Complete the fax with suitable words and expressions from the box.

a.meeting rooms	b.banqueting rooms	c.technical equipment
d.boardrooms	e.the support services	f.conference facilities
g.lectern	h.conference and banqueting space

To: Ms Laura French fax: 0034 208 491 445

From: Sales Office

Subject: ¹⁾ ______ Pages: 2

_______________________________________________________________

Dear Ms French,

Thank you for your email and your interest in our hotel. It is my pleasure to send information on our conference facilities with a floor plan.

The hotel has a total of 700 m² of ²⁾ ________. The Conference Centre is located on the ground floor. It consists of nine ³⁾ _______, including the Grand Hall ballroom, which is able to accommodate up to 600 people. The room can be divided into three separate sections. Next to the Grand Hall there are four ⁴⁾ _______, with capacity for about fifty people each. They can be connected to create large spaces. There are also two ⁵⁾ _______ for smaller groups. The whole conference centre is air conditioned. Five rooms have daylight.

We offer a full range of ⁶⁾ _______ including overhead projector, slide projector, microphones, flipcharts, ⁷⁾ ______, audiovisual equipment, satellite link, internet access and computer rental.

⁸⁾ _______ at our guests’ disposal include: secretarial services, conference coordinator, interpreters, printing service, florist, transportation, photographers and catering services.

If you have any other questions, please let me know.

With kind regards,

Katarzyna Zarek

Conference Bookings Manager

Write an email reply to the representative of a company enquiring about conference facilities. You are going to attach full details of your conference facilities, but you should answer the enquirer’s direct questions in your email.

Dear Conference Coordinator, We are interested in holding our annual conference in your hotel and I would be grateful if you could send me full details of your conference packages and facilities. We are particularly interested in the capacity of your meeting rooms and the technical equipment and services you offer. Also, are there any special features that you offer? I look forward to hearing from you. Best wishes Ralf Moller PA to the Managing Director Communications Worldwide

Self-check

1. What does the acronym MICE stand for?

2. What kinds of meetings does MICE industry cater to? Give the definitions of ‘seminar’, ‘workshop’, ‘roundtable’.

3. What is incentive tourism? What purposes is it usually conducted for?

4. What’s the difference between an exhibition and a trade fair?

5. What are the prospects of MICE tourism development in Russia?

6. What key players are involved in providing MICE industry services?

7. Give the definition of ‘Business travel’.

8. Who are business travelers?

9. What kind of business guests are important for a hotel?

10. What services does a business traveler need from a hotel? What special facilities do business travellers expect?

11. What makes a hotel suitable for hosting a conference?

Audioscripts

UNIT 3 Ex. 13

Interviewer:	Do you have a fixed room rate?
Reservations manager:	In common with most large hotels, our room rate policy is quire complicated. We have a basic room rate for all our room types, but the way that we sell our rooms means that we often charge a different rate from this. This is because our Sales and Marketing Department has negotiated different rates with different agents, corporate clients, and other clients.
Interviewer:	What are your basic room rates?
Reservations manager:	Well, we have a Standard room which contains all the basic facilities, such as private bath, TV, tea- and coffee-making facilities, and the basic rare for the double is £85 a night. Our Luxury rooms, or Executive Plus as some of them are called, contain a little bit extra: they’re a bit more spacious, have better views and so on - they’re £115 a night. Then we also have suites, which vary a lot in price.
Interviewer:	What discounts do you offer on these basic room rates?
Reservations manager:	You mean discounts for the individual non-corporate booking? Well, we have special weekend rates: two nights, either Friday/ Saturday or Saturday/Sunday will get a 10% discount. That’s to encourage a two-night booking even though weekends can be our busiest time. And our weekly rare is calculated on the basis of seven nights for the price of six. That’s on all room types.
Interviewer:	Can you tell us how the specially-negotiated room rates work?
Reservations manager:	Like most hotels of our size, individual bookings paying the full room rate are a minority. Most of our guests come through some other source, either as part of a tour, through a tour operator, or a corporate guest. We get lots of repeat guests from particular companies and they obviously have a contract with us. There’s a corporate rate, but there are also special rates negotiated and arranged with the Sales and Marketing Department, who enter them onto the computer for the Reservation and Front Office to access whenever an enquiry or reservation comes in. In addition, a lot of our rooms are sold through agents and representatives: these are either Free Sale Agents or Allocation Holders.
Interviewer:	What exactly are Free Sale Agents?
Reservations manager:	Well, every week, or even daily at busy periods, we send out availability charts to Free Sale Agents, who are usually in the States or Europe, and are usually either part of our own company or reputable agents. They sell rooms at an agreed rate — normally the corporate rate - which is arranged by the Sales and Marketing Department. They are told every week what rooms they can sell and if they can sell at a discounted rare or not. The Free Sale Agent doesn’t need to check with us first, so it lowers administration costs; they just send in a confirmation sheet.
Interviewer:	What about Allocation Holders?
Reservations manager:	Allocation Holders are agents who have a certain number of rooms that they agree to sell in our hotel. They normally sell on FIT rates - Fully Inclusive Tariff rates - which are from the leisure side of the business and are cheaper than corporate rates. The customer pays them directly, they get commission and pass on what is left to the hotel. The rate is agreed with the Sales and Marketing Department. An Allocation Holder usually has up to twenty rooms over a weekend, on a seventy-two hour release - in other words, by Wednesday, the hotel can take the rooms back and re-sell them.

