Jan Freitag, national director of hotel analytics for CoStar Group, joined Cvent’s senior manager of product marketing Kell Kopec and director of product marketing Alex Platia for a recent webinar focusing on hot conference trends.
Freitag said the restaurant remains in the driving seat in the negotiations. “The high-end hotel market is performing quite well, and revenue per available room for upper-tier and upscale hotels (those offering large meeting space) is expected to remain healthy this year,” he said.
Group business has increased since 2023 and is on par with 2019 results in five hotel markets: Dallas, Orlando, Las Vegas, Nashville and Tampa.
“These are the ‘Smile States,’ with Las Vegas being the exception because of the Super Bowl,” Freitag explained. “Meeting planners want to go to these markets because they can be partially outdoors and there are lots of entertainment options outside the hotel.”
In addition to destination choice, attendee preferences are driving meeting models, Cvent’s Kopek said. “For shorter in-person events, planners are choosing to start on Wednesday,” Kopec said. “The business casual trend is still in full force.
“In-person events tend to start after or before the weekend, and attendees stay before or after the weekend. People want to experience the destination and enjoy their leisure time, so it makes sense for event organizers to design events with attendee preferences in mind of.
Dive deeper into Cvent data
Kopec and Platia dug into data from the Cvent platform to identify some other key trends affecting conferencing customers:
- RFPs up, ADRs stable
Live events continue to grow in the second quarter of 2024. The number of RFPs increased by 12%, room nights increased by 21%, while the price growth rate increased by only 0.5%. “Average daily rates remained stable last year, which is good for planners,” Pratia said.
- Planners are shopping around
Cvent found that 74% of the RFPs in its system were sent to one metro area, 26% were sent to two or more metro areas, and 16% were sent to three or more metro areas.
- International conferences are back
“So far this year, U.S. planners have sourced information for more than 115 countries, a 3% increase year-over-year,” Platia said. “More than 900,000 room nights have come from international sources; a 1% increase year-over-year.”
- Flexible band booking
59% of Cvent suppliers reject RFPs due to unavailability of guest rooms and meeting space or appointment mode. “As a planner, if you feel you are not getting enough bids, take advantage of the opportunity to submit an RFP with alternate dates,” Platia said. “Last year, flexible planners accepted alternative date suggestions 45% of the time.”
Companies still haven’t returned to offices
Underlying many of the trends is the fact that companies still haven’t managed to move employees back to the office.
“Class A office vacancies in major markets are expected to reach 25%,” Freitag said. “Despite Amazon’s announcement, there are far fewer people in offices than before the pandemic, and corporate tenants don’t need as much office space. .
“I think it drives group demand because if we’re not in the office all the time, we still have to be together. There’s also a higher desire to travel among teams because I think we all team up and narrow down.
