guest rooms you are selling at that hotel on top of the packages using the MMX system keeps everything simplified and you can keep track of any changes that come through. **The term Fenced Rate refers to reservations that offer certain benefits for bookers: under some conditions and requirements.Types of Fenced Rates can include:Non-refundable reservationsNon-cancellable reservationsAdvanced purchase reservations

Other ways to increase event pick-up Utilize hotel networks Utilize your clients communication channels Utilize your hotel networks. If they are one of your host hotels for an upcoming festival have them utilize their social media for you: twitter, facebook, etc. Utilize your clients communication channels by placing information in regards to their event and where to book on their social and internal channels as well as e-newsletters and e-pushes

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