ELE’s Top 6 Tips for Nonprofits to Negotiate the Best Rates with Hotels
Spring conference and meeting season is fast approaching and, with precautions in place, many organizations will be holding events in person again! As you and your organization start getting your ducks in a row, here are some tips from our personal experience to help you secure great meeting space rates within your budget, as well as build good relationships that lead to future success and ease in securing space.
Know what you’ll need to make the event successful.
Prepare a rough sketch, ahead of time, of what the event will require to be successful. How many conference rooms will you need and what purpose will they each serve? How do you expect them to be set up and what is the estimated minimum and maximum capacity for each room? What will your catering, AV, parking, and accessibility needs be? How many hotel rooms do you expect for your room block? You don’t need to know every detail yet but the more you do know, the better estimate of the final cost you can get and negotiate on certain aspects of your event.
Do your research: Compare rates of several hotels in your target area and work that into your negotiations.
Let’s say you know your 150-person winter meeting will be held in Chicago and you want to lock in the best rate for your needs. You’ve narrowed it down to 3 hotels in the downtown Loop area, one boutique hotel and two large chain hotels. Block off some time to sit down and call the sales office of each location, walk through your rough sketch of the event with a representative, and ask them to prepare a proposal. When you have the proposals in hand, you can make an informed decision about which hotel will be your top choice and you can leverage final negotiations knowing what their competitors are offering.
Be frank with sales reps about your budget and ask them to work with you.
Sometimes the easiest way to negotiate a hotel rate is by being frank with sales representatives from the beginning. Tell them upfront that you’re a non-profit, mission-based organization with a maximum budget of X amount and are wondering how they can accommodate your needs.
It never hurts to ask - negotiate on the smaller things that always add up.
In your final stages of negotiations, it never hurts to ask about shaving off some smaller expenses. Perhaps if you choose the bigger AV package they can throw in free wifi connections for your attendees or discounted parking? Maybe the hotel can provide the smaller meeting room you need for staging equipment at no extra cost? Or, if there is a food and beverage minimum, and you’ll have a hard time meeting it, perhaps they can make a concession on the room rental fee? Everything adds up, especially since service fees are usually a percentage of final costs, so always make the ask.
Inform hotels of your nonprofit status to help with negotiations and get your sales tax exemption.
After a hotel provides a price quote for your event, remind them that you are a nonprofit organization and ask if there is anything they can do to make it more affordable or whether they have nonprofit rates. Hotels in many states will also provide nonprofits an exemption from paying sales tax on the event with the proper proof of nonprofit status.
Build good relationships with hotel representatives to secure low rates and good service at that hotel chain in the future.
These days, most hotels are part of a chain or parent company. When you build a good relationship with the representative of one hotel, chances are they will be delighted to help make your event a success in subsequent years and connect you with their colleagues in the future when you’re planning an event in a different city or location. You will also have a basis from which to negotiate, perhaps saying, “last year, your colleague met our budget and threw in X services at no extra charge. We are hoping that by remaining loyal to your company, you can honor our mission and budget with the same or similar accommodations.”