Venues will be more flexible on cancellation terms but are adding more robust contract clauses to cover potentially similar issues, according to an HBAA survey on venue attitudes to commercial terms following the Covid-19 crisis.
The survey of 35 member venues, including 18 venue groups and 17 independent venues, also revealed that nearly all are still planning how to handle the additional costs resulting from social distancing and extra cleaning at present.
Juliet Price, consultant executive director of HBAA, said: “This is a shared cost and one of which contributes to guest, employee and delegate safety so it is paramount today and for the future. These costs shouldn’t and can’t be automatically absorbed by venues.”
47 per cent of independents and 44 per cent of hotel groups are still in the planning stages of selling strategies for large meeting space. Many say they are waiting to see how the market settles down before committing to future strategies or at least outlining them.
However, after discussions about force majeure clauses, many venues are introducing new wording that specifically and clearly addresses pandemics and government advice.
Independent venues are behind group properties when it comes to flexibility over allowing customers to bring in their own food and in reorganising the working hours of their conference sales offices. 87 per cent of independents and 61 per cent of hotel groups expect to provide food in-house rather than enabling incoming deliveries of food for meetings and events, while 65 per cent of independents and 82 per cent of groups are flexing the working patterns of their conference bookings and finance teams to support all parties.
The survey also shows that nearly all venues recognise the need for a type of Covid-safe accreditation such as the Quality in Tourism’s 'Safe, Clean and Legal' to regain consumer confidence. They are working to gain accreditation if they haven’t done so already as well as continuing with their own standards, all to kick start confidence and enable industry recovery.
Juliet Price said: “HBAA is committed to ensuring that the industry is #FutureFit and an important element of that is learning from the experiences of the last few months, and to be ready not only for a potential second wave, even locally, but also for the new reality. Our HBAA #FutureFit Live event scheduled for 6 October in Birmingham will explore this fully in person and bring it to life.”
M&IT editor Paul Harvey is a journalist with more than 15 years of experience. He began his career in the local press, working for various titles across the north. Since joining M&IT in 2013, he has become a trusted and respected voice in the sector, championing event professionals and reporting on all aspects of the events industry for the brand.