(High Season, Unit 6, Listening 7)

UNIT 3 Ex. 43

Interviewer:	Diane, can you tell me about your work and how you go about selecting a hotel for your clients?
Diane:	Well, I work exclusively with incentive tours. More precisely, I work as a Ground Handling Agent for incentive tours from the US. As I’m based here in London, I often don’t know the clients intimately. So I rely on my incentive agent in the US to inform me of exactly what sort of group they are and what sort of things they like doing, etc. Then I’ll make preliminary inspections of various hotels, as part of the job of a ground handler is selecting a hotel. The next thing is to make recommendations to my client on the basis of these inspections. Nine times out of ten, my clients will also want to inspect the hotels themselves, so one or two of my clients will come over on an inspection visit and they’ll make the final choice themselves.
Interviewer:	Really?
Diane:	Yes, and we’ll see as many hotels in one day as we can. A few days ago, I took some clients to visit seven hotels in one day, which is quite normal, but a few weeks ago, we inspected fourteen hotels all in one day.
Interviewer:	Goodness! What, in general, are they looking for?
Diane:	Obviously, details depend on the group in question. The incentive groups I deal with will generally spend a lot of rime socializing. Consequently, die communal areas such as the bar must be large, attractive, and atmospheric. The reception area will be the first thing they see, so the company will want it to be impressive. Because there’s lots of socializing, not just within the group but also with clients based in Europe, there must be sufficient rooms for private functions. And, of course, they’ve got to be big enough. Generally, that means we deal with luxury hotels. We don’t always, because a deluxe hotel won’t necessarily suit the requirements of the particular group we’re dealing with. But, by and large, the more stars a hotel has, the bigger and better the facilities.
Interviewer:	So how do you keep up to date with new facilities, special offers, or even new hotels?
Diane:	I’m on the mailing list of all the main hotels in the London area so I’m kept updated by mailshot, and I know the people in the sales divisions of most of the hotels we deal with. If they have a special offer coming up, they'll telephone and let me know. To keep myself informed, there’s the TTG - that’s the Travel Trade Gazette - which is vital reading for anyone in my line of work. If there’s any new hotel development, or even new hotels being built, then it will be included in there. I also make a point of going to trade fairs, such as the one in Earls Court in November called the WTM. People from all over the world attend, and I make appointments to meet people in the hotel business.
Interviewer:	Have you ever recommended a hotel you haven’t inspected?
Diane:	Never. For example, yesterday I went into London just to see one room in a large city-centre hotel. I was offered forty-four of a particular type of room for a client. This hotel has fourteen different types and I wasn’t sure it was the right type. Just to be sure, I went to check, and I'm glad I did. It wasn’t! You see, every time I recommend a room, my reputation is on the line. I can’t afford to make mistakes.

