After recently issuing a press release about Manchester Grand Hyatt’s incredible meetings/event performance I received an e-mail from a gentleman affiliated with a San Diego union named Powell DeGange.  His e-mail attempted to illuminate two problems at the Manchester that I would like to address from the MeetingUniverse point of view.  The two issues brought to my attention are as follows.  1.  There are allegations of by union representatives that the Hyatt “abuses” housekeeping staff by requiring them to clean more than might be expected at other properties.  2.  The Manchester Grand Hyatt also doesn’t fully support LGBT rights.

Issue #1 -

I have worked a number of jobs before founding two of my own companies.  One of those previous jobs was at a financial services company that I feel horribly abused their employees in many different ways.  During my tenure there I grew so frustrated and angry that I contacted the Teamsters to inquire about unionizing the employees there.  For various reasons the organizing drive never went forward but I do sympathize with employees who are abused by their companies.

That said, unions themselves have had problems with corruption, ties to organized crime, undue pressure on employees to join, mandatory dues and on and on.  Rigid work rules that were created to protect employees can crater the company providing the jobs, thus leading to an ironic loss of jobs.  Though unions can help bring a balance to an employees bargaining position, they can also cause problems for the same employees they claim to serve.

In relation to a union drive at the San Diego Manchester Hyatt, I find it very telling that the turnover rate amongst housekeepers there is less than 7% whereas the industry average is 50%+.  People who are unhappy with their jobs vote with their feet and where I saw very high turnover at the financial services company I worked for, I don’t see that at the Manchester Grand Hyatt.  Whether finding another job or actually unionizing after 3 years, the housekeepers have had a fair amount of time to show where they really stand and it seems as though they are standing with management.

Issue #2 -

For the record, the official MeetingUniverse position on LGBT rights is as follows:  The management at MU unequivocally supports full rights for any Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual or Transgendered person.  These rights should be the same as afforded to any other individual regardless of race, creed, color, religion or sexual orientation.  These rights should be extended to partners as well.  The right to health care for spouse or partner, the right to retirement money for spouse or partner etc. etc. should be available to all human beings.

With that being said I am troubled by the LGBT’s response to a donation by Mr. Manchester to the support of proposition 8.  I personally did not actively support the passage of prop 8 but many of the people that I know who did still support full rights through civil unions.  It is almost a game of semantics being played by both sides.  The LGBT community insists on the usage of the word “marriage” whereas a new word could perhaps give them all of the same rights as marriage but allow those scared of the usage outside of traditional terms a shelter that they can emerge from later.  It is my understanding that Mr. Manchester fully supports complete equality through civil unions which I would hardly say is homophobic.  The Manchester Grand Hyatt has also for years before it was acceptable in the mainstream offered benefits to its LGBT employees, again hardly homophobic.  Both Hyatt and the Manchester Grand have provided millions of dollars in direct contributions to the LGBT community and millions more in indirect benefits as well through advertising in LGBT publications and other channels.  To punish such an organization and one of its properties so deeply and to such an extent over a dispute such as this seems wrong to me.

Finally, I don’t see any way of truly integrating a protest or boycott into a hotel rating system.  Performance is performance, plain and simple.  If the housekeeping staff was truly unhappy or protested through unionization, quitting their jobs, or work slowdowns, these things would have shown up in the surveys we received but they did not.  Many meeting/event planners are members of the LGBT community and if mistreated would absolutely by sure to make their opinions known if they or their attendees were ever discriminated against but nothing was mentioned.  The 2.4 million dollars lost so far to the boycott by the Manchester Grand Hyatt affects both the LGBT employees and straight employees.  I guess the attitude amongst the boycotters is that it is okay to steamroll the lesser employees in an attempt get to the big fish, who frankly will still be incredibly rich for some time to come.

For now, I see no way of legitimately integrating political protests/boycotts into any rating system, nor do I have the desire to do so but instead to focus on our original goal of providing performance information.

