Cvent's 2017 Global Planner Sourcing Report has been released, surveying more than 1,200 planners worldwide, including nearly 300 planners in the UK.
The report shows that planners cite poor transparency and accuracy over pricing along with lack of clarity and poor response rates as their main pain point with venue selection.
Conducted in the April-June 2017 period, the study surveyed event planners in the UK working for corporations, associations and other organisations.
“Not surprisingly, location and cost continue to be the key factors that planners look for when selecting a venue,” said Stacey Fontenot, VP of marketing for Cvent.
“Event planners have made it clear there are certain frustrations, including accuracy in pricing and response time to RFPs that venues can work to address to generate more events and business.”
Survey highlights
- Four in ten planners revealed that venues could improve chances of getting business by providing answers to all of their questions to request for proposals (RFPs)
- Nearly a quarter (24 per cent) stated accurate pricing quotes would improve chances of winning the RFP, whilst nearly a fifth (19 per cent) said more should meet the response deadlines to win more business
- Location, venue cost, and availability of preferred dates are the top features that influence a planner’s decision to book a specific venue.
Event planners also said the comparing different price structures, negotiating with the venue and researching venues caused the most challenges during the sourcing process - 6 per cent of planners surveyed are not certain about the destination or their budget in the early stages of planning their event, while in contrast only a fifth were extremely or very certain about the event venue
- 30 per cent of overall respondents use a standard chain hotel for events, whilst nearly the same (29 per cent) opt for cultural venues such as museums, 21% prefer hotels with unique meeting spaces. 16 per cent prefer independent or boutique hotels
- Event planners still rely heavily on word of mouth, citing peer recommendations as the top influence for sourcing venues (28 per cent) followed by the venue’s corporate website (20 per cent) and Google search engines (19 per cent)
Event planner profile
More than half of those (54 per cent) who responded were Millennials (18-34 per cent) with nearly four in ten (38 per cent) aged between 35-52.
Nearly a half (48 per cent) of them organised more than 10 meetings a year whilst 32 per cent of respondents organised 20+ events.
In terms of event format, 40 per cent are conferences, followed by seminars (17 per cent), awards and gala events (15 per cent) and fundraisers (15 per cent).
Nearly half of events planners (48 per cent) are organising events for 100-500 people with a further 36 per cent organising smaller events between 21-100 per cent.
Full report is available to download from the company website.
