Limited-service properties meet the needs of 2024 gatherings
This is your everyday meeting. It’s not an award gala; it’s not a companywide town hall production. This is where the concrete, rubber-hits-the-road, get ‘er done business happens—and more of it than ever is happening at limited-service hotels.
As the hospitality industry continues to evolve to accommodate the needs of post-Covid business traveler, limited-service and select-service hotels have risen in popularity—drastically. When remote, distributed teams need to get together for education, collaboration and creativity on a budget, a no-frills option is often the preferred option.
Many of these familiar names—Holiday Inn, Residence Inn, Hilton Garden Inn—come equipped with a comfortable room, convenient locations on every other corner and an affordable price tag, even if they don’t have a full-service restaurant attached. Many include small kitchens in the room and handy grab-and-go offerings in the lobby in addition to meeting rooms tucked around the corner from the popular local lobby bar. As the growing list of brands has expanded, the line between limited-, select-, essential-, upscale and full-service hotels has blurred with some traditional value chains offering fun dining options and experiences and some luxury hotels scaling back on amenities.
The Antidote to Remote
Jan Freitag, national director of hospitality analytics with Costar Group, explains the rise in popularity of limited-service hotels for meetings and events from the angle of the Kastle Return to Work Barometer. Set in January 2020, at 100, or normal, gives us a snapshot of what the workplace looked like pre-pandemic.
He specifies that this doesn’t mean offices were 100% full—it is simply the level at which people were working in-office pre-pandemic. Today, he says, the Kastle Return to Work Barometer stands at 50—so although some people are back in office, the amount of people that are now working hybrid or fully remote is significantly higher than pre-pandemic. When companies have more hybrid or remote workers, they also need to shed office space, which means that they have less space available to gather employees.
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“Vacancies are up, across the land. In general, people don’t want as much office space,” he explains. “If we’re not in the office, but our head of HR and our CEO still want to build culture, we have to get together. And the better way to do this, alternative to the office space, of course, is in the meeting room.”
These types of meetings are often much smaller than what comes immediately to mind; these meetings are not association gatherings, and they are not company-wide events. It’s bringing together all the employees from, for example, one county, state or region. In this regard, the limited service space can be perfectly adequate.
“If we’re not in the office, but our head of HR and our CEO still want to build culture, we have to get together…And the way to do this is in the meeting room.”
– Jan Freitag, Costar
“Obviously, it’s much smaller than what full service hotels have. It’s often just one room or maybe two rooms, so you don’t have all the amenities that you’re used to, but the good thing is, there are a lot more of those types of properties,” Freitag says. “They’re often in more suburban areas. It might be a little bit easier for people to get to if they have to drive. So, it’s just a little bit of a change from what we saw pre-pandemic, when people would have these meetings in the office.”
Purpose Counts
Freitag stresses the importance of understanding the types of meetings that fit different hotel categories. When planning a company-wide awards show with employees or members traveling from all over the country—maybe even the world, you’ll probably need to incentivize them to take the time to travel by booking an ultra-cool resort in a destination they can’t wait to post on their social media.
However, if the goal is to get the six regional salespeople together to hammer through the product roll-out plan for the next six months, a meeting off Highway 17 that everyone can drive to and be back in-market the next day may be just the ticket.
Budget plays a big role. For the types of meetings that take place at limited service hotels, planners must consider what return on investment in the hotel the company will receive out of what the meeting will accomplish. “What you do at these small meetings, you used to do in your office. And now, if you don’t have that office space anymore, that’s where you would take that option of booking limited-service hotels,” Freitag says.
Work-Budget Balance
Bill Duncan, senior vice president and global category head of all-suites and focused service with Hilton, calls the decision about what brand to choose a balance between affordability and quality.
“For business professionals all over the world, not all days are packed with large-scale events or team meetings—and that’s okay,” he says. “Our all-suites and focused-service brands primarily cater to small to mid-sized gatherings that prioritize flexibility and efficiency, offering the perfect balance of comfort, convenience and cost-effectiveness.”
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The evolving nature of hospitality, he explains, is to “focus is on delivering customized, efficient and high-quality experiences for all types of professional gatherings.”
An American Express 2024 Global Travel Trends Report found that overall meeting spend in the Americas is expected to increase by 4.2%, compared to a 0.4% rise in 2023. A big chunk of that will be in the value hotel brands.
“Limited-service hotels continue to represent one of the biggest growth segments in hospitality,” says Jonathan Kaplan, vice president of commercial, essentials and suites brands at IHG Hotels & Resorts. “We continue to see demand from guests, customers and owners for these types of hotels. So many of these hotels have meeting space, which is particularly important as demand for meeting space is getting saturated. And these brands are very convenient from a location perspective because of their large footprint. They are everywhere the customer needs them to be.”
Right-Sized Service
In addition to budget, convenience is a growing priority. As part of its evolution to cater to the needs of small to mid-size meetings, hospitality brands have increasingly paid special attention to the budgets that often accompany these types of meetings and offered programs to enhance their appeal.
