Free Confessions of an Event Planner: Case Studies From the Real World of Events--How to Handle the Unexpected and How to Be a Master of Discretion by Judy Allen

check-in relaxing and enjoyable but not a main event.
Assignment
Plan a sample welcome reception food and beverage menu that is appealing after a long travel day, features local cuisine and beverages from the selected destination, is well balanced and designed to serve as a replacement meal and to act as an alcohol buffer, and is easy to eat standing up in a private check-in area. Focus on avoiding cutlery, messy sauces and large pieces of food. If possible, obtain a hotel’s food and beverage menu as well as a local restaurant’s to use as reference guides, remembering that it is possible to create custom menus. For example, a hotel in Tucson created cactus cookies for a dessert option at one welcome reception. (Special note: In-depth information on food and beverage is covered in Event Planning: The Ultimate Guide .)
    Guestroom Assignment
    Q: How is guestroom assignment best done?
     
     
    A: When you are booking group space at a resort you will be given the opportunity to block and negotiate rates in several different categories. Traditionally, the less expensive way is to block run-of-the-house rooms, but for an incentive group that is not advisable as there will be a visible difference between rooms that could be allocated to you (e.g., some members of the group may end up with their desired ocean-, mountain- or city-view rooms, while the rest of the group ends up overlooking the parking lot; the room amenities can vary greatly as well with regard to room size and room inclusions). For an incentive program, it is imperative that all rooms be equal unless specific upgrades are requested for top performers who have earned a suite, etc. through their sales efforts. Participants will check out other guestrooms and compare what they were assigned to what others received, and if there is a great disparity, you can expect a flood of room request changes to start coming in.
    For non-incentive groups, the recommended course of action is to block one room category for all, with the request for room category upgrades contractually negotiated as well as any suites for top VIPs, staff room rates, comp rooms, etc. In the contract and in your function sheets it must clearly state that the hotel cannot upgrade any rooms at their discretion without the approval of the event planner and their client. If for unforeseen reasons an upgrade has to take place at check-in, it is better to choose who the upgraded room is to go to as opposed to leaving it to chance. With one incentive group, the client made the decision to keep all of their rooms the same and give the upgraded room to an event planning staff member rather than run the risk of having any of their employees’ sales egos out of alignment.
    With event planning staff rooms, budget permitting, it is always better to assign single rooms so that staff can be properly rested and not be woken up with early morning preparations by a roommate who may be working the pre-breakfast shift or coming home in the early morning hours after working the evening’s event. Having a single room also gives event planning staff the opportunity to escape being in a group setting and get some much needed quiet time during their off-duty hours to nap, work out in their room or just simply relax and enjoy a room service meal without people from the group around so that they can return to the job refreshed and ready to go.
Assignment
Investigate a sampling of the different types of room categories available at hotels and resorts and note the differences in room location, room size and room amenities. Discuss the advantages of each. Remember that rates shown are not group rates, which are negotiated based on group size, room count, food and beverage and space requirements, but will serve as a starting point for comparison. Pull up a selected hotel or resort on-line (the actual hotel or resort website—not the master chain reservation website) or obtain a hotel’s full presentation kit. (Special note: