Managing meetings in... London

London will be the centre of the world next summer. Jonathan Hart asks the experts for tips on booking and buying meetings in the city Managing meetings London

MANY OLYMPIC TICKET applicants have been disappointed, with those who yearned for the 100m final ending up with the semis of the synchronised swimming. But there are no fears of such a random lottery for meetings buyers at the Olympics – with less than a year to go, the message from London & Partners is that you don’t have to take pot luck to organise a private event in tandem with the Games.

The official body charged with the promotion of the capital admits that a number of major venues have been block booked by teams or sponsors, but insists there is more than enough space to meet demands.

It claims that, with the possible exception of some inner London hotels, plentiful primary meetings space, and delegate beds, remain available at affordable rates during the third quarter of 2012.

Head of event solutions, Zanine Adams, points to the period between the Games ending on August 12 and Paralympics beginning on August 29 as a specific ‘downtime’ on which to capitalise. “There is plenty of venue space and choice available between these dates, and planners will have the accompanying Cultural Olympiad to keep the theme and momentum of their event going,” she says. “Public attractions such as most museums, which are ideal for meetings and gala events, will not be block booked.

In addition, hotel space and prices shouldn’t be at a premium at this time.”

Adams adds that forward bookings show that those not directly involved in Olympics’ sponsorship or hospitality are tending to stage their meetings in the capital between April and June, or later in 2012. “It’s not too mad to suggest that there is still plenty of scope for planners to find a suitable venue,” she says.

Industry sources agree. Charlotte Booth, project manager, events management at Grass Roots says, “Shorter lead-in times of three to six months at the outside are the norm for venues worldwide and London is no exception”. This means that clients are looking to contract meetings in the city in the normal way in 2012, with continued added-value being sought from venues. Aligning residential events with the Olympics is ongoing, she adds.

Colleague Sue Massey, the company’s operations and account director, venue procurement, says the regular London meetings market is buoyant, helped by the big choice of venues of all types across the capital. “We are experiencing no problems at all in securing regular placements,” she says.

Michael Begley, managing director of the venuedirectory.com data bank, confirms that it’s largely business as usual. “In some respects, the Olympics are a side issue,” he says. “London is buzzing. It has re-established itself as a global gateway and financial capital. Its popularity continues to grow and venues within the M25 account for some 50 per cent of current UK location revenues.”

He says that, in addition to not suffering as much as their provincial counterparts through recession, interest in and demand for these venues as a whole has simply been heightened by the Games. “Coupled with preferential exchange rates, popularity and demand have been magnified.”

While large provincial venues have benefited from companies deciding to steer clear of the city in 2012, because it’s going to be packed to the rafters, London still represents the UK’s primary meetings magnet.

“The Olympics are both a good and bad influence, depending on your viewpoint,” says Begley. “For example, the fact that some key venues have already been booked up by national teams or their entourages for certain periods can be off-putting to buyers. On the other hand, you shouldn’t have to look far for alternative availability.”

Perhaps the one remaining fly in this meetings ointment is the immediate short-term position of hotel availability in central London where, reputedly up to 65,000 rooms, or more than 40 per cent of the capital’s total room stock, have been set aside for use by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG).

At the time of writing, how many of these rooms are to be taken up and how many will be released on the general market, and at what rates, was not going to be known until January 2012 at the earliest. “Frankly, this has left us struggling to secure and confirm placements for volume events,” says Massey. “Having to wait until January is leaving us in limbo.”

This same uncertainty over availability and price – chiefly for hotel rooms in July and August – has prompted HRG (Hogg Robinson Group) to devise a client support system for 2012. “Essentially, we are trying to inject a sense of commercial realism among clients and suppliers,” says HRG’s commercial director, Stewart Harvey. “Finding space is not a problem, but the premium you are sometimes being asked to pay for it is.

Everyone accepts that prices are going to be higher during the period, but by what percentage is open to question.”

Different clients have different priorities. This means advising on and monitoring transactions to ensure they receive the best deal and best practice, he says. “In the absence of a fair pricing charter, we need to avoid a standard of mediocrity.”

HRG has clients who have been happy to take the advice to meet elsewhere to avoid any potential difficulties, he says. It also has clients who are headline sponsors for the Olympics as well as those tied to meeting in London and who need support.

Suppliers taking deposits need to be careful not to alienate these regular customers, he warns. “We’re not talking about suddenly pitching up with a coach-load of people and expecting preferential treatment, but we are talking about adopting a common sense approach and honouring contracted services and rates. Regular clients need a cushion and suppliers need to put a ring around them if they’re racking up the prices.”

Begley agrees that price is a factor for concern for near future bookings but says that venues generally have too much to lose in the longer term to ‘over-egg the pudding’. “Revenue managers shouldn’t be stupid,” he says. He also agrees with Harvey, that the meetings sector, or business tourism, should anyway escape the worst of the predicted short-term rollercoaster effects of the Olympics on London’s visitor market.

Oxford Economics forecasting consultancy predicts that £375 million of the potential £1.85 billion in visitor revenues generated by the Games could be lost, due largely to visitors staying away from London because of the Games.

