IPCAA NEWSLETTER
Edition 37 - Congress Housing Policy
Transparency in housing issues was a hotly debated issue at the Housing Management Seminar run by IAPCO at the last EIBTM.
“Yes but what is transparency?” asked Philippe Fournier, IAPCO President and Managing Director MCI France (pictured), “I see the process as an honest relationship. The hotel provides a fair rate, the PCO receives a commission for the services provided, which is not a markup but a direct recognised percentage, and the pharmaceutical companies pay a reasonable rate”.
Martin N. Jensen, Head of International Congress & Events at H. Lundbeck A/S Strategic Marketing and now a Vice President of IPCAA on whose behalf he was speaking, disagreed, stating that the pharmaceutical industry would like to have a better understanding on the distribution of funds involved, to ensure that they are not penalised by excessive charges by agencies and hotels. “Third party agencies” he continued, “are too often the key to the problem. Sometimes when approaching a city to which a leading meeting is destined, companies are informed that, as yet, no official housing bureau has been appointed and blocks are not yet available from the hotels. Shortly afterwards e-mails will be received from an unknown third party offering rooms at greatly inflated rates. It is this situation we need to prevent”.
Xavier Guillemin, Sales Director, MICE-International, ACCOR Hotel Group defended the hotels' position. “Rooms are blocked 2, 3, 4 years in advance – it is often impossible to foresee the rates that will be current at that time, and we have ongoing relationships with third parties that we have to honour. It is a question of yield, and the hotel has to manage that yield on an ongoing basis, not just deal with peaks (when a big event comes to town) and troughs.”
Gonzalo Perez Constanzó, Vice-President IAPCO and Operations Director, Tilesa Kenes Spain stressed the amount of work that was undertaken by the PCO when managing the housing, in block bookings, negotiating rates and contracts, managing the groups and treating each request as an individual booking, each requiring different shoulder nights and lengths of stay. “It is this service that the PCO provides, sometimes at their request and sometimes at the request of the client, but it is a service that has to be paid for, and commissions mean a saving on the budget for the client. A PCO has to build good relationships with hoteliers to make it work. Let’s face it, we are all in this business not only for the good of the event, but also to make money, for whatever purpose, be it for drug related research, for scientific development, to run a business or to manage a hotel. By recognising that fact, we can all build a better relationship.”
Philippe Fournier added “the Convention Bureaux have a role to play here by unifying the destination and making all the stakeholders understand the importance of playing the game together. A better understanding by all parties will build a better relationship,” he concluded.
This article is based on a press release issued by IAPCO.
Despite constant reassurances from other parties involved in housing aspects, IPCAA still has general concerns about the way processes operate, especially as the congress and overall business environment continues to be subjected to ongoing constraints, both regulatory and financial in nature.
Whilst we acknowledge that most of the parties with whom congress sponsors interact are professional, responsible and clearly support the calls for transparency by IPCAA and others, IPCAA believes further analysis and discussion is necessary because of the behaviour and tactics of “certain organisations” who provide little service to sponsors and congress organisers and simply seek to exploit situations for their own, sometimes not insignificant, financial gain. For this reason, we will continue to explore housing issues further, by interaction with other involved parties and through the IPCAAHousing Forum initiative.
