 Meeting partners, you are this close to a signed contract and confirming the business. The only thing left is the site inspection of the hotel. Are you ready for it? Today I'm outlining 10 tips for you to remember the next time you're hosting a client on a site inspection. Stick around. Hey friends, it's Leanne and over the years I have been on hundreds of hotel site inspections. In fact, I probably have some stories that would make you cringe about the things that I have been shown or in some cases not shown on a hotel site inspection. But that's not what this post is about today. Today we're talking about tips that are going to make you shine when you're hosting a site inspection. So I've compiled a checklist of sorts of things for you to remember when you're hosting a site inspection. But before I begin, don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel and click on that little bell to be notified of new content each week. I post videos relevant to the meetings industry each Wednesday and I don't want you to miss a thing. Thanks. Okay, let's launch into these 10 tips for when you're hosting a site inspection. Tip number one, focus on what is important to the planner. Now this is a recurring theme in all of my content and it's getting back to what the planner wants, not necessarily what we want as their partner in the process. So go back to the planners goals and objectives. Go back to the things that are really important to them and make sure that they're highlighted on the site inspection. Conversely, things that are not important to the planner, those are things that you want to trim from the site inspection so the planner has time to focus on all the good stuff that you've shown them. Make sense? To uncover gems about what's important to the planner, you can do one of three things. You can go back to the RFP itself and uncover the goals and objectives there. You can schedule a pre-site visit meeting with the planner to find out what's important to them that way. Or maybe it's as simple as sending out a pre-site visit questionnaire or survey with five or six questions that they can answer really quickly and get back to you. Site inspection tip number two, offer a complimentary room night or offer it as a concession. Now some hotels may not be able to offer a complimentary night, the night of the site inspection itself, but it's important for that planner to go through the delegate experience. So if you're able to offer a complimentary night in the hotel or even offer it as a concession if they have to pay a reduced rate and the concession would be that it's credited back to them if they book your hotel for the program. Tip number three, try to host your site inspection when you have some meeting space available to show or if you can get permission from the groups in-house to show the space while they're in program. Some meeting planners actually prefer this method and to see the space in action if you will. So make sure your space is either available for viewing when it's empty or if it's full make sure you have permission from the group in-house and then show them how the space looks when it's full of energy and full of creativity and full of people. Tip number four, introduce the planner when they're on site to other key members of your team. Most hotels do this really well so it becomes a glaring omission if you forget to do this. If you can ensure that you're DOS, perhaps even your general manager, the food and beverage manager and or chef and a Navy technician is available for questions that the meeting planner may ask. If those people aren't available, find someone who can field those questions or get answers to them very quickly on the fly. Tip number five, offer some food and beverage from the catering menus. Hotels love to dazzle meeting planners with all of these creative concoctions and confectionaries but if they're not on the delegates catering menus then there's a disconnect between what they're experiencing at the site inspection and potentially what their delegate is experiencing on site. So if at all possible, ensure that the food and beverage offerings are at least similar in nature or similar in preparedness so that they can get the delegate experience again. Tip number six, the guest room showcase. Okay, so there's a lot to talk about when we're talking about showing our planners guest rooms. For starters, make sure that you're only showing them guest rooms that they would actually use. If they're a budget conscious group, showing them all the elevated room categories is not going to be a good use of that planner's time. So stick to the standard or run of house categories for that particular site inspection. In addition, make sure you point out things that are very unique about your guest room. So this is not about the flat screen TV that every single hotel room in the world now has but rather the unique things that set you apart from your comp set. Even maybe point out the square footage if you feel your rooms are above average in square footage compared to the hotels in your neighborhood. Other unique factors you may want to point out is if the hotel has a presidential suite or something that can be used as a hospitality suite for that particular group. Or if you have a club floor, something that maybe delegates can pay a little bit extra more and get some additional amenities on that floor. Tip number seven, the meeting space showcase. All right, more to talk about here. Ensure that you're only showing meeting space that's relevant to that particular program, especially if it's a small board meeting, showing them all the ballroom space is going to overwhelm your planner with information. Just show them the meeting space that works for their program and maybe a few alternate spaces if they're asking for different spaces in lieu of the ones that have been proposed on. For larger programs, you'll want to focus on the ceiling height as well. They may be bringing in a lot of AV that requires rigging, so they'll want to know what the ceiling height is. For programs that have a trade show component, don't forget about your loading docks. They're going to be looking for that as well. And finally, in the meeting space, if they are using rooms that have air walls, show where the air walls are dividing up the space so they can get a visual picture of how that's going to look like when their breakouts are in play. Tip number eight, don't forget to show them where they're going to set up their registration, be it on the lobby level or on the meeting space level in the foyer. Don't forget to point that out to them. Tip number nine, and this is often forgotten, but don't forget to show that planner how their group is going to interact with other groups that are on property. What is their flow of the delegates from the elevator to the meeting space and what other meeting spaces or groups may they pass on their way there? So kind of give the planner a sense of the flow with other groups in-house so they know how they'll interact with one another. And finally, tip 10, don't forget about your amenities and your outlets, especially the lobby bar if you have a group that requires a lot of great networking spaces. The lobby lounge is a great place for delegates to connect so ensure that your planner sees that as a plus for your hotel. And the bonus tip for this video, give a shout out to your neighbors. If you are near a vibrant restaurant and pub district or you have a lot of great amenities nearby that delegates can sneak too late at night to get a bite to eat or to have a late night cocktail, point that out to the planner. That could be the deciding factor on where to host their program is if their delegates have places to go after hours. Okay, partners, I hope these tips will help you with your next site inspection, but always curious to hear from you guys. Is there something that I missed and something you want to share with the community about how to host the perfect site inspection? Please comment below this video and pass it along to your peers. For more sales tips and inspiration, don't forget to head on over to my website at liankulderwood.com. There you can download the very popular how to get a meeting planner's attention worksheet. And don't forget to check out all my videos about sales and service that you can find right here. Thanks for watching this week's video and we'll see you next time. Bye for now.