Cambridge’s Kimpton Marlowe Hotel is offering new dedicated blocks of space to meeting planners in an attempt to revive group business travel activity. Photo by Kelly Marshall | @sans.murs

Earlier this month the hospitality industry celebrated National Meeting Planners Appreciation Day which “recognizes the contributions of meeting and convention planners to promote tourism in their communities.” 

As we all know, but may have forgotten because of COVID-19, meeting and convention planners arrange meetings, conventions and other events, which up until March 2020 were all done in person.  

As anyone working in the hotel industry will tell you now, our world has been completely turned upside down. It’s been a long time since many Greater Boston hotels have hosted in-person meetings, which means that showing appreciation for planners who book corporate conventions, weddings, award ceremonies, university graduations, charitable fundraisers and pharmaceutical conferences has been difficult to do.  

By their work, meeting and convention planners help bring in attendees (and tourists) from all over the world and help our communities come to life and thrive through economic stimulus. I’d be remiss in not mentioning the large number of hotel associates who are employed to work directly with these planners on their meetings and conferences. Without these planners and their contributions to our industry and cities, Boston and Cambridge are lacking the energy and spirit that often puts us on the top of convention city lists. 

‘Takeovers’ at End of Tunnel? 

The good news and light at the end of the tunnel during the pandemic is that in-person events (many with some type of hybrid virtual-live structure) are being discussed again. There is growing demand among planners, meeting attendees and travelers for social bubbles where guests can “take over” blocks of rooms, dedicated hotel floors and even all of the hotel’s meeting space to ensure safe, socially distanced and dedicated hotel use. 

This concept has sparked the idea for many hotels to offer “takeovers” where planners, in some instances, can be given nearly all of the hotel for their use. As businesses start to return to some sense of normalcy, and traditional in-person meetings begin to rebound, there’s likely going to be mixed feelings amongst meeting planners and attendees regarding their level of safety and comfort.  

So, our team at Kimpton Marlowe Hotel in Cambridge met and discussed fun, creative and safe ways to make planners and their attendees feel comfortable meeting with us in person once again. We came up with the idea of a “Marlowe Meeting Takeover,” which gives guests the opportunity to take over as much of the hotel as possible, providing a meeting “bubble” to help convey a sense of safety and inclusiveness with an overall dedicated environment within the hotel. 

We also wanted to offer an easy and efficient way to book and maneuver this from all sides. So, for one flat fee, a meeting planner can take over the hotel’s meeting space and dedicated guest room floors. This creates the safe, socially distanced haven that many planners and their attendees are looking for now. Guests have exclusive use of the hotel’s event space and newly renovated guest rooms, ensuring their safety and well-being at all times. Couple that with enhanced health and cleaning protocols along with our Kimpton “So Fresh, So Clean” initiatives, and guests are more likely to want to meet in person once again at our hotel. 

We then needed to think outside the box and came up with creative ways to show our appreciation for meeting planners by offering additional amenities and incentives like free meeting room rental, morning coffee and WiFi in our guestrooms, and offering cash-back incentives. We even committed to offering attendees exclusive use of our fleet of bikes while meeting with us. 

Dedicated Floors for Groups 

This all boils down to providing planners and their clients with the opportunity to collaborate, network and socialize with peace of mind knowing guests have exclusive use of guest room floors and meeting space at their disposal. It’s offering a takeover that encourages planners and their guests to meet in person and in confidence once again.  

Joe Capalbo

And given the flexibility that our industry has needed to adapt to COVID-19, we’re confident that this meeting bubble concept, or some variation of it, will remain part of the hotel’s offerings because nothing beats face-to-face, in person connections. 

From an operations and labor standpoint, it’s actually easy to execute a takeover like this. It just requires blocking hotel rooms on separate floors, away from other hotel guests. And by hosting a meeting in this manner, you’re actually making other leisure guests in the hotel feel more comfortable as well, since they’re happy knowing that a meeting is taking place socially distanced from them and their families. It’s a win-win all around.  

Our hope is that more local hotels will follow-suit as well, to show their appreciation for meeting planners and the work they do to support the hospitality industry and workers in our local communities. Let’s make it as easy and safe as possible to encourage meeting planners to meet in person once more here in Boston and Cambridge. 

Joe Capalbo is regional director of operations for Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants and general manager of the Kimpton Marlowe Hotel in Cambridge.