Booking MICE Facilities For Foreign Delegations

Jet Chang is the senior commercial officer at the Danish Embassy in Beijing. He is mainly responsible for commercial cooperation and the promotion of Danish enterprises' technology and products in China, and he also takes responsibility for booking hotel rooms and meeting venues for delegates of Danish enterprises.

China Hospitality News is committed to offering the most comprehensive report on China's tourism industry in the hope of providing the latest industry news to buyers both at home and abroad. What do you think of our products? Which columns are you interested in most and why?
China Hospitality News and its bilingual websites provide comprehensive and valuable information to readers. They are one of the main sources that we rely on for choosing hotels. The Features column is well targeted and provides useful content. The columns we are concerned with include Booker Opinion, Features, Happenings, Focus, and Promotions.

What are your criteria for choosing a hotel or meeting venue? What do you think is the most important factor that affects your decision-making?
In ranking of importance, first, is a hotel's star rating and brand reputation. A higher star rating often means a higher level of hardware facilities at the hotel, while a good reputation may represent a guaranteed level service of the hotel. This is especially important when choosing a venue for large meetings.

Second, we will look at the location of the hotel. We often receive delegations from Danish enterprises that come to attend various exhibitions in China. In this case, we will choose a hotel that is close to the exhibition venue. However, we will choose a hotel near the city center or major transportation hub if it's to be used for a seminar by the embassy, since this will provide greater convenience to the attendees.

Third, the communication skills of the hotel's sales staff are also very important. If the sales people can fully understand their client's needs and help them solve problems or even foresee potential problems for them, and work out solutions to these problems, they will achieve the maximum satisfaction from the clients.

Which domestic hotels do you choose most frequently for your events?
For business trips, we choose hotels which we used in the past and had pleasant experience with or a brand hotel that is conveniently located. We often look for hotels through channels such as Ctrip.com if we are not so familiar with a city we are going to visit.

In Chengdu our premier choices are InterContinental Century City Chengdu and Holiday Inn Chengdu West Century City, and other hotels we used include Crowne Plaza Wuhu, Holiday Inn North Chongqing, Radisson Plaza Xing Guo Hotel Shanghai, Renaissance Yangtze Shanghai Hotel ,and Tianjin TEDA Hotel & Convention Center.

Which hotels have impressed you most and why?
InterContinental Century City Chengdu and Holiday Inn Chengdu West Century City have both made a good impression on me. When the earthquake hit Sichuan on May 12, 2008, it happened that we were staying in the hotel on a business trip. After the earthquake, the staff of the hotel took the tense situation calmly and took good care of each customer in a well-organized manner. Besides, they could always think of any possible needs of the customers and make preparations in advance. This is why they have impressed me.

Manhattan Cafe in Crowne Plaza Wuhu provides a 24-Hour dining service, which, when we arrived late in the day, made us really feel at home.

What problems have you encountered when using hotel products and service? What suggestions do you have for hotels?
Many hotels boast that they provide first class service, but in fact they seldom fulfill their promise to customers, especially in details. For example, in one of our meetings, we were troubled by the noise of the construction team of the hotel. And in another case the video or projector system suddenly failed to work and none of the hotel staff could offer any emergency solutions.

All this may be due to a lack of responsibility of the hotel staff. I suggest hotel management consider increasing employee satisfaction to realize customer satisfaction by referring to the caring and incentive policies of Hai Di Lao Restaurant.

Have you had any unpleasant experiences when cooperating with hotels? How did it make you feel unpleasant?
The most unpleasant experience was when the details we agreed with the hotel's meeting sales manager were later not well executed by the other departments of the hotel.

We had reached an agreement with the meeting sales manager of the hotel on details such as meeting venue arrangement, projector and video equipment, signs, sign counter, and lunch for a large size symposium, but on the meeting day:
a. we found that the hotel only arranged 100 seats instead of 120 as we had previously agreed;
b. the meeting was held on the fifth floor of the hotel, but the sign was not placed in a prominent place in the hall so many attendants could not find the meeting room;
c. we had asked the hotel to reserve two long tables for our VIP clients and the speakers for the BBQ lunch, but they did not do as we requested at all.

All this means that hotels need to make improvements in internal coordination and teamwork.

Through which channels do you select hotels or venues for your company events?
Usually we choose hotels based on the hotel star rating and brand reputation, our previous cooperation with the hotel (including recommendations by colleagues or friends, or in reference to other meeting venues), media reports, and industry accreditation.

What do you think of the relationship between travel and fashion? Which domestic hotels have impressed you for being fashionable?
It has been a trend that travel often goes together with fashion. With the increase of consumption capacity, travel has become a kind of fashion.

The Westin Beijing Chaoyang features a "stylish" hall. Upon entering the hall, people can see a crystal ball in the center. It is said that this ball symbolizes that in 2008 the attention of the whole world was focused on China, on Beijing, and on the hotel (which was opened before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games). In addition, in front of the reception counter of the hotel there is a backdrop board with the theme of "Ju Yong Die Cui", one of the eight Yanjing scenes. The water ink painting looks elegant and fashionable and is complemented by golden lights. The Exchange Bar in the hall is also in keeping with the concept of fashion and coffee by supplying coffee, tea and soft drinks in the daytime; and champagne, wine and long drinks at night.

What do you think of the China Hospitality News' new column "MICE Directory"? As a meeting buyer, what do you think we should add to the column to make it more professional and accurate for our readers?
This column provides useful information on basic hardware facilities and it is very useful. My suggestions to the column are:
Adding the contact person and contact details of the hotel;
Providing a brief map that shows the location and transportation of the hotel;
Offering some space for the hotels to list their value-added services.

Can you please recommend some travel destinations, both inside and outside of China, to our readers?
I recommend Qinghai for domestic travel. There is beautiful scenery and a strong folk feeling in Qinghai. Furthermore, the place is the origin of the Yangtze River, the Yellow River and the Lancangjiang River. It is cool and mild in summer and is a good summer resort.

For overseas destinations, I suggest going to countries in northern Europe as they are sparsely populated and feature beautiful scenery. The air is fresh and cities are clean there and they are very suitable for relaxation.

What are your hobbies and which types of travel do you like?
My hobbies are food, travel, and outdoor sports. I like independent travel that does not have a fixed itinerary.