The potential of micro branding meeting rooms for boutique hotels

The potential of micro branding meeting rooms for boutique hotels

by Youri Sawerschel

Hotels have always been in the frontline to provide business-meeting venues. Surprisingly though, these meeting spaces are commonly positioned as an add-on to a hotel offering rather than as a stand-alone value proposition.

When it comes to selling their meeting facilities, many hotels compete only on factual specifications, such as room layout or coffee break menu. By competing exclusively on products or services, hotels risk to self-commoditise their offerings. Moreover, boutique hotels cannot afford to decrease their margins by entertaining a price war against major hotel chains. To develop an offer that will stand out from the competition, boutique hotels can implement a Micro-Branding strategy.

Boutique hotels must be able to define what their meeting facilities stand for, regardless of the rest of the property. This process of positioning distinct points of sale in the same hotel, each with their own value proposition, is called micro-branding. One of the advantages of micro-branding is that it allows the targeting of different segments under the same roof in a coherent manner; meeting facilities customers are not necessarily the same as the hotel rooms or the restaurant ones.

 Think benefits, not features

Clients do not hold meetings because they want the latest beamer or a room in U-shape setting, but because they want to close a deal, develop new ideas, or discuss next year's strategy. Understanding that the outcome of a meeting is what matters the most in the eyes of customers, several meeting rooms providers are starting to micro-brand their meeting venues as spaces that fosters collaboration and creativity. The positioning of these meeting spaces is radically different from the industry standards. Indeed, instead of communicating on specific facility specifications, the emphasis is put on the value offered by the overall meeting experience, namely an increased productivity, an ideal collaborative work or an efficient brainstorming.

To nurture collaboration and innovation, boutique hotels should consider offering area with a cosy living room feel, comfortable couches and low coffee tables, as opposed to traditional classical board meeting settings. Unusual decorative elements, writable walls and open fridges with soft drinks and snacks can reinforce this positioning of unconventional meeting destinations.

An opportunity for small and big players alike

Identifying this opportunity for creative spaces, OFFSITE, a boutique meeting and event space in New York was created to provide a setting propitious to brainstorming sessions and innovative courses. "The customer experience is our main differentiation point" says Shaun Kessler, partner at OFFSITE. Indeed, OFFSITE's spaces areall-inclusive (from A/V equipment to food and beverage and office-supplies) to ensure a worry-free memorable (and productive!) experience.

Only a few major hotel chains have also spotted the value of micro-branding meeting spaces separately from other hotel operations. For instance, Marriott Hotels & Resorts in partnership with Steelcase, an office furniture company, announced last September the launch of enhanced workspaces named Workspring. Offering small meeting rooms branded as "studios", Workspring promises "a collaborative work experience that promotes creativity and innovation". Following the example of fitness clubs, Worksprings offers monthly memberships that include access to meeting rooms, office supplies and snacks. Looking at online reviews, this smart, tech-savvy, and all-inclusive concept appears to win unanimous support from its customers.

Micro-branding represents a good opportunity for boutique hotels to gain more visibility and generate positive PR return. Finally, it is a marketing strategy that can be used for virtually any outlets in a hotel. Boutique hotels that do not have meeting rooms could develop a Micro-Branding strategy for the bar, the restaurant, the room-service, the fitness centre or even the lobby. The key to micro-brand an outlet successfully is to consider the latter as an independent business unit with its own offer, customer segment, positioning and communication channels.

By looking at their outlets through the "Micro-Branding lens", boutique and lifestyle hotel managers and owners will soon realize that the potential of their property is only limited by creativity.