I understand the frustration some are expressing here with regard to 1.) the complimentary internet connection at the Embassy Suites, and 2.) the fact that we’re not promoting or utilizing the Charleston-area B&Bs as a lodging option.
Let me explain some of the basics of planning a conference for 500-800 people. First, you should know that PAII is known as a “space hog” in the meeting planning business. This means that the amount of space we need for our educational sessions and trade show is A LOT compared to the number of sleeping room nights booked through our event. We have up to 8 or 9 workshops running simultaneously – so we need a lot of classrooms. We need a giant ballroom for general sessions. And we need enough space for 100 10x10 exhibit spaces. That’s a lot of space. The problem is that we have so many couples and people sharing rooms that the relative number of rooms we can commit to in a contract is low. Most large hotels that can accommodate our meeting will give us most of the meeting space for no charge or relatively small charge, if we commit to a certain critical mass of room nights, as well as a pretty large food and beverage minimum. In our case, our F&B minimum is usually $100,000 for the Innkeeping Show. We typically commit to a minimum of 1,300 total room nights spread over 4 or 5 nights.
If we were to promote staying at B&Bs (and there are at least 50 in the Charleston metropolitan area), we would have to reduce the minimum room block in our contract – and it would be a risky guessing game for us, because we have no idea how many attendees would actually stay at B&Bs. If we lowered our room block commitment, we might have to pay more for the meeting space or might be required to raise our F&B minimum. Well, actually, we WOULD have to - there's no question about it. If we agreed to that, we would have to charge higher fees to the attendees and risk having fewer people come due to increased costs.
Most attendees highly prefer staying at the host hotel, because all they have to do is ride the elevator down to the event. The Embassy Suites that is adjacent to the Charleston Area Convention Center is about 12 miles from downtown Charleston – anyone staying at a B&B in Charleston would have to have their own transportation and might have to deal with parking issues in downtown, depending on the B&B and what space they have on the property. (Before anyone gets upset that we’re not actually having the meeting in downtown Charleston, please know that there is no property in the historic area of Charleston that could accommodate a group our size, and we will be bussing everyone downtown one night for a big party at the Charleston Visitor’s Center on Meeting Street – so we will spend some time in the historic area). The rate we negotiated is $119 – far lower than we’ve historically negotiated at conferences. We did this because we wanted to be sure to keep costs as low as possible for attendees. This was a big reason we chose the Charleston Area Convention Center and Embassy Suties – the other modestly-priced cities we looked at east of the Mississippi were $30-60 higher per night. With complimentary internet and breakfast in the morning for $119, we were pretty pleased with this deal.
I’m asking my meeting planner about the “One complimentary wireless internet connection in guest rooms per day.” To me, that is confusing. If there is more than one laptop in a room, it doesn’t make sense to me that only one of them would be able to connect. I’m investigating this, because it seems like a strange policy. That’s one of the minor things we can probably still fix, even though we have a contract with them. We might just need to explain that we have a higher number of folks who share rooms than what they’re used to. I’ll try to update everyone soon.
So, while I appreciate the sentiment to patronize the Charleston-area B&Bs – trust me, I’m the biggest advocate for our industry - it’s just not practical. We do ask local innkeepers every year to offer our attendees special rates for folks who want to come early or stay late. It works out nicely, because our conference always ends on Thursday afternoon, and many of our attendees often stick around for the weekend to explore and enjoy a little extra time away.
We haven’t posted the prices yet, but the rack rate will be $489 per person. But, we will have a big 2-day sale on Aug 30-31 with $100 off for all registrants, and subsequent sales throughout the fall with more discounts, but not as big as $100 off. Mark your calendars now, but we will of course send reminders. The rate will include lunch each day, two receptions and a big Lowcountry feast in downtown Charleston. We’re providing more F&B than ever before..
