For many hotels, weddings are where the money is at. Setting your hotel up to properly market weddings is more than just setting up for a one-night event. If you play your cards right, you may soon find that your Saturday night weddings can turn into three or even four days worth of business for the hotel.
Using ‘Approved’ Vendors
One of the more frustrating aspects of weddings is in working with uncooperative vendors, such as bands and photographers. It is of the utmost importance that you find vendors that understand the banquet comes first. Far too many times, schedules have been thrown off and food has gone cold simply because of communication issues with an inexperienced vendor.
Your goal here is to find vendors that will work well with your banquet captains and managers to ensure that these functions go off well. However, it goes a bit further than that…
Develop Packages
While it will be impossible to incorporate all services into a wedding package, there are some items that could naturally be incorporated, such as the wedding cake. For your sales team, the more you can incorporate, the higher their commission, so you should not have that much trouble getting them on board with this idea.
Additionally, you want to offer packages that will keep as much of the wedding at the hotel as possible. For instance, are you offering a wedding rehearsal discount at your restaurant for any wedding held at the property? Are you offering “morning after” breakfast packages that can be included? Are there discounted rooms available for guests at the wedding? Do you have a wedding “room” that can be offered to host the ceremony itself?
Do Something Special & Personal
Social media is far more effective than most other forms of marketing, and a big wedding weekend is your time to shine. Above and beyond the normal photos that will be shared, you can increase buzz by personalizing the hotel for the wedding guests, especially if they have the run of the hotel for the weekend. Put up banners welcoming the wedding guests and create personalized amenities for the immediate family of the bride and groom as well as the entire wedding party.
The more services you offer, the more profit the hotel makes and the less stress the client suffers through over the course of her weekend. Once you pull off a few of these functions and it gets out on social media, the sales will speak for themself.
Is your sales team making the most of your banquet space? If the local talent is just not getting it done, it’s time to call JDI. Joseph David International is consistently ranked among the top hotel recruiters because we do more than just find candidates; we find the ideal fit for both the property and the managerial candidate to ensure success.