The research forecasts that £160m will be lost from overseas visitors avoiding London. An additional £124m will vanish from domestic tourists heading overseas to escape the Games, and £91m from Londoners fleeing the capital. In addition, the European Tour Operators Association (ETOA) forecasts London could lose up to 50 per cent of its regular 7 million annual visitor inflow next year due to concerns about transport problems and over-crowding.

A recent PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) survey predicts that the Olympics bonanza expected by hotels could produce a post-Games headache. It says the raft of new hotels scheduled to open across the capital prior to the Games, adding to already extensive venue choice (see ‘Hotels stock up’, below), could temporarily prove to be surplus to immediate requirements.

Predicting an additional 20 per cent visitor influx and 92 per cent occupancies in Q3, it warns of potential under-performance in Q2 and a ‘hangover’ for hotels in Q4. The survey cites Christopher Hales, head of Olympics for InterContinental Hotels Group, as saying: “Smart revenue maximisation will be crucial for hoteliers aiming to reap the full potential rewards the Olympics can bring; not just the few weeks of the Games themselves.”

How seriously the capital’s corporate meetings market is affected, or will be by potential hotel ‘gamesmanship’, is debatable, says Morag Alabaster, director of the Marylebone Warwick Balfour Group (MWB), an affiliate of Hotel du Vin and Malmaison.

Since the recession, and apart from ad hoc hospitality and annual events, everyday demand has revolved around small, cost-effective external offices or venues, she says. London has a vast network of serviced apartments and external venues catering for between two and 200 delegates.

“First, the demand was strictly for just offices and no frills,” she says.

 “More recently, demand has been for more elaborate but still functional and adaptable meetings space, which is why we are fast developing that end of the market. The non-residential element is now a staple for corporates in London.”

Her contention is supported by the trend among hotels of all categories to put day delegate rates (DDRs), typically ranging from £50 to £70 per head inclusive, to the forefront of their proposition to buyers.

With London meeting prices rising exponentially from last year, but bottom line costs remaining crucial to clients, the standardised, instantly booked and easy-to-track DDR, aligned with the individual added-value extras provided, arguably has become the common negotiable currency in the capital’s ongoing hotels’ meetings market.

HOTELS STOCK UP

London is witnessing an influx of new, refurbished or re-branded hotels during the current run-up to the Olympics, adding to the choice of more than 160 hotels with meeting facilities across the capital.

Roughly 40 per cent of the estimated 23,000 additional rooms are in the four-or five-star categories. The bulk of these are in the West End or City and have fewer than 50 or 100 rooms, with select meeting space for high-end corporate events.

Among larger five-star openings next year are the 245-room InterContinental Westminster; the 195-room Shangri-La at the Shard; the 192-room Four Seasons at Heron Plaza, and the 173-room ME by Melía.

They follow the recently opened 331-room St Ermin’s; the 294-room Corinthia; the 283-room St Pancras Renaissance; the 46-room Courthouse Doubletree by Hilton, and the 192-room W Leicester Square, each with a variety of meeting or syndicate rooms.

Opening in October, and adjacent to the ExCel/ ICC, is the 252-bed Aloft ExCel, connected to the complex by walkway and with five small meeting rooms of its own.

The 1,045-bed Hilton Metropole has completed a £1.8m refurbishment of its West Wing, including bedrooms and pre-function areas. With 40 meeting rooms seating up to 3,000, the Metropole is one of 11 Hilton properties in London with extensive meetings rooms and packages.

Marriott is another brand chasing meetings custom. The chain’s 18 four- and five-star hotels across the capital include the iconic Grosvenor House and the St Pancras Renaissance, plus a West India Quay property.

Among Accor’s 44 hotels in and around London, the five-star Sofitel and four-star Novotel brands are both multiple meetings suppliers. For example, the flagship Sofitel St James offers 14 different meeting rooms for up to 170. The 630-room Novotel London West has a choice of 35 rooms seating up to 1,000, and Novotel ExCel features 13 small event or breakout rooms for up to 65.

Park Plaza Hotels & Resorts’ four meetings-oriented properties in central London include the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge with 32 rooms for up to 1,400 people.

LARGER EXTERNAL VENUES (SELECTION)

GOING FISHING?

Docklands and ExCel offer improving scope but it’s a virtual desert if you want to stage a private event at the Olympics site, according to Andrew Williams. The managing director of Seventeen Events, which specialises in East End placements, says Stratford remains “a work in progress” for meetings.

“The new Westfield Centre, opening this autumn, should provide some useful events space alongside older venues like the town hall,” he says. “Otherwise it can be slim pickings.”

The existing stand-out venue is Forman’s Fish Island (www.formansfishisland.com). This converted former smoked salmon factory on the banks of the River Lea directly overlooks the Olympic stadium and offers two floors of roomy, contemporary space.

“Perhaps the one downside is that it can be tricky to access, transport-wise,” adds Williams.

Coming on to the radar for East End events are places like the new Hackney Marshes sports centre, West Ham Football Club and the Museum of London Docklands.

In the Canary Wharf area, Williams recommends the New York-style, easy-access East Wintergarden, plus the new Boisdale of Canary Wharf.

“And as far as ExCel is concerned, the completion of the cable car connection with the O2 arena should significantly broaden planning opportunities,” Williams adds.