Hilton offers meeting packages for groups with up to 35 attendees, which planners can book directly through Hilton’s events site, without any separate contract or phone call required. “These capabilities solve for friction points by allowing the small meetings and events customer segment the ability to book their event space entirely online, bundled with guest rooms, audio-visual needs and food and beverage orders,” Duncan says. It brings to mind the age-old adage: time is money.
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Plus, Duncan adds, through the Hilton Honors Event Planner Program, members can earn 2 points for every $1 spent on meetings, events and room blocks based on total eligible spend up to $100,000, which includes room nights as well as meeting rooms and other event spaces at participating Hilton portfolio hotels. Those points can be redeemed towards future stays, credit towards future events or even as charitable contributions.
IHG offers its own flavor of convenience with the recent debut of its Pivotal Meetings program. Within the program, planners can find a collection of pre-qualified, selected hotels that meet a certain set of standards—including specialized small meetings training—that make them optimal for meetings and events and align with specific planner needs. So far, 100 Holiday Inn hotels and 25 Holiday Inn Express hotels in the U.S. participate, and IHG plans to open the program to more hotels and brands within IHG in early 2025.
This was a program that came from the desires of working planners looking for solutions. “Our customers gave us feedback that they were looking for a way for clients to find small hotels that are meetings ready,” Kaplan says.
Deanne Vigil, managing director at HelmsBriscoe says the program helps give sourcing planners assurance about the quality they will find when they arrive. “These properties are vetted to ensure they align with the specific needs and expectations of our clients. By choosing from the Pivotal Meetings Collection, we are confident that we are providing our clients with exceptional locations that deliver high standards of service, easy contract terms and a commitment to successful, impactful meetings.”
A Fresh Approach
A popular option within the Hilton brand that comes to mind is Hampton by Hilton. “You’re never more than 30 minutes away from the nearest Hampton by Hilton in the U.S.,” quips Duncan.
As Hilton looks towards the future, Duncan says Hampton will continue to strategically integrate more meeting space into many of its hotels to cater to the rising call for small to mid-sized business meetings and events, particularly in popular locations.
Hampton by Hilton Las Vegas Convention Center is a prime example of a limited-service hotel with 150 guest rooms and three meeting rooms; and its proximity to the Las Vegas Convention Center and the Strip is the cherry on top. Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton New Orleans-Convention Center is another example of how limited service hotels master the art of convenience, with 288 guest rooms and 15 meeting rooms, and a location across the street from the New Orleans Convention Center; it’s also the closest hotel to the cruise ship terminal at the Port of New Orleans.
In 2023, IHG introduced its H5 prototype design with the opening of the Holiday Inn Chicago O’Hare Area, a dual-branded property with Staybridge Suites. The H5 prototype design pinpoints the balance between convenience and aesthetics of space to maximize the comfort that guests find in their own homes, with features like kitchen equipment and optimized millwork cabinetry at Staybridge Suites and inviting public spaces and adaptable meeting spaces for both businesses and social gatherings at Holiday Inn.
Kaplan says that typically, Holiday Inn is a choice for smaller meetings with 10 to 30 attendees. “Holiday Inn is a preferred brand for diverse group segments, including corporate teams, entertainment and sports groups and finance professionals,” says Kaplan.
“Limited-service hotels are perfect for these types of meetings because they have everything you need to host a successful meeting, but don’t have the expense of a larger hotel. The meeting space, food and beverage offerings, and technology are a perfect fit. Limited-service hotels can also be more flexible with their food and beverage options, since most will allow you to bring food in rather than solely relying on the hotel’s catering facilities.”
Communications with planners focus on the brand’s simple yet comprehensive end-to-end processes and amenities available. “Planners want peace of mind that the Holiday Inn hotel hosting the meeting will be a great experience for the attendees and a stress-free planning process for them,” Kaplan says.
And, like the Hampton by Hilton examples above, the save on hotel costs means more of the budget consolidated for creating great meetings in exciting destinations: like the Holiday Inn & Suites Nashville Downtown-Broadway, with 230 guest rooms and 8,700 sq. ft. of meeting space, moments from the epicenter of Nashville’s vibrant nightlife scene and a must-do visitor experience.
Holiday Inn & Suites Orlando International Drive-ICON offers 143 guest rooms and 5,000 sq. ft. of meeting space, with multimedia and AV support, meeting planning services and event concept consultation, as well as catering.
All of these properties are part of the Pivotal Meetings Program. This program, Kaplan notes, is a living example of the ways in which IHG continues to invest in the Holiday Inn brand, with a large segment of Holiday Inn properties having been either already recently renovated or currently undergoing renovations in the coming years. “We are focused on equipping our hotels with the tools and training they need to help our customers host successful meetings.”
This article appears in the September/October 2024 issue. You can subscribe to the magazine here.
