A Message From Our CEO: Solidarity & Support

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Now more than ever, Relationships Matter. This is impacting you and it is impacting us. Let’s come together in solidarity to support each other during these difficult times.

We’d like to share a few of HPN Global’s founding values:

Family First– for most of us our family and loved ones are why we do what we do, they are why we get up in the morning. Time with them is the most precious thing we have. Hug them every day.

Be Nice to People – It’s a basic fact; people are nice to people who are nice to them. We are in the service business and people buy from people they like! My mother’s favorite saying was, “you catch more flies with honey than you do vinegar”.

Life is all about Relationships – Relationships, Relationships, Relationships! At the end of the day, nothing else matters but the connections we make with other people; people we work with, people we love, people we do business with.

Change is our Friend – It’s another fact; everything changes. We are going to continue to see a ton of that in 2020 for sure. No matter what you think the status quo is, it is in fact going to change rapidly. The people that can assimilate, appreciate and perhaps even lead change are the ones who are successful.

Take care of your friends – Our team is here to support you and the rest of the industry. Remember in life and in business to be a good friend. Your friends will return the favor, step up and take care of you when it matters.

None of us have ever been through anything like this, and I’ve been in the business since 1980. Take care of your family, your co-workers, and your customers. Keep your relationships in the forefront, be kind and nice to everybody in your day… we will get through this together.

Bill Kilburg
Chairman & CEO
HPN Global

Finding Balance During COVID-19 Chaos

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It is our priority to consider all the risks involved to your organization and your attendees and provide legitimate, factual information to help you make the best decisions possible.

IMPORTANT HIGHLIGHTS

While there are currently no travel warnings “within the country” in the United States, we recognize corporations are implementing internal travel plans that could impact your event.

According to the CDC, “For the majority of people, the immediate risk of being exposed to the virus that causes COVID-19 is thought to be low.” Read more.

JOHNS HOPKINS COVID-19 DAILY TRACKER UPDATE

As of March 9, 2020, here are some facts reported from Johns Hopkins University:

  1. What is not widely reported and should be highlighted is that there have been 62,375 recoveries already out of the 111,363 confirmed cases worldwide.
  2. That is more than half confirmed cases.
  3. 80% of all cases reported are MILD.
  4. The most vulnerable are elderly, people with chronic illnesses or compromised immune systems (children have not been widely impacted).

DEFINING SOLUTIONS

There is massive confusion as to whether or not force majeure can be applied to meetings canceling in the United States. The top questions we are seeing pertain to a declared state of emergency and corporate travel bans.

It is important to understand that a state of emergency provides federal funding, resources and has no direct impact on curtailment of travel. If flights are landing in a state and hotels are open for business, force majeure does not apply. The same follows suit for corporate or organizational travel bans.

HPN Global is committed to taking any necessary steps to support our clients through this conversation with creative solutions for all involved to mitigate expenses.

BEING PROACTIVE

We are here to support our clients and all industry partners through this challenging time.

Here are our suggestions to be proactive:

  1. Communicate to attendees. What are you doing to help prevent the spread of coronavirus and other infectious diseases in your home, workplace, and events?
  2. Prepare and consider the communication and marketing pieces you are putting into place to ease the concerns of attendees.
  3. Support issues for attendees that arise on-site, whether you are the planner or the hotel, you should have a proactive plan in place.

SUPPORT FOR YOUR EVENT

As a token of our commitment, we are providing you with a step-by-step resource to help manage pre-planning concerns and provide a plan while on site.

Download Step-by-Step Resource

RELOCATING YOUR EVENT

Consider all things involved with continuing your event, including the cost of cancellation and the cost to reproduce it. If hosting your event on its intended date is not an option, we can help you “lift and shift”™.

“HPN Global is committed to helping our clients and partners navigate these uncertain times. We are working to find the best solutions and best outcomes for each event and for all those involved. We are aware of the full-scale impact this is having on our industry, and we remain available to you as a resource.”
– Bill Kilburg, CEO & Founder

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Arm yourself with legitimate, factual information about COVID-19.

  1. CDC facts about COVID-19
  2. Everything to know about COVID-19
  3. NAEMSP COVID-19 considerations

CDC travel guidances – Updates are ongoing so you have the most up to date information at all times.

  1. China
  2. Hong Kong
  3. Iran
  4. Italy
  5. Japan
  6. South Korea

Sourcing Tip Of The Month: February

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Can you believe it is February already?  With the year off to a fast start, here’s a quick update from our Rock Star sourcing team!

