Attendee experience, compression, and delivering value are all part of the future of city-wide events. Knowing the struggle stakeholders face to effectively adapt, PCMA addressed this dynamic during Convening Leaders 2025, held Jan. 12-15 at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston.
onPeak’s Senior Director of Account Services, Jason Gross, was invited to join the panel during the session, “Adapting to a New Era in Citywide Conventions: Room Blocks, Contracting Trends, & Rising Costs” where he and others from around the industry offered insights and practical advice on staying at the forefront of housing.
The evolving post-pandemic landscape
Moderated by Kavin Schieferdecker from the San Diego Tourism Authority, Jason joined an impressive group of professionals from across the industry, including Bill Reed, American Society of Hematology; Earla Jones, American Association of Critical-Care Nurses; and Kathy Mouw, Marriott International. Emerging from a November 2024 workshop on the future of city-wide events, the session covered key industry shifts like reduced room availability, shorter booking periods, and the need for earlier commitments. As part of the conversation, they examined the top 250 high-volume events generating an average of 3,000 peak room nights. Many are concentrated in just 20 cities, require roughly 10 days of convention space, and over half occur during the peak months of May, June, September, and October. The group discussed how these metrics put significant demand on host destinations.
“It boils down to communication,” shares Jason. “onPeak manages about 250 events a year, and from planners to hotel guests, we hear it all — smaller blocks, higher rates, stricter contracts, fewer services. Our hotel partners don’t need to have 250 separate conversations — they can talk with us. We take this feedback, along with our own experiences and observations, and use it to have meaningful conversations with hotels so we can find solutions that work for everyone.”
Strengthen the attendee experience
When booking a hotel, attendees are often contending with higher costs and diminished services, so how do we address this impact on attendee satisfaction and an event’s value proposition? These questions, in addition to managing relationships, communication, compression, delivering value, and how to incentivize booking in the block, were amongst the reoccurring themes tackled by the panel.
Regarding compression specifically, the community is dealing with rate yielding, lower group ceilings, less flexibility, and earlier cut-off dates.
“The city-wide event itself drives compression,” Jason points out. “For hotels, it’s great because it pushes up rates and occupancy. The tricky part is finding a balance so the event’s block and rates aren’t negatively impacted. After all, if the city-wide weren’t taking place, there wouldn’t be any compression. And this takes us back to communication — understanding what’s important to the event organizer, the hotel, and the destination helps us find a win-win.”
While everyone believes the goal is to get the maximum number of people to book within the block, they also recognized that looking at what drives people to book a hotel is critical. So, what is it? Rate? Location? Free breakfast? Countless factors come into play, but Jason mentions an important and often overlooked reason — loyalty points.
“People can be incredibly loyal to a specific brand, and earning points and status play a big role in where they book. That’s why it’s essential for bookers to earn their points and have their status acknowledged. When we ask why they didn’t book in the block, the common answer is that they wanted to ensure they received their points.”
Ultimately, the panel acknowledged that while they might not have all the answers now, the conversations are happening. Planners, hotels, venues, destinations, and service providers like onPeak are sharing challenges and objectives while collaborating on how to balance long-term strategic planning with immediate realities.
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Want to chat more about onPeak’s perspective on all of this? Just drop us a line at [email protected].