Three hotels and a shared spreadsheet
A large client conference fills the main hotel, so you have blocks at two more nearby. Senior staff go to the main hotel. Some delegates share twin rooms. Some arrive a night early for a pre-event dinner, and a few stay on for the weekend at their own cost. Each hotel wants its rooming list in its own template by its own cut-off date, and the main hotel has an attrition clause on its block.
Your coordinator keeps a tab per hotel. When a delegate cancels, they are removed from the attendee list but stay on the second hotel's tab. A sharer is paired with someone who later drops out. The early arrivals are added to the main hotel list twice. Two days before the event, the hotels' own lists do not match yours.
Why rooming lists drift
Room allocation is where the attendee list meets several hotels' commercial terms, and it is managed by copying.
- Every hotel tab is a copy of part of the attendee list, updated separately.
- Sharers are pairs, so one cancellation creates a second problem.
- Arrival and departure dates vary by delegate and change often.
- Each block has its own cut-off and release terms, tracked in a calendar or not at all.
- Delegates who extend at their own cost need a separate billing instruction the hotel often never receives.
What a wrong rooming list costs
A delegate arrives late at night and the hotel has no booking under their name. Rooms released after the cut-off have to be rebooked at a higher rate, if they are available at all. Unused rooms inside the block are charged to you under the block terms. And personal extensions that were not billed to the delegate end up on the master account, which you then have to recover.
The hidden cost is the coordinator's week before the event, spent comparing four spreadsheets line by line with hotel reservations teams who each have their own version. That is the week when the same coordinator is also needed for badges, transfers and the run sheet.
One allocation, one list per hotel
- Each hotel block is set up with its room types, nights, rate, cut-off date and release terms as you agreed them.
- Delegates are assigned to a hotel and room type by rules you set (seniority, company, delegate type) and adjusted by hand where needed.
- Sharers are paired in the allocation, and if one drops out the other is flagged for a decision.
- Arrival and departure dates come from each delegate's registration, with early and late nights marked as client-paid or delegate-paid.
- Each hotel's rooming list is generated in its own template, and every later change is sent as a list of changes, so the hotel does not have to compare two files.
- A block view shows how many rooms are allocated, how many are unused and how long until each cut-off, with a reminder before the date.
- After check-in, the hotel's final bill can be compared with the allocation, night by night.
| Hotel | Block | Allocated | Cut-off | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Main hotel | Room block per night | Close to full | Approaching | Release or confirm unused rooms |
| Second hotel | Room block per night | Part used | Later | Watch |
| Third hotel | Small overflow block | Low use | Later | Consider releasing early |
Room changes, handled once
A delegate cancels. The coordinator removes them from the attendee record. The allocation marks their room free, flags their sharer, and the second hotel receives a change notice with one line removed. When the main hotel's cut-off approaches, the block view shows a few unused rooms, and the producer decides with the client whether to release them. On the final night, the hotel's bill is checked against the allocation, and the two delegates who extended at their own cost are already marked for separate billing.
Is this how rooming works for you?
- You keep a separate rooming spreadsheet per hotel.
- Hotels' lists and yours differ close to the event.
- Sharers and early arrivals cause mistakes.
- Block cut-off dates are missed or remembered late.
- Personal extensions end up on the master bill.