Planners looking to book short-term, smaller meetings this year may need to employ creative, new strategies as election-related events, international sporting events, and the resurgence of major conventions have already claimed space and dates in key markets.

Against a backdrop of the rapid return of in-person meetings and events over the past two years, planners who are sourcing and contracting future programs are facing an array of complex issues.

As the 2024 hotel RFP season gets underway, corporate travel buyers are grappling with a number of internal and external uncertainties. Many are rightsizing their programs, a process that is reshaping their partnerships with hotel suppliers, and considering new hotel pricing structures.

As demand for meetings and events picks up in an economic environment characterized by steep price increases, meeting planners are rising to the challenge by applying a combination of skill, strategy and, most important of all, creative out-of-the-box thinking.  

It will be another challenging year ahead for corporate travel—meetings are back, but so are high prices. As corporations juggle their sustainability goals with duty of care and rising budgets, they seek better tools to make smart decisions. But learning to trust and understand the data must come first.

As business travel regains its footing in response to changing corporate needs and shifting travel patterns, new strategies and diverse approaches to hotel sourcing are emerging.  

As meeting volume continues to pick up steam in 2022, planners are managing organizational expectations and budgets while navigating in a new landscape defined by a return of in-person events, changing attendee expectations, steep cost increases, compressed lead times on RFPs, staffing shortages, and limits on hotel and venue availability. Increasingly, many are finding that they must reevaluate their old processes to be successful.