Three meeting enquiries and a Word template
On Monday morning, three enquiries arrive through the website form. A local firm wants a training room for twenty people on a Thursday next month, with tea, coffee and lunch. A charity wants a boardroom for twelve for two days, with bedrooms for eight on the night between. An agency is asking for 'your best day delegate rate' for a product launch for sixty, with a projector and a separate room for registration.
Your events coordinator opens the meeting room diary, a spreadsheet on the shared drive. She checks bedrooms in the PMS for the charity's night. She looks up this year's day delegate and 24-hour rates, which were changed in January, and the AV price list, which was not. She opens last month's quote in Word, saves it under a new name, and starts changing the details. Halfway through the second quote, reception calls her about a wedding viewing.
The quotes go out on Wednesday. The agency has already booked the conference hotel on the ring road, which replied the same afternoon.
Why meeting quotes are slow
A meeting enquiry touches more parts of the hotel than a room booking does, and in a small hotel they rarely sit in one system.
- Meeting rooms are often booked in a separate diary or spreadsheet, not the PMS.
- Residential meetings need bedrooms checked and held in the PMS at the same time.
- Day delegate and 24-hour packages, minimum numbers and what they include change from year to year.
- Extras such as AV, flip charts, breakout rooms and dietary catering are priced on separate lists.
- Quotes are built by copying an old document, which carries old prices and old terms with it.
- The person who does quotes also does weddings, viewings and function sheets.
What slow and inconsistent quotes cost
Corporate bookers often send the same enquiry to several hotels and go with the first clear, credible reply. A quote that arrives two days later competes with a booking that has already been made. Inconsistent quotes cost in a different way: a rate from last year, an AV charge left off, a package that no longer includes afternoon tea. Either the hotel absorbs the difference or the client feels misled.
Meeting business matters to many independent hotels because it fills weekdays and brings bedroom stays. Losing it to slow admin is a waste of the rooms, the kitchen and the team you already have.
How we build a meeting quote tool
- Your meeting rooms, their layouts and capacities, your packages (day delegate, 24-hour, room hire only) and your extras are set up once, with the terms that go with each.
- The enquiry is read from the website form or the events inbox, and the date, numbers, layout, catering and bedroom needs are filled in for the coordinator to check.
- The tool checks meeting room availability in your meeting room diary and bedroom availability in your PMS through its API.
- It proposes the room that fits the numbers and layout, the right package for the length of stay, and the extras asked for, using this year's prices.
- The coordinator adjusts anything, such as a discount you agree to offer, and produces a quote in your hotel's layout as a PDF or a web page the client can accept online.
- Meeting rooms and bedrooms can be held provisionally when the quote is sent, with a hold date, and the coordinator is reminded before it runs out.
| Enquiry | What the tool checks | Quote proposes |
|---|---|---|
| Training day for twenty, lunch | Meeting room diary, catering | Garden suite, day delegate package |
| Two days for twelve, bedrooms for eight | Boardroom and PMS bedrooms | 24-hour package, bedrooms held provisionally |
| Launch for sixty, AV, registration room | Largest room and a breakout room | Room hire, AV and catering from this year's lists |
The quote uses your own prices and terms. The tool does not decide your rates or discounts; it makes sure the quote reflects what you have set.
Monday afternoon with the quote tool
By lunchtime, all three enquiries have quotes. The coordinator spent her time on the agency's launch, which needed a conversation about registration, not on copying rates into Word. The charity's bedrooms are held until Friday. When the training firm accepts online, the meeting room and catering move to confirmed and a function sheet is started.
At the end of the month, you can see how many meeting enquiries came in, how many were quoted, how quickly, and how many converted. That tells you more about your meeting business than a feeling that it has been quiet.
Are meeting enquiries waiting too long?
- Meeting quotes are built by copying an old Word document.
- Meeting rooms are in a separate diary from your bedrooms.
- Quotes take a day or more to go out.
- Old rates or missing extras have appeared on quotes.
- You do not know how many meeting enquiries turn into bookings.