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With so many hotels and alternate venues having the ability to host a wedding, it’s critical to separate your hotel from all the others. But with limitless places such as beaches, country clubs, golf courses, rooftop terraces, and library halls (to name a few), how do you break through the din?
We’ve come up with three sure-fire ways to get brides interested in hosting their most special day at your venue.
Make it easy for the bride: Have an in-house wedding concierge.
People see an in-house wedding concierge as a way to both simplify the wedding experience as well as save money. It’s also easier to liaise with only one person at the hotel, who can take care of everything.
Ritz Carlton in Battery Park, New York has a first-class wedding concierge program and uses this service to set itself apart as a wedding destination. Audrey Tiernay at the Ritz-Carlton Battery Park states, “We only do one wedding at a time to provide exclusivity to the bride, her family and friends. A dedicated Ritz-Carlton Certified Wedding Specialist works with the couple every step of the way to plan and execute all of the details.” Tiernay believes that wedding concierges are absolutely necessary in hotels that frequently cater to weddings. The Ritz-Carlton wedding specialists “handle the little details. They make sure the place cards and the escort cards are placed out in a timely manner. They direct guests to where they need to be and when. They make sure the family heirlooms, Kiddush cups, ketubahs, unity candles and so on are placed in the guests’ suites after the ceremony, so the clients can enjoy the evening and not run around collecting items making sure nothing gets lost. It is all in the small details.” Her best advice for wedding specialists is to treat clients like friends with future potential business.
One of the most important things for the hotel’s wedding concierge to remember is to listen to the wishes of your customer. Future bride Samantha Raneri did not hire her own wedding planner and chose to use her venue’s in-house planner. She said, “I thought that not using one would be one of the easiest ways to save money and allow me the flexibility to spend the savings on other things.” This is a common acknowledgement among brides who are looking into and comparing different venues. “It is important to keep in mind, too, that many venues have built-in wedding planners that ‘come’ with the cost of the wedding, although from my experience their involvement is less in seeking out vendors in the earlier stages of planning and more in coordinating for a smooth execution closer to the wedding day,” advises Samantha. This opinion is important to keep in mind when designing the duties of your hotel’s wedding coordinator. A hands-on coordinator could be the sole reason a bride chooses your hotel over another. However, some brides like the idea of planning most of the wedding themselves. So listen to what your customer has to say about her vision of her wedding day, and try to cater to her needs. That is the best way to land her business and please her, generating future business from word of mouth. When asked if she likes planning most of the wedding herself, Samantha said, “As stressful as it can be at times, it has been fun and I think it will be gratifying on the day of and give me tools for coordinating personal events in the future.”
Create Customized Packages
The customized package always works as a way to draw in guests who are comparing hotels. Customizing wedding packages shouldn’t be too difficult. Couples don’t need complicated incentivizing. They just want to feel they are getting good value and that they’ll be taken care of at your hotel. Use the knowledge of your wedding concierge to put together a few different options to suit the tastes of different brides.
The Four Seasons hotel in San Francisco created a specialized wedding package that includes a one-night stay for the newlyweds in a Four Seasons Executive Suite, with champagne, chocolate strawberries, rose petals on the bed and a bathtub filled with floating gardenias, special room rates for the parents of the bride and groom, special room rates for attendees on the wedding day, complimentary menu tasting for six people, and customized menus with consultation from the hotel's chef.
Give discounts/block rooms
Wedding parties are already spending significantly within the parameters of your property, so why not reward the loyal couple with discounts on rooms that you can block off for their guests? The discount will seem like a gift on your part, but in fact it will encourage wedding guests to stay with you, making you money in the end. Couples do not want the hassle of arranging different hotels spread throughout the city. Offering a room block with a discount will surely entice more guests to stay at the hotel, which will result in them spending more at the restaurants, bars and shops within your property. Plus, it will make it easier on everyone hosting and attending the wedding, which will generate favorable reviews. Good word of mouth is the best form of free PR.
Focusing on these suggestions allows your hotel to be competitive with the many venue options open to brides and grooms. Wedding concierges, discounts and customized packages are just a few of the ways hotels can win the business of weddings, generating unexpected revenue for the location - something everyone can appreciate in America’s current economic state.
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