How to Take the Confusion out of Multiple Hotel Contracts

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Meetings and conventions that require numerous hotels in order to meet room demand can force meeting planners to navigate hotel contracts with templates that are all written very differently. They may say the same thing, but it can be challenging to interpret. Why not have all your hotel contracts read exactly the same?

Planners are charged with the responsibility of deciphering several different interpretations of conditions, guest room attrition percentages and liquidated damage calculations with multiple ambiguities. If one or more contract deadlines are missed or policies mishandled, it can quickly lead to contract breach. You don’t want to have to exercise your legal rights due to an unintentional breach. Arbitration such as this guarantees you a decade in court. A fourth quarter comeback only means that you goofed up in execution during the first three.

The economic impact of your meeting or convention is significant, and the needs of a group that requires several hotels will garner attention. Your negotiation authority will be heard. Instead of having to interpret varying hotel templates and ensure that they are all the same, establish a contract that you feel comfortable with and ask all of the hotels to sign the same contract.
Room blocks will vary as well as rates, but the rest of the contract should read identical. At minimum, these clauses should be exactly the same at each property:
* General Sales Conditions
* Audit of Attendees
* Room Block Review Date
* Guest Room Attrition
* Hotel Relocation
* Room Deposit
* No Shows
* Early Departures
* Concessions
* Hotel Lowest Rate Clause
* Cut Off Date
* Reservations Method
* Cancellation

Having one contract template for all the hotels will allow a much more concise method of communicating hotel options. The same contract for each property also means clear communication and consistency in communicating reservation terms and conditions, also the ever-so-important deadlines for making and even cancelling reservations.

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