The Importance of Turndowns

As a busy conference office, you are probably turning down a lot of business that is coming through your doors. We have all been there - the enquiries that end up in no man’s land –  from those bookings that are good bookings but don’t quite fit Sales Strategy, to those great bookings that just don’t fit into your space, but would be perfect if you had some outside space for activities, to those events which are put out to every conceivable venue in 8 major cities by overzealous conference agents, that very rarely, if ever confirm. Also when you are really busy taking enquiries for meeting space, why would you want to take the time to put in bookings that are never going to take place, when you could be spending time on your existing clients?  ESPECIALLY those bookings that come from those overzealous conference agents; so many bookings and such a small amount confirm.

So here are some of the reasons why you should be entering your turndowns on property:

·         They provide an accurate  gauge as to your actual business level - You always feel busy, and like there are lots of enquiries are coming through, but how busy actually ARE you? Entering turndowns in to your systems will show the true level of enquiries coming in. Your GM might be thinking – do I keep the conference office open in these tough times? Well we only entered 40 bookings (actually had 180 in total with turndowns) this month – the phones must have been dead, do i really need a team of 4 for only 40 enquiries?

·         Data Tracking – for those venues that take a lot of conference agent bookings – how much are you tracking their business and conversion rate? When the Agent is crying out for more commission, you will have some hard statistics to back up any negotiation you might have with them.

·         Data Tracking – The above goes for corporate clients. Got a corporate client that wants to drop their agreed room nights or rate as they have put a lot of conference business through the hotel, including lots of enquiries?  Get the true picture of their commitment to your property with the actual business AND the turndowns to show how much business the corporate client is putting through the hotel.

·         Existing clients – If you put in enough turndowns from one big client, they will eventually go elsewhere – keep an eye on those big producing accounts – sometimes it is worth taking a bad booking to keep them happy in the long run. Turndowns will help keep a track on the amount of business that these existing clients could be generating.

·         New client Tracking – got a company that is booking a lot, but is not a bedrooms client?  Soliciting new bedroom contracts can be made easy – Ie your company produced 400 room nights last year, and we had another 360 in turned down bookings from our group desk – let’s make a contract for 700 for next year at £xx rate.  

The above are just a few examples of the way in which turndowns can be utilised – there are many more – can you suggest anything else? Of if you have a success story you would like to share from analysing your turndown business?  Please comment below!