International Hotel Meeting Contract Clauses: A Comparison of Multiple Destinations

Meetings and conventions are a global business. To negotiate effectively, meeting planners must be aware of the differences in typical hotel meeting contracts in different parts of the world. Likewise, hotel sales representatives need to understand the expectations of international meeting planners. This study was designed to explore differences in meeting contract clauses and examine the relative importance of specific contract clauses to international hotel sales representatives in different global cities—Shanghai, Toronto, and Washington, D.C. Results confirmed that there were differences in the frequency of inclusion of meeting contract clauses not only between hotels in the three cities just mentioned but also between U.S. brand hotels and non-U.S. brand hotels. Among the meeting contract clauses, “Attrition,” “Cancellation by group,” “Deposits,” and “Force majeure” were relatively important across the three destinations. In addition, “Disability accommodation” and “Dispute resolution” were the salient clauses differentiating Washington from Toronto and Shanghai, and differentiating Toronto from Shanghai and Washington.