Hotels and Resorts are still trying to recover from Covid 19 aftershocks. They have tried a variety of tactics to save money and make income, including trimming staff, stretching maintenance schedules and some even cutting back on civic involvement. But a lucrative stream of income is right in front of those responsible for resort budgets – and it won’t cost them a dime.
Handling a Make-Believe Client
Don’t believe me? Let’s pretend for the moment that I have an out-of-town group who is looking for a five-day visit to a resort. First, I would scan resort websites to narrow my search to my top three before making contact. My imaginary group has time to kill in addition to our sales meetings, so I am looking for activities. A typical resort website will tell me that the property has a restaurant, spa, and other typical in-house resort activities usually provided by the staff.
The next thing of prominence on the website (after how beautiful the venue is and information about the beautiful rooms) is photos and videos of all the things that can be done in the surrounding area, including the local entertainment district and possible excursions (which, by the way, don’t distinguish it from other resorts that point to the same outings.)
“Sitting on a Gold Mine?”
But almost all resorts miss something basic – every time a group piles onto a bus to go off-site, they take their wallets with them. Promoting off-site events should be the last thing a resort wants to do. First, it should at least promote local vendors (like murder mystery parties!) who do activities on-site at the resort. Shouldn’t the resort promote those activities before they pack groups on a bus and send their money elsewhere? Or, at the bare minimum, give local vendors who do on-site events equal promotion space?
This reminds me of an advertisement running in most markets now that shows two miners under a woman’s home telling her she is “sitting on a gold mine.” (They are talking cashing out her insurance policies.)
Resorts are also sitting on a gold mine – and that gold mine is making more profits by adequately promoting the services offered by their local vendors. Some local services include scavenger hunts, night volleyball, sports programs, casino nights – and yes, murder mystery parties.
Why Local Vendor Options Are Not Presented
Information about the things local vendors can do on-site at a resort should be prominently displayed on the website. But those activities are rarely – if ever – mentioned. The only way a potential group would discover those activities even existed – since they are not on the website – is if the resort’s meeting planner promotes them. And that rarely happens.
Part of this is because it takes extra time and energy to learn about different vendors and determine which ones have activities that are viable and which ones are not. You would think meeting planners who booked a local vendor would attend the event. But believe it or not, frequently that does not happen.
So the meeting planner is trying to promote a local vendor event when she hasn’t ever experienced it.
Vendors with Unique Services Are at a Disadvantage
This situation is worse for vendors with unusual or unique services like our murder mystery parties. Most people have never even heard of doing a cocktail mystery party where 50 or 60 people come to play a character. So we can only get the business and help the resort keep money on-site if they recommend us and thoroughly explain our services to the client.
Frequently, meeting planners may have a list of vendors who provide on-site activities, but most planners think of these activities with so little regard that they don’t even attend those events when they are at the resort. Meeting planners can’t effectively pitch the vendor’s services because they only know what they have seen on a brochure.
What we find particularly troublesome is when we do events at some resorts, the meeting planners (who are in their offices around the corner) rarely come by to even check it out. It boils down to a lack of respect by the meeting planners for their local vendors. And it is costing them money.
High Meeting Planner Turnover Has Impact
However, relying on the resort meeting planner to sell vendor services is difficult. Meeting planner turnover is high – six months after we go to a resort and make a pitch for our services, we must start all over again explaining our services to new employees.
A brief description of our services on the resort website would give vendors some permanence that would help get more events on-site and explain to new employees who we are and what we do.
A Case Study to Prove My Point
A few years ago, I was in a resort meeting planner’s office pitching our murder mystery parties for the first time. After showing the shiny brochure and trying to explain what we do and why their clients would love it, she ushered me to the door. It was obvious she was uninterested.
Three months later, I got a call from the resort. The meeting planner I had met with was no longer there, and a new meeting planner had seen my brochure. She had a group planning to be at the resort for five days. The client had asked her to come up with some suggestions for a unique “out-of-the-ordinary” event. She came up with four different ideas but realized at the last minute that every one of them involved busing her guests off-site.
She suggested our services. The group had 75 people. So the resort ended up with 75 people in their grand ballroom eating the hotel’s food, not to mention the large rental fee for the grand ballroom. The resort made several thousand dollars on a group that she was about to bus elsewhere.
Resorts Should Maximize All Their Vendors
How much business has been lost because a potential client was surfing a resort website and could have been persuaded by a unique service offered by a vendor on-site?
Wouldn’t it make more sense to at least give the vendors who provide activities on-site the same kind of promotion that resorts give to off-site activities? This isn’t just a “feel good option.” They could increase profits if they treat their in-house vendors who keep their guests on site more respect.
Host Your Next Party With Mystery Mixers!
If you are ready to host your next party with Mystery Mixers, email [email protected] or call 727-430-5908 to plan your own murder mystery party event!