Below are some supporting documents that were provided to me from the Manchester Hyatt that I think speak directly to the issue of the longtime support by both Hyatt and the Manchester Hyatt regarding the LGBT community.

glbt-community-financial-support-january-2009

hyatt-hotels-resorts-supports-glbt-community

meetingsuniverse-com-glbt-letter-march-2009

So rant #1.

Government bureaucrats are bureaucrats and thus deserve the ridicule they receive. Don’t try and argue, don’t try and justify, the majority of government administration types hide their atrocious behavior behind the minutae of inane rules, laws and procedures. The bare minimum levels of courtesy, politeness and logic are all that are necessary to survive in this environment because outside in the business world they would be eaten alive. A business in a city is not a client that the city would ever try to please. No, instead the city is a leach giving as little as it can in exchange for whatever exorbitant license fee it can extract. They will try and tell you it is all for the public good, all the while they send your business either into bankruptcy or you pass the extra cost onto the consumer the “watchdog” is so desperately trying to protect. So is this all too general for you? Sure maybe it is. I can give specific examples if anyone really wants them but I think for the most part anyone who has dealt with city hall(s) knows that of which I speak.

rant #2

Having been in the fund-raising game for a while I am constantly flummoxed by the ever changing requirements of one VC or angel versus another. On the one hand you hear that “give me reasonable financials” whereas on the other hand you hear from another angel “I only want investments that can return 10X”. Its not that I disagree with either statement per se but the 30 seconds in which you have to present your pitch or perhaps 15 minutes if you’re lucky really isn’t enough time for a good idea. An airline would never buy a plane based on a 15 minute presentation but instead would take time to examine many things before making a decision but most Angels I have seen only seem to want a sound bite or two, expect to be swept off their feet and think nothing about cutting someone’s dream without even so much as a modicum of real thought. Even worse was when I was submarined by one “Angel” who kept badgering me to name similar companies in other industries to mine. I mentioned a couple and then I mentioned “Angie’s List” to which he said in front of a roomful of other angels, “Angie’s list just took out bankruptcy this morning”. Huh? What the crap is that? I told him that it wasn’t true and even if it were, different industry, different business model etc. doesn’t mean we are going out. Needless to say, after presenting, we got a 30 second “no” full of no real reason other than buzzkill (”Angie’s list is dead) guy who was dead wrong, and “some of the angels have invested in that space and those investments failed so the group isn’t interested” Yup, that is the extent of the feedback.

The Hotel Park City is the only hotel so far to have finished the management survey as well as receiving a full 10 reviews from meeting planners.  They are to be congratulated on their stellar performance and the first full rating from MeetingUniverse.com

Here is a list of hotels that have received reviews in the last 10 days.

Copper Mountain Resort
Westin Kireland Resort & Spa
Bally’s Las Vegas
Rosen Shingle Creek
Paradisus Punta Cana
Marriott Tampa Waterside
Westin Hilton Head
Crowne Plaza Warwick
InterContinental Buckhead
Ritz Carlton Beach Resort
Westin St. Francis
Barnsley Gardens Resort
Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort

Currently the total are 42 reviews for over 29 hotels.

Hotel Park City’s final rating which includes 10 full meeting planner reviews and 1 hotel management survey should be available on Monday, March 24th.

Back in 1991 I was in a Japanese business class at the University of Utah and was tasked by a Dr. Victor Okim, the professor to find and read a book about Japanese business.  I had read many books beforehand but went to the library and found a book with the title Kaizen.  At the time, seemingly very few people knew anything about the book in the US and the buzzword of continuous improvement really hadn’t been ingratiated into the American lexicon.  What bothers me greatly today is the continued misinterpretation of the book by American companies and the forgetfulness of the Japanese to also remember what the book represents.  The book wasn’t really a book extolling the virtues of the Japanese way of continuous improvement.  It was a recognizance of the different ways of creation, innovation by the Americans and continuous improvement by the Japanese.  The book flat out says that the best system is that of innovation with periods of continuous improvement between innovative leaps.  Instead of combining the two as suggested in the book, the focus in America was almost solely on continuous improvement almost to the exclusion of innovation.  In Japan, they too seemed to forget the book’s lessons and now seem to be questioning their place in the world because Apple and others seem to have pushed innovation into the traditional Japanese stronghold of electronics.  See the article here at http://www.newsweek.com/id/111718.

