5 Tips for Planning Cost-Effective Meetings & Incentive Programs

Your organization could see huge cost savings for meetings with a little bit of foresight and planning that crosses over into incentive programs as well. Consider options around hotel negotiation, group air contracts, and more.

Negotiate for multiple years

Repeat business is the name of the game when it comes to hotel bookings. Being able to plan ahead can secure you a discount on future meetings or when arranging incentive travel for employees. Carrousel Travel, for example, works with hotel chains that can guarantee a percentage off when customers book two years in a row. This could apply to your meetings, conferences, incentive travel, and more.

Consider off-season and off-peak times

Moving a meeting or designing incentive travel around off-season and off-peak times can help save costs as services are more willing to cut deals when business is slower. Taking some of the commotion out of the process for your attendees could enhance their experience as well. Like we learned in our recent Motivation Forum: people tend to remember the high point of a trip and the end. Traveling off-season and off-peak means shorter lines, attentive service, and that will leave them with a fresher perspective (particularly if this is an incentive travel trip).

Create a Group Air Contract

Along with traveling off-season and off-peak, a group air contract designed for group and meeting travel is another option to keep the budget in line. Carrousel Travel can acquire group blocks, managing the financial risk while sticking to your budget. It also doesn’t matter if attendees have different departure points. Zone fares are available for those traveling from different areas to one common destination.

Go All-Inclusive

All-inclusive packages are popular for incentive travel, but not as common for meetings. All- inclusive resorts can make meeting participants feel valued, entertained, and most importantly, they simplify the budget. Combined with a tight grip on the attendee list, you’ll know exactly what you’re paying upfront and avoid compiling bills of rooms, food, beverages, activities, meeting space, gratuity… And so on.

Use a Third Party for Booking

Travel management companies like Carrousel Travel have established working relationships with countless hotels and resorts. Our representatives can find exactly what you need without the time necessary on your end to search through various properties, saving you time and energy. Additionally, we can use those relationships to get you a deal (i.e. if we’ve booked a resort for another meeting, we could potentially get a volume discount by going back to them with your event).

Simplify the Process, Simplify Your Spending

Doing a bit of preplanning can save your organization beaucoup bucks when it comes to meeting and incentive travel. But you don’t have to stop there. Leverage the expertise of Carrousel Travel as well as our existing relationships with properties, airlines and more.

Let Carrousel handle the travel, lodging and booking, while you give your full attention to the other logistics of meeting management!