Independent Meeting Planners Fight Back Against Commission Cuts
Photo Credit: More than 1,000 mayors, managers, community planners, local officials and guests from throughout Michigan had been expected to descend on Grand Rapids, Michigan, Sept. 20-22 for the joint 2018 Michigan Municipal League and Michigan Association of Planning convention. Flickr / Michigan Municipal League
Skift Take
It’s been just over a year since Marriott made its move, the first in a wave of such measures. But instead of getting knocked down by the trend, independent meeting planners are finding ways to take control of their businesses.
When Marriott slashed third-party planner commissions from 10 percent to 7 percent last year—and Hilton, Intercontinental and Hyatt all followed suit—independent meeting planners seemed to feel under attack.
“This has been damaging,” David Bruce, managing director of CMP Meeting Services, and founder and executive director of the Alliance of Independent Meeting Professionals, declared to Skift. “We can’t stay in business if we take a 30 percent hit.”
He continued, “Last year probably cost me somewhere around $40,000, and I’m assuming this year it’s going to be $60,000 or more. A lot of agencies can’t take that.”
But rather than go out of business, meeting planners have been finding creative ways to cope. “It doesn’t do any good to get mad or upset, you just have to think about how we’ll replac
