A global media company needed accommodation to support the company Christmas party, which was to be held at a non-residential venue in central London for between 400 and 700 delegates. In addition, the company wanted to pay for and provide accommodation for all delegates.  The hotels needed to be within ½ mile of the venue.

The Company

This organisation is a multinational media company headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, which operates in 16 countries. They have a number of offices based in the UK and this event was for their Head Office team.

The Challenge

The Company had never organised a Christmas party to this level before.  Previously the event had always been held in a venue local to their Head Office.  However, following the introduction of a new GM and a restructure they wanted to make it really special, in a unique London venue and pay for accommodation for all staff who wanted to attend.

Trinity sourced One Great George Street for the party and we had to locate two hotels within within half a mile radius of the venue.  Each hotel had to be of a similar 4-star standard and offer between 300 and 600 bedrooms on a Friday night in early December.

The Solution

During the initial planning stages with the client we were unsure on numbers, but it was agreed that the company would be happy to contract 300 bedrooms and then we would manage the remaining requirement on an allocation, rate card basis.  We reviewed all hotels within a half mile radius and identified 2 large hotels managed by groups with whom we had a good relationship.  We approached our account managers at both of these groups to work with us.  We requested contracted rooms and preferred terms and conditions for the allocation in order to allow the client access to the maximum number of rooms at the minimum liability.  These properties were Doubletree by Hilton London Westminster and Park Plaza Westminster Bridge hotel.

Our accommodation team met with both properties, looked at what each could offer and assessed which would be best placed to take the block of contracted rooms and the block allocation, based on terms and conditions, release dates, deadlines, etc.

Successes

- The 300 contracted rooms were booked very quickly, we supported the client by supplying rooming lists, making upgrades within the block.  A member of our accommodation team was at the hotel for check in to make sure that everything ran smoothly and all guests were on time for the event using the transport provided
- We tiered the allocation contract and filled an additional 200 rooms, managing to secure them at the same agreed rate up to a week prior to the event. Again. we put a member of our accommodation team at the second hotel for check in and to ensure all guests got to the event on time
- All of our client’s staff were accommodated, at the rate initially agreed with the client
- No cancellation charges were incurred by the client, as a result of the way the booking was managed between contracted rooms and an allocation
- All bookings were managed by our accommodation management team who dealt with all payment, rooming lists, name changes, room allocations, etc allowing the client to focus on the event itself