RFP System Refresher:
Sourcing Terms and Conditions Review
Our platform requires all hotels to accept our terms and conditions before they can bid. Hotels are not able to update the T&C in the response link on their own – this is completed by the sourcing team.

We recommend that hotel partners reach out to the sourcing team member handling their RFP and tell us what changes need to be made in order to make the terms agreeable. If their request is in line with HPN’s standards, the sourcing team will update the hotel’s link with the requested changes. Then the hotel will review and submit their bid.

The sourcing team will also monitor the availability report to see if hotel partners leave any notes about commission. We use those notes to update T&Cs before we reach out to the associate to let them know the RFP is complete.

When terms and conditions have been altered, a booklet icon will appear in the T&C column of your availability report. We encourage associates to review T&C updates to ensure everything is in order before sending out the AVR to a client.

Sourcing Trend:
The team averaged 46 RFPs/day and sent out over 1,000 RFPs/revisions and expansion in January! The team is staying busy!  We appreciate our hotel partners who respond quickly and thoroughly to our requests.  A quarter of the new leads were short term (under 90 days).

Promotion Alert!
While we are on the topic of T&C and commission – HPN Global provides our associates with an easy place to view hotels/CVBs that are offering additional commission! We have a lot of great partners out there who know that relationships matter!  If you are a hotel and would like to submit a special incentive to attract more attention from our sales team, please contact us and we will add to our list.

As always, please reach out with any questions at all, and have a wonderful week!

WHITNEY BEGIN

Senior Sourcing Operations Specialist

O: 480.998.9770 x 259

E: wbegin@hpnglobal.com

Sourcing Tip of the Month: January

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HPN Global developed its own sourcing platform based upon efficiency and, just as importantly, to foster relationships between hotels and clients. The company’s philosophy is to have a single point of contact at each hotel so a long-term relationship can be formed, resulting in priority handling of our inquiries. This also allows us to maximize our purchasing leverage and partnerships at the property level. The ease of the system response form allows hotels to submit their bids efficiently. Every group hotel in North America and most globally are preloaded into our system so hoteliers can respond to the RFP in literally less than 10 minutes. The quick follow up process conducted by the Senior Sourcing Specialist ensures responses are submitted in an appropriate amount of time.  Typically, in North America the company’s RFPs have a response rate of 85% within 24 hours and virtually 100% within 48 hours.

Here is a quick HPN Global RFP System Refresher:

The Sourcing team sourced 10k+ RFPs in 2019 and we are looking to grow that this year! We are also starting Q1 off with a bang averaging 45 RFPs a day and rising. So, if you are planning a meeting please contact us first. 😊

Sourcing Trend:

Also, it has been noted at the MPI Luncheon by Amanda Armstrong, AVP of Enterprise Holdings, that there is a huge rise in demand for meetings, but the development pipeline is slowing down. Thus, planners should be adjusting budgets to anticipate higher rates and start booking space/blocks earlier. Just something for our clients and associates to keep in mind moving forward.

This is yet another reason why our sourcing model is so perfect. We can help our clients source more locations and find those perfect holes in any market. We believe that although demand is high and space is limited, if we use our technology the right way, we can find a great spot for any client meeting or event.

Meeting Promotions and Offers Alert!

Our partners are offering some great deals to start 2020 off right! All of which are posted on our HPN portal so that our associates can always make sure our clients are getting the very best meeting offers available for your event dates and requirements. Make sure you contact the HPN Global associate in your area or in the area you are planning to meet to get all the information you need before you engage the property directly.

Senior Sourcing Specialist, Laura Hess

Hotel Sales Tip of the Month: January

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HotelSales tip: don’t take my email address and add it to your weekly/monthly promotions email blast list without my permission. It’s unoriginal and doing so signals you don’t respect my time and you don’t have a genuine interest in my business or value my clients’ programs outside of making a transaction.

Instead, find out something about me or my clients and send a thoughtful email after you read an article on that subject (hint: I love baseball). Pick up the phone and tell me anything other than how your ballroom was “recently renovated” and has “flexible meeting space.” Invite me for a “virtual coffee” appointment on Skype to talk about life. Be original and as somebody I respect (David Meltzer) always says, “be more interested than interesting” and you will be exponentially more successful in your sales efforts.

(Edit: To meeting buyers like myself, it’s our responsibility to lower the wall when somebody gets creative and reaches out. If someone makes an effort to really reach you, take the call. Chances are they found you because you buy in their market and if you buy again you have a partner you can contact first who will work to earn your business.)

Agree? Disagree? Comment below👇

Global Account Director, Tony Farina

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