El Conquistador Tucson, a Hilton Resort. Courtesy Photo

The hospitality industry has lived through its worst-case scenario with the pandemic and now seems to be doing better than ever. This is, in part, due to hotels implementing changes that continue to entice meeting planners today: cleanliness protocols, efficient check-in protocols and sustainability solutions, among others. Here’s a look at how hotel brands have made things better for their meeting attendees and enticed them to come back for more.

Hilton

For Hilton, the pandemic reinforced the fact that there is no true replacement for in-person meetings and events. While there was a rise in digital meetings in the past few years, people have been eager to return to in-person business travel. Hilton has implemented some programs to increase convenience for meeting planners and also to respond to planners need for sustainability.

To reduce friction for meeting planners, Hilton has started a digital check-in process, contactless arrival and implemented a digital key, which is within the Hilton Honors app. Attendees can use the app on their smartphones to bypass the hotel check-in counter, unlock their rooms and gain access to other areas of the hotel. Since its 2015 launch, Hilton’s Digital Key technology has expanded and is now available in a large percentage of Hilton’s more than 7,000 hotels.

In addition, Hilton partnered with  Group360 to launch  GroupSync Engage, the hospitality industry’s first integrated  direct booking solution for group  room blocks across  the majority  of  the  Hilton portfolio, providing  event  planners  with  the ability to view  real-time availability  and book  guest room blocks for small groups at  the majority  of  their properties around the world.

To make things even more convenient for meeting planners, the brand has also unveiled new enhancements which allow for the booking of guest rooms for small groups and meeting customers directly on Hilton.com.

Business travelers, now more than ever, want sustainable and wellness options when booking meetings and events. Hilton relaunched their Meet with Purpose program to more closely align with their Travel with Purpose goals. The program continues to evolve to allow planners to integrate healthy, sustainable and locally sourced menus, social impact opportunities and other sustainable elements to help offset carbon footprints and maintain personal wellness.

The program also provides customers the tools to measure and manage the environmental footprint of their meetings using actionable data from Hilton’s LightStay platform, which tracks and reports on a group’s hotel-related emissions, and allows attendees to volunteer in the community as part of their stay. Many of their hotels also participate in their Carbon-Neutral Meetings Offer, in which Hilton will offset the carbon footprint of the meeting on their behalf.

Hyatt

Hyatt has recovered in the meeting-business sector at a pace that’s close to pre-pandemic levels. Although leisure still leads the way, they are seeing an increased demand from meetings.

One of the biggest changes they are seeing is more short-term bookings. Last year, for example, most corporate reservations for retreats were made within 6-12 months of arrival, a much shorter window than pre-pandemic norms. The post-pandemic meetings business is more flexible, varied in size and hybrid.

Hyatt launched Together by Hyatt, a suite of event offerings for planners as they navigate changes to how people meet and work together.

Together by Hyatt provides organizers with a range of resources, capabilities and hybrid solutions to streamline event planning and execution, with attendee safety and wellbeing as top priorities. Together by Hyatt provides Global Biorisk Advisory Council (GBAC) STAR Facility Accreditation for cleanliness protocols. It’s a bespoke hosting technology platform to unify on-site and virtual experiences, and many other planning and wellness activations.

Hyatt recently unveiled Work From Hyatt: Offsite, so planners have a flexible program that provides groups with experiences to discover the destination they are in and foster team building. This corporate retreat concept allows teams to reconnect, reinvigorate and relax together through curated, signature team-building experiences — from craft cocktail classes to city scavenger hunts.

Marriott

At Marriott, which leans heavily with big convention hotels, the company has been pleasantly surprised at the return of meetings and events. Officials expected leisure would be the first to return post-pandemic, but it has been groups and meetings. They are seeing a positive trend of meetings booking for short term and into the future. They are finding that people want to get back together to see each other after an extended time away, to network and to build camaraderie.

So, while virtual worked when needed, for most of those using Marriott’s offerings for conventions and meeting space, it is not the solution for the future, though customers are going to keep a hybrid approach for most of their meetings.

During the time when things were slow, Marriott made some changes. Early on, everything was related to its Connect with Confidence program, which was about helping customers meet safely, and that included cleanliness and safety protocols. Much of that remains today.

They are also really dialing up their digital tools and making sure everyone has the mobile app to use it for mobile check-in, mobile key and mobile chat, to make the on-property experience a positive one.

Planners are asking for more flexibility in this post-pandemic world. Flexibility is important, they find, because there will always be those last-minute cancelations or, conversely, more people will show up than expected.

Planners also consistently talk about creating experiences. If they are going to spend the money to bring people together, they need it to be a great experience. For Marriott, this could include hosting an internal sales meeting, a board meeting, incentive and recognition programs, or a convention.

