Hotel/Venue Selection and Negotiation for Model UN Conferences (Part 1)

By: Victor Lang
Model United Nations Development Organization (MUNDO)

As a Model United Nations organizer, you are an event planner running an educational event. As such, a core component of your program is the environment in which your simulation exists.

The venue of your conference is dependent on a variety of things, price, location, conference room size, participation (delegate numbers), technology requirements, taxes, unions, not to mention your own ambitions… If your organization is connected to a university and you plan to run your conference there, then this article may not directly pertain to you. However, some universities charge their student organizations, which makes looking for an external venue an option. Many conferences especially those that are starting out have no choice financially but to run the conference on campus. This is not a bad thing as it fosters entrepreneurship in Model UN. This article is for Model UN organizers who are looking to work with a third-party conference facility for the first time. If you are new to working with hospitality industry, it can be exciting and a bit scary at first. The staff in the industry are easy to work with, as they want your business. This guide is an introduction to working with the hospitality industry as it pertains to running a Model UN conference.

My experience in working with hotels and the hospitality industry has largely been in large cities in the US and China, and have visited hotels in many countries. Globalization has standardized business practices around the world, so the sales process is essentially the same everywhere but, you do need to do some research on local business practices. A bit of cross cultural understanding goes a long way. In Chicago, we’ve moved hotels a few times, and we are visiting hotels every year, even though it seems like we’ve visited all of them at least twice already. Over the years, we have gotten to know hotel sales staff in many of the local hotels and have made some great friends in the hospitality industry. Picking the right venue is very important to your conference, not too expensive not too cheap, not to big not to small...

Step 1a: Preparing the venue search

The first thing you need to do before you start calling hotels is to figure out what kind of space you need.

4 key pieces of information about your event:
1. Number of room nights your organization can commit to,
2. Food and beverage (F&B) requirements of the conference,
3. Proposed schedule of your entire event, including conference room requirements, and
4. Possible dates of the conference.

The first 2, the room nights and food and beverage requirements are variables set the negotiation platform from which you begin to talk with hotels, since that is the source of their income.

Individual room sales is not the only way hotels usually make their money, not just on individual room sales, but from large packages, such as conferences, weddings, parties, etc. which include large amounts of hotel room sales. Knowing your “room block,” the number of rooms you will book over the course of the conference is a piece of information that you will need to know before you start negotiating with hotel as it is a key piece in developing a proposal for your group. You will need to think about how many staff rooms you will need (how many staff do you have? how many to a room?), and how many delegates you will expect to host at the conference. Usually a hotel will give you a proposal with a room rate based on a number of room nights you expect, and give you 10-20% attrition to give you leeway in final attendance. Your room block is calculated in “room nights,” which is how many hotel rooms your group will book total. For example, if you plan on booking 300 hotel rooms a night and your conference is 4 days (3 nights) long, you will have a total of 900 room nights. The more room nights you commit to, the more leeway you have to negotiate on price and hotel concessions. If you have no room nights and only book the event space, you will probably be charged a higher facility fee. Most hotels will charge a “facility fee,” which is the price of the conference room rental. If you are running a conference with a large room block, this is a point of negotiation and can usually be waved. If you are a conference with a small room block, usually a hotel will be more adamant about charging a facility fee. More on that in the next section.

The second 2 variables determine parameters in which your conference will run, and is important for the scheduling with the hotel, as well as pricing. Depending on the time of year of your event, the room rates can change substantially. Summers are usually higher than winter, and large scale events can skew the entire market. For example, the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) will book event space AND hotel rooms even if they don't think they are going to use it, and they are crazy because they literally book every space in all of Chicago for their 35,000 participants. The organizers of conferences like RSNA are organized by professional event planners who are probably making a few hundred thousand dollars to run the event. Doctors are the participants at RSNA so they come and spend a lot of money on hotel rooms. Most major cities have these kinds of events year round, making scheduling an interesting task.

Step 1b: Due Dilligence and Space Planning

One of the best parts of running a conference of any type is the research. It can be stressful and overwhelming if you are on time crunch, though visiting hotels is a great opportunity to get a personal guided tour of some of your city's most beautiful properties by a hotel sales member, and is often a great way of getting a free lunch. The initial discussions must be planned properly to ensure your perceived professionalism and to be taken seriously, but it is important also not to be too eager. Scoping out venues for conferences is important due diligence, and also very fun. If you are serious about holding a conference in a particular area, it is important to visit as many hotels as you possibly can, and to receive quotes from them. In real estate, we suggest that some buyer clients see every house in a neighborhood at their price point before making an informed decision. To be thorough in venue research is also highly suggested. To make an informed decision, you must be able to way all the pros and cons of a venue, and to also use the information to negotiate better terms with your final selection. Furthermore, having contract proposals from many hotels will give you a chance to use pricing as a point of future negotiation.