Only by combining Innovation and Continuous Improvement together can any company really hope to stay ahead of the competition.

During all of my marketing classes, I was taught over and over NOT to sell on price.  Doing so puts a company at risk for low margins, a cheapened image and many other disadvantages.  Below is a copy of a so-called “proposal” from hotel for a $100,000 group.

__________________________________________________________

Thank you for your interest in XYZ to host your event. We are pleased to offer the following;
 
- Dates: 5/7/08 – 5/9/08
- Peak Rooms: 75
- Run of house rate: $ 239
- Tower: $ 309
- Food and beverage minimum of: $ 15,000                       
- Guest room rates as shown above are net, single or double occupancy, per room, per night
- Nine percent (9%) room tax, not included in the above rate
- Proposed meeting rooms: XYZ/ABC; TUV

RATES AND AVAILABILITY ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE AND ARE NOT CONFIRMED UNTIL GROUP IS CONTRACTED.
 
Upon advising us that you are ready to proceed, we will return a contract to you with further details regarding a deposit, payment, and reservation deadlines.  However, please note that at this time we are not holding any space for your group.

 
We appreciate your interest and look forward to welcoming you and your group to XXX.  If I can be of further assistance to you please contact me at (555) 555-1212.

_________________________________________________________

I received many of these from different properties with nearly all of them being the same.  A few mentioned their AAA /Mobil ratings which only account for a one-person, one-day perspective.  A couple were done with a fancy online format but out of 15 I received not a single one, not one mentioned anything regarding their meetings performance and why a meeting at their property would be a superior experience to a different property.

This lack of performance information for planners hurts both the planners trying to make an intelligent, supportable decision as well as the properties trying to win the business.  Perhaps, a $100,000 program isn’t worth much anymore but I would think it would still mean something more than what I received above.

So one of the things we were curious about when we began the process is whether or not we would see similar trends regarding what it takes to motivate a planner to complete a survey. Will they be driven strictly by negative experiences or will positive ones be just as effective at motivating them to participate. We definitely have seen some negative experiences with one property in Florida for example receiving 5 less than flattering reviews already. Also surprisingly, already one chain has already taken a lead in meeting planner satisfaction. We have received 5 reviews on different Hyatt properties and all of them have been stellar. 9s and 10s across the board. Whatever Hyatt is doing it seems to be working and in spades. Here is a list of some of the properties that have been rated so far.

So how come a 4 star (Mobil) and 4 diamond (AAA) hotel is only rating as a 2 star hotel so far when meeting criteria is being used.  How is it that a meeting planner can drop over a million dollars at a property and be treated so poorly?  It is this very type of experience that inspired us to create MeetingUniverse.com.  We also have a 5 star hotel (not finished being reviewed yet) that despite having a 5 Star rating so far has some seemingly consistent weaknesses that meeting planners can zero in on and at least address before signing their contract.  The story continues to unfold and it becomes more interesting by the review.

Yesterday we received another 10 hotel reviews. We also received some calls from hotels concerned about reviews they have already received as well as hotels interested in joining the process. I also realized that perhaps I haven’t explained myself quite as clearly as I could have. First of all, in the interest of “fairness” as questioned by one planner I want to explain exactly why we are more fair to hotels and planners than ANY other ratings system.

1. AAA, Mobil and Tripadvisor all concern the individual traveler not the meeting planner. Nothing wrong with that but it does little to help the event/incentive/meeting planner. MeetingUniverse.com ratings uses questions developed by event/incentive/meeting planners so therefore there should be a high correlation of relevance between MU’s questions/methodology and the interest of a meeting planner. Also hotels that are better at hosting meetings/events should be recognized for such whereas they currently are not.

