Knowland, provider of data-as-a-service insights on meetings and events for hospitality, reported a significant increase of 50% in convention and conference center platform usage in 2023.
Knowland’s recent meeting planner survey revealed that groups are more likely to relocate events to alternative markets than move down in chain scale to reduce costs. This indicates an opportunity for non-hotel venues to compete more strategically for group business.
- Average booking comparison: Convention centers and non-hotel meeting venues realize the importance of data-driven insights when competing with hotels that average 20k+ of meeting space. Knowland data shows that these hotel venues dominate in the top 25 markets, over 2-1. The average large hotel venue in the U.S. booked 397 events in 2023, while the average non-hotel venue booked 188 events.
- Opportunities for non-hotel venues: As meeting planners consider alternate destinations and venues to manage meeting costs, convention centers have a unique opportunity to fill this need. Larger meeting space locations are turning to data-driven analytics to fill need periods, analyze account behavior, and understand target market trends for events for 25 or more attendees.
- Leveraging data to capture event demand: Successful conference and convention centers are leveraging data to capture event demand. Insight into trends by market, industry and meeting size; booking history and preferences; competitor activity; and account intelligence are only a few of the critical insights they can apply to compete in their markets.
“Booking groups is a complicated business with many moving pieces,” said Jeff Bzdawka, CEO, Knowland. “There is also fierce competition among venues across all meeting sizes. We believe that finding that business shouldn’t be complicated. Data should be easily accessible and provide the right insight at the right time.”
