Out-of-Town Events Moving to Weekends, Consultant Says

Don’t be surprised if that out-of-town business engagement runs from Thursday to Sunday, and don’t be shy about bringing along a spouse or guest.

That’s the word from Ann Ford, a co-director of the meetings and incentives division of Stevens Travel, who spends her days arranging meetings for a number of companies.

About 90% of the events where her customers entertain clients run from Thursday to Sunday, she said.

“You can work Thursday, get there, have half-day sessions on Friday and Saturday” and leave on Sunday--with time for entertainment and the chance to reap the bargain air fares that usually come with Saturday night stays, she said.

Sales and training sessions, by contrast, tend to be Sunday-through-Friday affairs, Ford said. But if meeting organizers can show there are air fare savings even after the cost of a Saturday night hotel stay is factored in, she said, a weekend-centered meeting will often be chosen instead.

On some weekend-based occasions, she said, as many as 65% of attendees will bring along a guest or spouse.

Nor do the meetings Ford arranges necessarily depend on golf or tennis as the major diversion.

“We’ve done a cattle drive--we had 75 people on one near Aspen,” she said, referring to the Colorado ski resort.

Ford’s chief concern these days, however, is finding the hotel space needed, at the price she wants, in an era when some hotels can be crowded.

Industry experts say the crowded-hotel phenomenon came about because the lodging industry, after the recession of the late 1980s, has experienced more corporate and leisure travelers lately, a trend that appeared after several years in which few hotels were built.