This is a sponsored post from Fairmont Hotels & Resorts. More information about Event Manager Blog’s sponsored posts.
Global chain hotels meet the needs and requirements of #eventprofs and their delegates in ways that local, independent properties never can. Here are 5 reasons why.
Local, independent hotels have really come on trend over the past 5 years and, if you were to believe everything you read, you’d almost think that global hotel brands were following fax machines, clam-shell cell phones and the British pound down the perilous path to perdition! Of course nothing could be further from the truth.
Global chain hotels are consolidating, becoming more sophisticated as regards brand and demographics and rapidly expanding to meet burgeoning demand. They also truly “own” the group market and, for #eventprofs who book corporate meetings and incentive travel experiences, they’re as essential as air miles and a good espresso.
Event planners want consistency, predictability and reliability for their delegates when travelling to places they’ve never been before. Here are 5 reasons why eventprofs love global hotel chains.
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Corporations and Their Attendees Need the Validation of a Luxury Brand
It’s paramount for attendees of corporate meetings, and particularly of incentive travel programmes, that the hotel at which they’re staying has punch, panache and profile. They 100% require the validation of a luxury brand both from a corporate and a personal perspective. Staying at the Ambassador, or any other independent property, no matter had wonderful it may be, won’t seem right to them. Strong global corporations want to work with strong global hotel groups.
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Corporations and Their Attendees Need the Consistency of Global Hospitality Standards
Apparently we now live in the era of “bleisure”, that is, the Aquarian age where business and leisure somehow get mixed mysteriously into a sweet cocktail of delights. For this reason, apparently, we like to turn our business trips into holidays and, when we’re 10,000 km away from our own beds, get down with the locals in Shanghai. Not me. And not any business traveller I know. When I’m in Shanghai I’ll stay at well known global brand hotel where my guest room is a haven, a home away from home, and I’m know I can rely on hospitality standards that are as constant and consistent as the night is long in Shanghai!
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Corporations and Their Attendees Want to Plug into the Destination Legacy that the Hotel Brings With It
Ok, I admit it. I like my comforts. In particular I like the comfort of knowing that any destination experience I want, I can have, thanks to the hotel staff and their connections in the local destination. I don’t always speak the language, and when you are in a vast, unknown city you need to know that the concierge will hook you up with a nice table in a great restaurant, a fast car to the airport or maybe even tickets to the theatre or match. During a recent corporate meeting at a spectacularly renovated global hotel in Barcelona Cesc fixed me up with 4 tickets for Barcelona v Real Madrid at the Camp Nou. What’s not to love?
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Corporations and Their Attendees Want the Convenience of a High Street Location
Local, independent hotels make a virtue out of urban isolation, heaping praise on the up and coming neighbourhood where they’re located, always close to a “hip” local café with a bearded barista. Problem is, it’s a $80 dollar cab fare away from where you need to be! Me, I prefer the high street, downtown location preferred by global hotel brands. Their legacy of hotel keepers tells them that international travellers want to be downtown, in medias res, in the midst of the action.
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Corporations and Their Attendees Want a One Stop Shop for Everything
Perhaps the biggest benefit that Global Hotel Chains bring is the absolute convenience of multidimensional “one stop shopping”. For attendees it means full service hotels with multiple bars, restaurants, spas, room service, laundry service, car service and so on. For #eventprofs one-stop-shopping means one single point of contact, in your own time zone and language, in respect of properties located all over the US, Canada, Mexico, Latin America, Europe, MEA and Asia.
In Conclusion
Independent hotels are undoubtedly challenging some global chains in an era where words like “local” and “authentic” have assumed meanings way beyond mere semantics. But great global properties have never been anything less that 100% local and 100% authentic while, simultaneously, bringing huge benefits to #eventprofs and their attendees alike across a wide spectrum of criteria.
