The Wide Window of Opportunity for Tropical Meetings & Incentives
September 18, 2018SHARE:
Among those of us here at AIC Hotel Group who work with group clients, we tend to get just a little
more excited for the October to April season, because that’s when so many business groups come to our
properties in Miami, Dominican Republic, and on the eastern and western coasts of Mexico. But as you
might have seen recently, the month of September sometimes poses a problem for coastal destinations.
A recent hurricane on the east coast of the United States, as well as a typhoon in Hong Kong and Macao,
have caused those destinations to postpone some upcoming business-group events and reschedule
them for a few months later.
The good news is that our group clients almost never have to worry about a weather event interrupting
their itinerary. That’s because it’s only for a few weeks each year—September weeks that are generally
not group-oriented—when strong storms are possible in our tropical destinations. In fact, outside of
September, the chances of a storm affecting any of our destinations—even as far apart as some of them
are from each other—are nearly zero. In fact, you have a much greater chance of having an event
interrupted between October and April in Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Minneapolis, or other northern
destinations because of snow, than possibly having any storm issue in the tropics!
Now, in the incredibly unlikely event that a storm does force a change to a group itinerary at an AIC
Hotel Group property, we are always prepared to enact contingency plans, such as finding new event
dates that work for all of the group’s attendees, executives, sponsors and other stakeholders. We also
make sure that group contracts reflect the possible remedies for an interrupted itinerary. In short, we’ve
handled so many group events under different circumstances over the years that we’ve got all the
angles covered, and we are happy to go through each one with the group’s planner during the
contracting process.
With that said, my final advice is this: Don’t give the weather a second thought when you’re bringing a
meeting or incentive programs to an AIC Hotel Group property in the tropics. Our rain showers are
notorious for lasting just about 20 minutes each day—and most guests don’t even leave the pool while
the shower comes through. You can’t say that about most other places in the entire world!
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