Articles

Nightmare Scenarios

Judy Colbert

You’ve booked an insurance meeting into a city that has a huge
convention or sporting event and your CEO or your entire roster
of attendees has to be walked to another hotel.

You have 1,000 people at an event and the air conditioning stops working.

Or maybe you have 500 people in attendance for an outdoor garden event and the skies open three weeks before the rainy season is supposed to start.

Mother Nature has a way of orchestrating nightmare scenarios. Think about the Earthquake World Series in California in October 1989. There wasn’t even an option of moving to the“other” city because the two teams involved were the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletics.

Hurricane Katrina is another disaster that will have repercussions for months and perhaps years to come. Dave Gerdes, director of marketing for the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC, has had his share of jobs in Florida
and says he’s been fortunate enough to not experience a direct hurricane hit.

“We did make preparations, though. One benefit of working with a brand and not an independent hotel is the brand backing,” says Gerdes. He was sure that within days (if not hours) of the Gulf Coast’s “tsunami,” the Omni national sales manager was working with the Omni Royal Orleans and the
Omni Royal Crescent to see if they had any meetings that could be relocated to other Omni properties. “I’m sure the other brands are doing the same thing,” Gerdes says.

Last year’s hurricanes (Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne) that ravaged much of Florida caused a lot of cancellations and nightmares for meeting planners. Many were hesitant to reschedule meetings in the Sunshine State during the hurricane season, which runs from June 1 through November
30. The state responded by offering“hurricane insurance” with information available through Visit Florida, the state’s tourism office. The state initiated a free “Cover Your Event” insurance program for meetings, incentives and conventions planned for August through October 2005 (also good for meetings during those months in 2006 and 2007) with a minimum 100-room nights booked during a two-night period. There is no cost to the sponsoring corporation for this supplemental business insurance. Coverage, which has a limit based on the number of room nights, will pay for room differential and extra expense for rescheduled events at the same or nearest available venue within 12 months of the original event date, due to a hurricane. Resorts and other venues may be offering reduced room rates and greens fees, so meeting planners should ask if any weather-related discounts are available.

Every meeting planner has heard about nightmare scenarios. You’ve stayed awake nights praying they don’t happen to you. You’ve checked every detail a dozen times but can’t help but wonder how you — or your meeting facility— would handle a catastrophe. Meeting planners try to anticipate every problem, but sometimes you get caught with your guard down.

Have It Their Way

James R. Wolfe, CMP, director of administration at NCCI Holdings, Boca Raton, FL, had a gathering of high level executives in Orlando and realized at dinner that his group was being served the wrong dish. He had started with the normal catered menu and deviated, ordering filet mignon, but was served a strip steak. He went to the kitchen to confirm what he’d ordered and the staff agreed, but half the group had already been served.

“It was beef vs. beef,” he says, “but it was still wrong. A few people mentioned that the dinner wasn’t up to their usual standard, but there were no real complaints.” A small discussion with management resulted in a credit to his company’s account. “Now,” he says, “I go into the kitchen as the meal is being prepared and sample everything to make sure it’s all right.”

Kelli Livers, CMP, director of global meeting services for AIG in Houston, TX, is no stranger to meetings, having organized as many as 80 a year in her 13 years of planning meetings. Livers had a meeting that flew top sales people from Orlando to St. Lucia by charter service. As the first group left the hotel and arrived at the airport, they were told that the plane was having mechanical difficulties. The “difficulties” lasted seven hours. “By the time they finally arrived in St. Lucia,” she says, “they were not happy people.”

To compound the problems, the on-site staff (hired through a third-party management company) promised the attendees that the company would let them stay an extra day because of their late arrival. “Keep in mind,” says Livers, “you can’t alter the charter return dates” because of their prior obligations. It turns out the third party management company had to absorb the fees associated with the offer to extend the attendees’ stay. Several lessons were reinforced from this experience, Livers says.“Make sure you have specific cutoff times when a charter company must confirm an on-time departure and make sure your hired staff understands its authority levels,” she explains.

If They Build It, Should You Go?

Livers had another experience that provided valuable lessons. In planning a meeting at a San Diego hotel that was being expanded, she stipulated that there would be absolutely no construction anywhere near her meeting. Management agreed, but word apparently did not filter down to the construction crew. When the workers were through with that day’s project earlier than expected, they moved to the restaurant (where Livers’ breakfast the next morning was scheduled) and started striping the wallpaper.

Because the conference filled the hotel space, there was no way to just relocate the breakfast to another part of the hotel. “I called the general manager,” says Livers, “and told him if I smell paint in the morning, there’s going to be concessions,” in the contract. “He brought in a horde of workers and they worked all night painting the walls where the paper had been. They had a fan going and by morning it didn’t look too bad.”