MGM Resorts

If there’s one impact the pandemic has had on the meetings and events industry, it’s that it brought tremendous value to meeting face to face. MGM Resorts seems to have thrived during the pandemic and continues to grow today. They started hosting meetings as soon as they could in Las Vegas last year, and have been very busy there. They continue to be encouraged by the return of meetings and conventions. Their numbers show that the demand is high for business travel. Their lead volume and pace is up and they are working to stay ahead of any risk.

The hotel brand took measures to focus on health and safety, but also spent time looking at processes. MGM invested millions of dollars into digital and technology to make things better for meeting planners and attendees when they returned. This included the mobile app at check-in and using QR codes.

In addition, they continue to change things up to keep the excitement high for planners. They see many of the same groups yearly, so doing things a little different, and figuring out how to reinvent themselves, is important so planners don’t feel they are going to the same event every year.

They created the Luxury Meeting District concept, which refers to their luxury campuses (including Bellagio, ARIA, Vdara, Park MGM, NoMad, T-Mobile Arena, The Park, and Dolby Live at Park MGM). Large groups can take advantage of the amenities and meeting spaces in those properties.

Caesars Entertainment

Caesars Entertainment found out quickly how important it was for those in the meeting industry to see faces in person. Post-pandemic, interest spiked upward fast.

Since the preponderance of business happens in Las Vegas, Caesars is in good shape. They are doing more meetings and events today than they did pre-pandemic. One of the reasons for Caesars success is that they worked hard during the pandemic to make sure they were interacting consistently, keeping planners up-to-date and offering them availability for future meetings.

The hotel brand booked more than $600 million worth of contracts in the first 12 months of the pandemic — an all-time record.

Caesars is still benefitting from those contracts today. They have many loyal meeting planners so their team members are happily back at work doing the thing they love.

During the time when planners weren’t coming in and gathering face to face, Caesars Entertainment made some changes to entice planners. From a policies and procedure standpoint, everything changed with safety in mind.

Caesars is always working to put together attractive offers so that meeting planners will continue to select properties in all their locations.

Caesars will continue providing customers with what they want, working hard to be on the forefront of planners’ environmental, social and flexibility needs.

Accor

At Accor properties, during the height of the pandemic, there was a significant number of hotels completely closed, and all meetings business was put on hold. Their post-recovery, however, has been steady, continuous and almost universal across different countries, according to a representative. In fact, they are approaching pre-pandemic levels, and in some cases surpassing them.

They are seeing that planners’ expectations have changed significantly since the pandemic, and many are looking for trips that are longer and with more to do. They have also seen more of a desire to think local and to think about sustainability. With that in mind, the hotel brand introduced the ALLSAFE label, which represents Accor’s new elevated cleanliness protocols and standards, and provides assurance that these standards have been met in all hotels.

They launched a carbon capture calculator. It enables planners to calculate their carbon usage relative to an event, and they can offset that if they want.

Omni

Omni Hotels & Resorts and Groups360 announced last year that Omni was the first ever hotelier to offer instant booking for both group rooms and meeting space on GroupSync. GroupSync is Groups360’s proprietary online booking marketplace, with instant booking capabilities that enable anyone organizing a meeting or event to book both group guest rooms and event spaces online. This is available at the Omni Frisco Hotel, and soon across Omni’s more than 50 properties in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

They also have a Select Planner program, which offers free nights faster with one Award Credit per $1,000 contracted for a qualified event, and an accelerated path to Platinum and Black Level status with one Tier Credit per $10,000 contracted. You can earn for booking events and for stays – all in one Select Guest member account. The best part is Omni awards your rewards at the time of booking so you can enjoy them sooner.

The brand continues to be focused on giving back. Through its Say Goodnight to Hunger program, Omni has donated over 20 million meals to help Feeding America provide nutritious meals for food banks to feed children, families and seniors across the U.S. Additionally, as the Official Hotel of the PGA TOUR, Omni Hotels & Resorts will help provide four meals for a family in need for every birdie-or-better made during each event. This past year, they donated nearly 215,000 meals to the local Feeding America food bank in each tournament’s home city.

Peter Strebel, chairman of Omni Hotels & Resorts, was named the recipient of the 2022 Historic Hotels of America Legacy of Innovation and Inspiration Award. The award recognized Strebel’s accomplishments in pioneering innovative concepts and programs, achieving uncommon success and being a thought-leader on exceptional service. He has helped with the preservation, restoration and celebration of 15 iconic historic hotels and resorts.

Strebel has also spearheaded the development of programs such as An Exceptional Guest Experience Served Up with Local Flavor, the Omni Hotels & Resorts Junior Chefs program, and new concepts in its family friendly hotels, championship golf resorts and spa resorts.

Hotel brands continue to implement new protocols and programs to draw meeting planners through their doors as the industry is ever-changing. Due to the determination of brands like these, the industry seems to be moving toward a brighter future. C&IT