Lodgement & food services for events

Lodgment, Food and Beverage Services

Lodgment Services

Hospitality functions are held in conjunction with a main event to promote interaction and facilitate special recognition. The professional event coordinator may have to organize or accommodate a variety of hospitality events, desks, lounges, and or suites that provide gathering places for special interests groups within the mainevent´s audience. A special event or area may be developed to recognize and entertain certain important figures that will participate in the event.

Hotel room rates, travel distance and transportation costs, parking fees and numerous other expenses will affect the desirability of an event site or destination.

When negotiating for space with a hotel, the professional event coordinator mustunderstand that hotels make their profit on the sleeping rooms. A hotel contract is made, and it consists on an agreement between the hotel and the organization holding an event to provide rooms and function space as well as other services like food and beverage for a specific event or series of events. Depending on the type of event, services offered and accommodations may vary, but it is always importantto be aware of which type of expenses are included in the contract, and which aren´t, as well as to respect rates published in conference advertisement in relation with rates negotiated with the hotel to prevent discomfort or annoyance among attendees.

Types of Hotels
Hotels are also classified by service type ranging for all-inclusive full-service resorts that cater to vacationers to smalllimited service hotels that cater to transient business travelers. In this regard, it should be noticed that lower classification or lower star rating does not necessarily mean that the hotel lacks standard. The star classification system is a common one for rating hotels. Higher star ratings indicate more luxury.
AAA Classification
The AAA (American Automobile Association) and their affiliatedbodies use diamonds instead of stars to express hotel and restaurant ratings levels. Hotels are independently assessed in traditional systems and rest heavily on the facilities provided. Some consider this disadvantageous to smaller hotels whose quality of accommodation could fall into one class but the lack of an item such as an elevator would prevent it from reaching a higher categorization.Hotel classifications in Britain (AA)
In Britain, hotels are rated from one star to five stars, as in many other countries. The RAC pulled out of accommodation grading in 2008 so the only grading schemes in operation are those operated by the AA (Automobile Association) and the national tourist boards; Visit England, Visit Wales, the Scottish Tourist Board and the Northern Ireland Tourist Board.The schemes were all 'harmonized' to ensure consistency between the schemes. This applies to all accommodation types apart from Self Catering that the AA have recently (2009) started offering. The AA criteria are available on its website. In addition to the usual black stars (ranging from one (the lowest) to five (the highest), the AA awards red stars to the highest-rated, which are deemed'Inspectors' Choice'. Each of the national tourist boards have grading explanations on their web sites.
'Six' and 'seven star' hotels
Some members of the hospitality industry have claimed a six or seven-star rating for their operation. As no organization or formal body awards or recognizes any rating over five star deluxe, such claims are meaningless and predominantly used for advertising purposes. Forsome time the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai was said to be a 'seven star' property, but this was never the case.
Hotelstars
The HOTREC (Hotels, Restaurants & Cafés in Europe) is a umbrella organization for 39 associations from 24 European countries. On the conference in Bergen 2004 the partners sketched a hotel classification system in order to harmonize the national standards. In 2007 the...