Destination Dayton is excited to offer the third guest blog in a series from noted meetings industry expert Joan Eisenstodt. Joan is a pioneer and a trendsetter in the meeting, convention, and exhibition industry. During her career and consultancy, she has helped clients with, and taught others about, conference planning and management support, with focus on ethics, contracts, risk management, and better learning methods. Joan has been honored by MPI, PCMA, PCMA Foundation, HSMAI, and NSA, and as a 2004 inductee into the Events Industry Council Hall of Leaders, considered the industry's highest honor. We thank her for being willing to offer our readers her experience and insights.
Meeting/Event Destination and Site Selection Tips, Part 2
My first blog for Destination Dayton was a bit of my background and how Dayton contributed to my start in the meetings and events industry. In the second blog, the first of destination and site selection details to include in a thorough Request for Proposal (RFP) or Request for Quote (RFQ) were provided.
This third blog, the second on destination and site selection, pulls from extensive checklists developed for clients for their solicitation of proposals for meetings and events. It is not as robust, as those were based on their specific needs. As much as I would like to give samples, each is proprietary. I think these blogs will provide insights to think beyond the limited issues usually found in RFPs.
CAVEAT: Currently planners are between the proverbial rock and a hard place. In my April 29, 2026, Meetings Today webinar, you learned detailed RFPs are sometimes considered too time consuming to answer for sometimes understaffed sales and marketing departments. Alas, if a precise RFP is not provided, then, in return, a robust proposal is not sent, and that may result in insufficient contract provisions to protect the parties. What I hope to provide is the information to request and what is expected in a proposal. Too often “I thought you promised” or “On the website it says….” wasn’t contracted. In my experience, it is expeditious to be detailed at the start to ensure contracts reflect expectations and agreements, rather than to be in dispute during or after a meeting or event.
In the previous blog, I covered: meeting goals and objectives; demographics of the group; day, date, day of the week patterns; desired rates (and if they are inclusive or exclusive of taxes and other charges);and rooms and bedding types needed. This blog focuses on an hotel’s physical property and access to it. Some of the same questions will apply to convention centers, off-site venues, and restaurants. I’m saving information about safety and security for a separate blog.
What To Provide in a Meeting/Event RFP (continued)
Physical Property
Even if you have previously used a property – hotel, convention center, event venue, museum, etc. – it is possible the last time you didn’t ask many questions, and experience leads to more questions. It is also possible that changes have been made since the last time you were there, regardless of time span.
TIP: I use google alerts for terms such as the name of a specific hotel, city, hotels in general, owners’ names, hotel brand names, hotel bankruptcies, etc., and subscribe to business journals or local to the destination of a meeting digital news. These provide information that might impact a client’s meeting.
Specifically, the following are yours to learn, to visit if you conduct a site inspection, and about which to include information in the contract. While some may be found on a website, include questionS in the RFP if only to confirm the information.
- The property’s legal name, brand under which it operates, ownership name/s, management company name/s if different than ownership or brand
- If it is corporately owned by the brand or a franchised property
- If franchised, criteria for which it is evaluated, contract expiration date and history of renewal
- If managed by a company other than the brand or owner, the contract expiration date
Note: these are needed because when contracting, you are contracting with more than the name on the door. If a dispute arises, it is possible all the parties will be involved in resolution.
- Type of property (for hotels: luxury, upscale, moderate; suburban, urban, resort, airport)
- Contact names, addresses, area codes and phone numbers, website URLs, time zones for all the entities including the property itself, its owner, and the management company if it differs from the owner
- Year the property was built, last building inspection date, and results
- Schedule of future inspections to ensure it is considered safe by the destination
- Last renovation and the specific scope of work performed
- Any planned or anticipated renovation, scope and dates, and anticipated closures of operations, or impact on guest rooms, public and meeting space
- AAA rating or other ratings and when they were issued (While helpful to read individual’s reviews on websites, they may be less accurate for group experiences. You may take them into account and ask more questions. On LinkedIn and Facebook are groups specifically for meetings professionals – often referred to as #EventProfs with the hashtag – along with professional organizations such as MPI, PCMA, NCBMP, ASAE, state SAEs, RCMA, Military Reunion Network among them.