(High Season, Unit 11. Listening 7)

UNIT 3 Ex. 46

Peter:	OK, so what time did they say they would be here, Donald?
Donald:	Well, they should be here at any moment.
Peter:	Fine. Shall I complete the group check-in list when they get here?
Donald:	That’s a good idea, and I’ll give you some help if you need it. Good, here they are. Good morning! Welcome to the Fir Tree Hotel.
Mrs Endo:	Good morning. My name is Megumi Endo. I’m the Tour Leader of the Endo Tour Group. Very nice to meet you.
Donald:	Good morning, Mrs Endo. I trust you had a pleasant flight. My name is Donald Carter, and I'm the Front Office Manager. I’ll be checking you in. And this is Peter Makeland, my assistant. I have here your registration cards. Could you please ask your group to fill in both their names and passport numbers on the cards?
Mrs Endo:	Yes, of course, thank you. Now we might have a small problem. Three of our group are friends, and they’d be happier if they shared a room. If they had told me earlier, I would have faxed you. I hope that’s not inconvenient.
Donald:	No, not at all. So that’s three fewer singles and one more triple, so that’s two fewer rooms in total. That won’t be a problem. Do you have the names? Good, thank you. I'll get an updated rooming list printed, give it to the I lead Porter and then he’ll be able to make sure all the luggage is taken to the right rooms. They all have their names on their luggage?
Mrs Endo:	Yes.
Donald:	Good, that’s fine. The Head Porter will take care of that.
Mrs Endo:	Can I give you my passport list?
Donald:	Thank you.
Mrs Endo:	But I'm afraid I've left my voucher in my luggage. Can I give it to you later?
Donald:	Yes, of course. That won’t be a problem. Now, I’m afraid we have a small problem. Because you are such a large group and it is so early in the morning, not all the rooms are quite ready. So, I’ve just bleeped the Food and Beverage Manager and she will be coming down in a minute to see to your food and drinks requirements while you are here.
Mrs Endo:	Fine, thank you.
Donald:	Well, in fact, here she is. Mrs Endo, may I introduce you to Patricia Clarke, our Food and Beverage Manager. |hello, hello.] Patricia will take you through to the breakfast lounge and discuss your meal requirements. Thank you, Patricia.
Mrs Endo:	Fine. Thank you
Donald:	OK, Peter. Have you got everything?
Peter:	Not quite. What room did we allocate the tour leader?
Donald:	304. And that’s Megumi with an ‘i’ at the end.
Peter:	OK, and the rooms. That's three fewer singles and one more triple. Twenty-four, ten, three and thirty-seven?
Donald:	That’s right, so the total is two fewer. Under additional remarks’, make a note to tell Reception of the changes. Put something like 'tell Reception two fewer rooms required’, then you can tick it off when we’ve done that. You've made a note about the voucher, haven’t you? Good.
Peter:	Fine, and Patricia Clarke - is that Clarke with an ‘e’ at the end?
Donald:	Yes, that's right. If you give me the sheet. I’ll just check it and sign it.
Peter:	There you are.
Donald:	OK… Fine. Now, let’s go and join them in the breakfast lounge.

(High Season Unit 12, Listening 1)