2. MeetingUniverse.com doesn’t actually rate anyone. We have developed a system for rating but the system only works based on input from planners. How many you ask? We require a full 10 reviews from planners who have held actual meetings/events at a property. We take a composite score of the planner reviews and combine that with a management survey completed by the hotel to generate a full composite score. Hotels will have a temporary rating that will fluctuate based on reviews filled out to date until the 10 surveys are complete but once complete and combined with the management survey the rating will be fixed for the year. The MU composite score also allows for a much better comparison thus fairness to the planners and the hotels because there is much better stratification of scores that just a one to five scoring system. With each star/diamond in the traditional ratings systems representing a 20% gradation it would be akin to saying that grade A&B students are the same, grade C&D students the same and the rest are essentially failing. Here is a link to a recent article that broaches this problem.

http://www.hotelinteractive.com/index.asp?article_id=9727&page_id=5000

3. AAA and Mobil are inherently unfair to hotels because of a variety of issues. (a) They are statistically irrelevant because they only give a 1-2 day sample size of experience by only one person. In contrast by surveying 10 meeting planners MU will be providing a sample of 30-40 days of experiences by 10 different people. This benefits both the hotel and the planner by providing a wider range of experiences. (b) Openess is not currently a trait of AAA or Mobil. These agencies do not disclose to hotels or planners the full system or set of criteria they use to sit in judgement. On the other hand we openly developed the criteria in conjunction with planners and hotels and are an open book to the same parties.

4. Tripadvisor allows anyone to leave any kind of review with no verification of the facts of the stay or even verification of whether that person stayed at the property. Competitors with an ax to grind or perhaps a large family with many e-mail addresses or even one person with many e-mail addresses can fill out a number of negative reviews thus skewing the hotels performance. MU on the other hand only allows for one review/survey to be completed per meeting/program. MU also verify’s a planner’s identity and whether the planner actually held a program at that property. Hotels have the right to question any given survey and MU will reverify the accuracy of the meeting planners account.

Hopefully, you can see that the entire system from the ground-up was designed with fairness in mind.  Is it perfect?  No, not yet but we believe in continuous improvement as much as innovation so we will continue to work towards perfection.  That said the MU system for ratings hotels is far better/fair and productive than anything else currently available.

Blog entry by R. Russell Ridge - President and Founder of MeetingUniverse.com

So, I’m a sucker for a slick piece of marketing collateral. My degree is in Marketing with an emphasis in advertising and I catch myself analyzing advertising pieces probably more than does the average consumer. As impressed as I may be, nothing beats a first-hand experience that allows me to fully guage the performance of a product or service. I’ve been a long-time reader of MotorTrend, Car and Driver, and PC Magazine all of which allow for an in-depth analysis by professionals as well as users of the product. I can’t imaging buying a $100,000 luxury car without a side-by-side comparison of that segment’s possibilities.

Unfortunately, that is what is happening every day in the meetings/event/incentive market. Millions of dollars a day are spent with little information as to the performance attributes of vendors/suppliers/hotels in the hospitality market. Sure you say, what about AAA and their diamonds or perhaps Mobil and their stars? Well if you think that one person’s subjective opinion after a 1-2 day visit can adequately capture the performance of a hotel for a 500 person program then I think you are in for a surprise. TripAdvisor you say? Just like the older ratings systems, Tripadvisor only provides an individual perspective and doesn’t give a planner adequate/intimate knowledge of performance for that property. Only MeetingUniverse.com’s hotel ratings are designed in conjunction with the input of numerous planners and what they value most. Only MeetingUniverse.com’s ratings sample at least 10 meeting planners and their experiences over the course of a year. So ask yourself, when it comes time to pick a rating system by which to judge a hotel for your next event, are you to rely on a rating that uses questions/criteria irrelevant to meetings and with a statistically insignificant sample size, or a ratings system that uses questions developed by fellow planners and at least 10 real-life performance samples by fellow planners regarding the performance of a property. Your client, your success, and your career may depend on the path you choose.

With all this in mind, we at MeetingUniverse.com need YOUR participation in the hotel and supplier survey’s. Filling out a survey for a past event may seem tedious or time-consuming but it is the best way to cut your time in the future. Once everyone participates, the time necessary to plan meetings will be cut from months and years to weeks and days. Please help us help you and the meeting/event/incentive planning community as a whole.