Transportation
- For hotels, distance from airports serving the area, types of transportation available including those that accommodate people with mobility aids, and average cost during rush hour (yes, in Dayton too!) and non-rush hour from airport and hotel
- Around town, public transportation and availability of taxis or ride services
- Parking at the hotel (valet or self-park?), cost and hours of access and security
- If using another venue for your meeting or an off-site activity, parking, access cost, and security
Regardless of what you know of your group’s behavior patterns on site, ask about outlets:
- Food and beverage on property – that is, places at which people can eat or from which to purchase food to go
- Outlets’ owners and management companies
- Accessibility in and around and seated, and use of restrooms, for people with disabilities
- Hours of operation and staffing
- Payment accepted for purchases (room charge? Credit cards? Electronic payments?)
- Room service, if available, and hours of operation
- If room service is not available – many hotels, even full-service hotels, have eliminated it – from where a person might order for delivery and the hotel’s delivery policies (admitted by the front desk if after a certain hour; permitted to go to guest rooms? only met by guest in the lobby or brought to room by hotel staff?), and disposal of trash from a delivered meal
Meeting rooms and space specifications:
- Most venues’ websites have diagrams of meeting space layouts, capacities in different room sets (theatre, schoolroom, banquet, reception) and show windows, pillars, and electrical outlets. Because you will provide your tentative program, the RFP should ask what specific rooms or spaces are most likely to be assigned for the meeting or event for which you seek a proposal.
- Accessibility to and around meeting space
- Ask if any meeting rooms are only accessible by steps and what provisions are made for people with mobility disabilities.
- Proximity of restrooms to meeting space
- Emergency exits and procedures from the meeting space
- Inventory of meeting furniture
- Tables, chairs, and types including “hi-boys” (standing cocktail tables) and standard cocktail tables
- Linen colors and types
- Podia (or staging) and sizes of configuration
- Lecterns and types (tabletop, standing; lighted; able to be raised and lowered to accommodate height and wheelchairs), and charges if any for use
- Dance floors and sizes
- Railed steps and ramps to use to podia/staging
- Back railing to ensure no one falls off! (It has happened.)
- Electrical power and locations in room and capacity for audio visual and other equipment
Phew! I am using my checklists to write the blogs; the Destination Dayton editor is going to question its length, and to them I am grateful. This gives you a good idea of how detailed RFPs can be.
What else would you like to learn? Please provide feedback and questions, tips you’ve discovered or about which you are curious. I repeat that the more we ask, the more information in the proposal that is then negotiated and contracted, the better the event. Write to me with questions at my email joanleisenstodt@gmail.com (noting on the subject line “Destination Dayton”) or through Destination Dayton via info@destinationdayton.org or its social media channels.
Note: I am not a lawyer, and all contracts should be checked by lawyers familiar with hospitality contract law. I spent many years as an expert witness in industry disputes (litigation and arbitration), sometimes testifying for groups, sometimes for hotels, over contract terms and performance. If interested in learning more about contracts, I recommend you check the new industry certification, Certified Event Contract Specialist™ (CECP™). It is a self-study course on which you can take your time. If you are involved in numerous contracts, whether you are a CMP or not, this may be worth your time. It is for those who work in Canada and the United States.
If you want to learn more about this topic, be sure to also watch the on-demand recording of my recent Meetings Today webinar.
Destination Dayton thanks Joan for sharing her many decades of meeting planning experience with our readers! She will respond to questions asked in her upcoming blogs. Note that her advice will be that of a meeting professional and not of a lawyer for any legal advice even though she became, and was, for 30 years of her career, an expert witness in meetings industry legal disputes. She will provide resources for more information about contracts, general guidelines, and items to add to your checklists for planning and managing meetings and events from the experiences she and colleagues have had.
Want to learn more about planning a convention, meeting or event in Dayton? Ready to submit your RFP? Visit the meetings section of our website for more information.