Visit the website of the hotel and download the floor plans for their event space. If they don’t have a website you can ask them to fax or email you a copy when you make the initial call.

When looking at the floor plan start visualizing the Model UN you want to create. You can either develop a set of committees that you want to create, and then find a conference space that will accommodate your choices. The other option is to find a suitable conference venue and then select your committee choices to fit the space.

Hotel and conference venue shopping is a continuous process, and should be part of your due diligence process. Only after visiting and learning about a lot of these conference centers can you improve your understanding of the hospitality industry. It takes practice. Over the last few years, I have visited countless hotels (probably up to 100) in many cities around the world. Whenever I go on a trip, I make sure to schedule a visit with a sales person at a hotel or two to check out the venues. A great way of scoping out hotels is when you are at other conferences. When you are on a deadline, of course, then the scheduling of your hotel visits are important. On more than a few occasions I’ve seen a whole city worth of hotels (with suitable event space) in 3 days. It was pretty intense but awesome.

Step 1c: Venues for Model UN - What are you looking for?

In the mind of the consumer, a venue can influence the brand and perceived reputation of the conference. As such, venue selection is very important and a variety of options should be considered.

Outside of the realm of campus facilities, there are many options for third-part conference venues for a Model UN conference. The most common of those is the hotel, which we have discussed extensively. Conference centers are a good option, though many of them do not have hotels attached, but "near by." There is something to be said about having a complete environment under your control. Afterhours of a high-school Model UN conference requires constant security (you don't want to be embarrassed [read: unprofessional] the next day in front of hotel staff when they find a passed-out drunk 17 year-old in the lift.

Another good place are are retreats, and I am not talking about one of those summer camps for kids. I'm talking about corporate retreats. The most awesome fully contained (hotel included) conference center I have ever seen is the Cedarbrook Conference Center near Seattle. Look at their website. This is a dream venue for Model UN, but damn they're expensive!

Often times, campus space can be rented by third-part organization, such as an independent non-profit or another type of outside group. This happens all the time (such as when college fairs are run by an outside organization). A word of caution: don't start a turf war if they have a Model UN team already! University MUN politics are very complex and usually very competitive. It is uncommon, but some universities have several MUN teams that compete with each other at conferences. Some universities have a MUN traveling team, and a separate organization that develops their own conference. Sometimes, universities with two Model UNs (high school and university-level) have completely different orgs running them. Anyways, I would avoid renting out university space unless you are in good relations with the club or team on campus. If they do not have a Model UN team, this could be your chance to cultivate a relationship with a pool of prospective staff. 

Things to look out for:

When you are doing your initial research think about:

Size of the venue:
If you are a small conference, it could be difficult to run an event at a big hotel. If you are renting out 5 conference rooms in a hotel with 30, it makes your conference small to your participants. A smaller hotel may be able to give you better pricing as well. 

Conference facilities: 
Visualize your space. When you are looking at the floor plan of a hotel, note the capacity of each room, specifically noting the "classroom style" layout. Think about what size your possible committees could be. Keep an eye out for the boardrooms, because those are awesome for small committees.

Brand name:
If the hotel is from a chain, you can classify them based on reputation. This can help you categorize them into loose tiers before you actually receive any pricing information. Often times, the service you receive from the fancier hotels compared to less-fancy hotels is vastly different. You get what you pay for, and there is a reason why the nicer hotels are more expensive. Think about the hotel's brand in relation to your Model UN's brand as well. It is important to note that hotels are looking to be competitive with other hotels in the same class. Oftentimes, you can bring prices down at a great hotel which can makes them a competitive option when put against some lower-tiered hotels. Pricing and finance will be discussed on a later segment, though when you spend more for a great venue, it may be an excellent experience, but it may be financially risky. If you go in debt, it puts your ability to run the conference again in the future at risk. Something to think about.

Special venues:
If you're really creative, you can really find some special venues to run your conference. For example, NMUN in New York landed the UN General Assembly for many years. Some local or regional-level legislatures are for rent when in recess and can provide a realistic environment to the proceedings. I once attended a MUN conference in Hong Kong that was held in the old City Hall (1 year before they demolished it - *tear*).

Next time: Keep your eyes open for Part 2 of this series on hotel selection and negotiation for Model UN. The next section will discuss initial contact with venue sales staff and the introductory walkthrough of the hotel.

- Victor Lang is the Managing Director of the Model United Nations Development Organization (MUNDO), and is Principal of Cloudview Real Estate, LLC.