UNIT 4

Ex. 22

Interviewer:	So how do you go about selling this particular venue?
Agnes Johnson:	Basically, the way that we sell this venue here at The Manor is we contact conference agents; in England there are a number of agencies who will book conferences on behalf of companies in England there's about 500 agencies operating, and they usually have a computer base so they have a good knowledge of all the venues – some specialize in country house hotels like us, some specialize in chain hotels but, by and large, most of them will book any sort of hotel and what happens is, we pay them commission because they've gone to all the trouble of finding the business for us – we don't have to go out and get it, but we need to offer them incentives to use us... something that's going to attract people to use us, whether it be an additional commission or a special rate for the conference delegates.
Interviewer:	How much is the commission?
Agnes Johnson:	We normally give them 8 per cent, so 8 per cent of the charge goes to them for finding the conference. If a client is looking for a conference centre they'll actually pick three hotels from the computer that match what the client wants, then they'll come out and visit each hotel. Then they may bring the client out to visit the hotels and then the client will make a decision based upon what he knows about them - so it's a lot of work, but, on the whole, what we try and do is get in there and try and be friends with most of the conference agents the better we get on with them the easier it is to sell to them. And that's what you find in selling any product. If you can make your clients your friends you're going to be able to do business a lot better.
Interviewer:	Can you ever sell direct?
Agnes Johnson:	Well, on the one side we’ve got the conference agents we talk to and on the other side we go direct to the corporate client’s, and there's a lot of companies out there who have requirements for meetings, for conferences, for dinners perhaps, and what we need to do is to find out who they are and if they would use us. It’s a long and complicated, well not a complicated - it's a quite honestly tedious process of telesales, of cold calling, going out knocking on doors of companies, giving them our conference brochure, talking with them, asking them, you know, would they consider using us for a conference. It can take a long time. You may have talked to a corporate client six months ago and they may have said, “mm... we could use you,” and then you may find two years down the track they'll remember us and use us, so it's not the kind of thing that happens overnight.
Interviewer:	And what about advertising? Or do you rely just on direct sales?
Agnes Johnson:	No, we also have to participate in advertising. We can't just have sales people out and about because they can't cover the huge mass that advertising through the printed word can cover. Within our advertising we use books like these, the green book and the blue book. They're bibles for people who organise conferences - most large companies will have a copy 50 it's vital that we be in there. There’s information about the hotel and a picture so they can go through and find you and give you a call. We also advertise in a lot of smaller publications and in the Yellow Pages - the phone book - we also often attend exhibitions where we'll put ourselves forward, make a display and tell people who come to the exhibitions about the hotel. A fair amount of our business also comes from telephone enquiries, so down in our sales office we need to have people that can answer the telephone and know exactly what the capabilities of each room are and how we can negotiate our prices.
Interviewer:	What else can you do to attract potential clients?
Agnes Johnson:	Well, we also have a lot of special events - the major one we do is a Shakespeare festival which has been running for forty-five years and we often do a thousand people a night. With all our guests it seems to go down like a house on fire, and so it does a lot of our hospitality and our advertising for us. And other people might come and see a play and think, “Oh, I need to book a conference next year”.

English for International Tourism Upper-Intermediate (unit 15)

Ex. 25

Interviewer:	Donald, you said that it is important to treat all your guests well, but differently. Could you explain what you mean by that?
Donald:	Yes, of course. Like any other company, we, as a hotel, need to be able to identify those customers who are important to us. Just as an airline will try to offer a better-quality service to first-class passengers, we’ll try to provide a higher standard for our important guests. Business travellers, for example, generally expect a higher class of service. Also, because they are frequent travellers, business people are potential regular customers and it is very, very important for the hotel to attract regular guests. Some of our business clients have been coming here for years because, we like to think, we look after them well.
Interviewer:	So, are all business people treated the same?
Donald:	No, using the same logic, we like to distinguish between different types of business guests, too. Some have Very Important Person status, or VIP for short. A typical VIP guest might be a customer, like a company salesperson, who makes regular visits. The VIP business guest soon becomes well-known by all the front-of-house staff - indeed we have one Italian salesman who we see on almost a weekly basis! Then there is the CIP, who is a Company Important Person, which means he is an important person in a company which the hotel does a lot of business with. That might be a company that makes regular use of our conference facilities or business apartments, for example. Finally, top of the range is the VVP, or very, very important person, such as the managing director of an important company. Of course, not all managing directors are VVPs, and businessmen are not the only important people.
Interviewer:	So, how are they treated differently?
Donald:	Well, unlike the normal business guest, the VIP has his or her room allocated in advance. We make sure we have all the necessary information about the guest and his company on the computer. We'll know what kind of room he likes, what side of the hotel, and so on. So there’s just a simple check-in procedure. The duty manager is made aware of the VIP’s presence in the hotel, but he doesn’t usually come out to meet him. For the CIP, the room is also allocated in advance. However, all CIP rooms are double-checked, to make sure that everything is OK, and some additional extras are usually included. For example, if a CIP has asked for something in the past, we try to make sure it's there again on his or her return. Again, check-in is very simple and the duty manager does try to meet the CIPs if at all possible.
Interviewer:	OK, so there’s extra attention to detail.
Donald:	Right. Then, there’s the VVP. Whereas CIP rooms arc double-checked, all VVPs have their rooms treble-checked, the last check by the senior housekeeper or duty manager. What’s more, a full range of extras is provided, including flowers, wine, chocolates, etc. For a VVP there’s no need to check in at Reception. The duty manager always meets and accompanies the guest to his or her room, where check-in procedures can be completed. In other words, for us, all our guests are important, but some guests are definitely more important than others.

(High Season Unit 9 Listening 1)

Ex. 30