While holding a meeting within driving distance of where many attendees live often brings cost savings on air and even hotel, there can be a serious downside as well. When people opt to “commute” to the meeting rather than stay overnight at the host hotel, planners face attrition challenges, and attendees may sacrifice the networking and bonding opportunities that often happen after the official meeting day is through.
Renee Radabaugh, president of Paragon Events, found this to be true during a recent meeting in Orlando where about 300 of the 2,000 attendees lived within two hours of the destination. Of these, a significant portion opted to return home at night rather than stay at the hotel.
“We had allowed for this when establishing the room block, so we didn’t have issues with attrition,” she said. “But what we realized afterward is that the attendee engagement is directly affected by the drive-to situation. People may try to get out early to beat the traffic and save money by sleeping in their own beds. This can be a real disadvantage with a larger conference like this, where networking with colleagues and exhibitors is an integral part of the program.”
MaryAnne Bobrow, president of Bobrow & Associates, has also observed this situation.
“When attendees are not staying in the hotel, they are not getting the full benefit of the meeting,” she said. “Even not staying at the host hotel has a similar effect. At the host hotel you are more likely to go to socialize with others during the evening. Just walking down the hall, you may see someone to have a drink with or chat with. Bonds are formed this way.”
Both Bobrow and Radabaugh have found that enticing locally based attendees to stay at the hotel rather than drive home at night is no easy task.
“One thing you can do is offer tiered pricing for hotels,” Radabaugh said. “So if the host hotel has the higher rate, they had the option of staying at another hotel at a cheaper rate. You usually have to find something at a rate that is 25 to 40 percent less. Even so, there are certain people you can’t convince—they will still want to go home.”
Another solution is to promote the meeting in such a way that attendees realize the value of staying at the hotel, she added.
“When you do your engagement emails and communications, promote the things that they will need to stick around for,” she said. “We don’t openly say don’t drive home, but we recommend the rich content that continues beyond the four walls of the meeting itself.”
Bobrow noted that one solution offered by organizations is to structure the registration process so that those who do book one of the host hotels get a break on the registration fee.
“PCMA does this—if you are not staying at one of the designated hotels, you pay more for registration,” she said. “So if the registration is $995 and you indicate on the online form that you will book the hotel, you’ll see that amount drop by a couple of hundred dollars. However, if you cancel out on booking the hotel, the registration fee will get readjusted back to the original fee. They make it so you can’t scam the system.”
What is the distance tipping point for many people when it comes to opting to stay at the hotel rather than commute home? Radabaugh puts it at about 45 minutes to an hour.
“Once it’s over that, most people will want to stay at the meeting, figuring the drive will add too much stress to the day,” she said. “But if it’s just 20 or 30 minutes away from home, it’s like their normal work day. They may not think about how much they are missing by cutting out early.”
Because of rising hotel rates and other costs in many cities these days, Bobrow expects to see more people commuting to meetings.
“With rooms rates costing hundreds of dollars in some cities, it’s inevitable,” she said. “It’s a major problem [right now].”