Livers’ contracts now stipulate that there will be “no construction anywhere” in the meeting facility during the length of the meeting.

That’s nothing compared to what Kathy Winters, meetings and events manager for Aon Services Corporation, Chicago, IL, experienced at an event in the Miami Beach area. Winters scheduled back-to-back meetings at a hotel under construction but due to be completed a month or two before her function. With planning under way months in advance, Winters says, “everything sounded wonderful. The rooms were all suites and everyone had an ocean view.” She even had someone go for a site visit three months before the scheduled meeting. There were a few problems. He had to stay at another hotel because the rooms weren’t ready. The pool was poured, but not filled. There were some guest room doors missing and the bar wasn’t ready, but he decided enough work was done that it should be finished in time.

Winters called for regular updates and was assured that “everything’s ready.” Then, the vice president of sales (who happened to be the owner’s daughter) started avoiding her and wouldn’t return her calls. Two days before the meeting she called Winters and asked if Winters would like them to find someplace else to have the meeting, saying, “everything’s not quite right.”

Two days before the first meeting,Winters flew into town and saw what "everything's not quite right" meant. There still was no bar or liquor license, no water in the pool, the fitness center and spa weren't ready and there wasn't even a toilet paper spool in her room.

She met with the general manager and his staff the next morning and was told the restaurant would be opening that night, but without the liquor license that was supposed to have been approved two weeks earlier.

As they toured the property and she saw how bad things really were, she started giving orders to the manager. She told him he had to have a bar. "Build something out of plywood and skirt it. It's a catered event so use the caterer's liquor license and have a fully stocked bar."

Things go worse as she toured the meeting area. It had huge window walls facing the Atlantic except they were covered with "big heavy dark building material. They knew we were going to have an LCD projection and would need a dark room. The materials couldn't be removed at other times, so we couldn't see the gorgeous ocean view.

"Next to the meeting room was a stairwell door that was used by the construction personnel. It didn't just open and close, it slammed. And five seconds later it slammed gain. And then again. I told the manager, keep it open all the time or make it so it doesn't slam every five seconds."

Then Winters headed toward the guest rooms. Most of the hallways were filled with construction materials so they took her to one floor that "looked pretty good. I made sure they each had a toilet paper roll holder," she says.

She had dinner in the hotel restaurant that night and it was very good. Sitting at the table next to her, however, were three gentlemen, including the owner of the property. They didn't realize who se was, and as Winters munched away, she overheard them talking about "the two big groups coming in and how they had to have meetings for their investors and for the good PR it would generate."

Her attendees started checking in the next day and she had another meeting with the general manager. She told him she wanted three free nights at the hotel for each of her VIPs at both meetings as an amenity for the situation. Because the vending machines weren't yet installed on the guestroom floors and as all the suites had kitchenettes, she wanted water and fruit juice, gratis, in each one.

The general manager offered her a job working for him. She declined.

"I figured I could go into my meetings with good news and bad news," she says. "I told them about the three free nights they'd receive. Then I could tell them the bad news."

Then, Murphy's Law really set in. Winters always gives her attendees her room number and cell phone so they could call if something was wrong. She had 17 calls that first night. One guest filled the Jacuzzi tub and turned on the jets only to realize they were blocked. The room flooded. Another guest had no hot water. Another wasn't feeling well and the toilet wasn't working. Still another had no lock on her hall door. One room had no drapes on the windows or sliding door to the balcony. "I even called the manager at home, tell him, "You promised me!"

When the meeting started the next day, sure enough the stairwell door was in a constant state of slamming closed. Winters spent most of her time standing by the door, catching it before it disturbed the meting again and again and again.

At the final awards banquet of each meeting, Winters told the attendees, "You will always have something to talk about, to act as an ice-breaker. I still get teaches about it."

As a thank you, the manager gave her a massage at the spa and a certificate for her three free nights, but "I gave it to someone else who was really upset." And, Gary Pearson, her boss and director of corporate meetings and events for Aon Services, sent flowers to her for a job well done.

Just recalling the event still leaves Winters stressed. "In some ways, it was kind of un, telling the manager what he needed to do here or there. It showed me that even in the worse case scenario, I could prevail. I learned that I never ever use a hotel until it's been in full operation at least three to six months, until I can read on the Internet or hear from the horse's mouth that everything's open and operating.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2005 INSURANCE MEETINGS MANAGEMENT INSURANCE MEETINGS MANAGEMENT SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2005