My team is spread across the US. We're planning to get together quarterly(ish). In working to plan our first gathering, I'm realizing this is new and rather difficult.

With a company that has an office, it's been easy to tell everyone to come to the city with the office. I've done that at a previous company. But without an office, I need to find both a place to stay and a place to work.

Sure some hotels have conference rooms and such, but it's not like I can find those via Expedia. I really only need room for up to 10 or so. Nothing big. I don't want to have to call hotels or deal with paperwork.

The best I've been able to figure out so far is to book a hotel that's near a coworking space like Wework. The problem with that is, it's likely the most expensive option since coworking spaces tend to only exist in very popular areas, which then make hotel prices higher.

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You can FIND Hotels like that on Expedia (listed in amenities)... but you can't search that particular detail specifically.

It's an interesting dilemma... wish I could offer something useful.

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Paul F.
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A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand. - Lucius Annaeus Seneca c. 5 BC - 65 AD
----
Good is the enemy of Excellent. Talent is not necessary for Excellence.
Persistence is necessary for Excellence. And Persistence is a Decision.
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Quote
Paul F.
You can FIND Hotels like that on Expedia (listed in amenities)... but you can't search that particular detail specifically.

It's an interesting dilemma... wish I could offer something useful.

I really need something that's searchable and bookable. I can pick from quite a few different cities, so I don't want to have to read the pages of potentially many dozens of hotels or be required to book separately. (I've dealt enough with booking conference spaces at hotels in the past, that I don't want to deal with it. It's too common they'll tell you one thing over the phone or email, and then when you get there they have changed things and there's nothing you can do about it.)

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Totally understand...

Maybe this is your next business? "Co-Work-Travel.com"?

---

Paul F.
-----
A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand. - Lucius Annaeus Seneca c. 5 BC - 65 AD
----
Good is the enemy of Excellent. Talent is not necessary for Excellence.
Persistence is necessary for Excellence. And Persistence is a Decision.
--

--

--
Eureka, CA

We do the same thing for a team of six. There's no way to completely skip the legwork but once you find a location, you can use it over and over so it gets easier every time. I would avoid a co-work space - it's such a waste of $$ for amenities that aren't that useful. Maybe that's just us, but we try to make travel count by getting as much done as possible.

Pretty much every standard midprice chain hotel (like Fairfield Inn, Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton Inn, etc) has a conference room that can accommodate ten people. It's generally listed somewhere on their website, but it's not something that you can search for on Kayak or Expedia.

Once you've picked a location, you'll need to talk to the group sales person to arrange a block of rooms and the conference room. This person can make everything so much easier for you! You'll have to fill out forms to get everything consolidated into a single charge but it's easier, accounting-wise, than ten separate expense claims that have to be dealt with. Team meetings are work, not matter what, but it gets so much quicker after the first one.

In our experience, we don't like to have catering done. We did the first few times we met but eventually dropped it. If the team is staying at the hotel, they'll come in just after breakfast so no food is needed until lunch. At that point you'll want to get out of the room, so eating out works well. This has always been cheaper and there's better lunch selection typically.

I have an employee that sets up our meetings because she's great at it and enjoys it, although it's outside of her normal role. Maybe there's someone similar on your team?

If you have questions, let me know. I'm happy to help!

Nice info FormerlySaleenl!

Saleenl! That's great input, thank you. I hope you are all doing well.

Chances are, we'll pick a different location most of the times. The idea is that we'll rotate who has to travel, and stick to locations where someone already lives. We also have a new booking tool that handles all of our flights and hotels. I've reached out to them for their advice. All of our travel needs to be booked through them.

That's a good tip on catering. I've always found hotel catered food to be not that great, yet expensive. So I was going to avoid that anyway.

I have a plan drafted, and am hoping once I show it someone who is interested in picking locations will step up.

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There are travel agencies that excel in this sort of thing.... just saying.

The Grand Hyatt Kauai in Hawaii has decent conference rooms. I think you'll be satisfied there.

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d4
The Grand Hyatt Kauai in Hawaii has decent conference rooms. I think you'll be satisfied there.

Perfect.

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I agree with FormerlySaleenl's experience (and cbelt3's comment that travel agencies can help with this).

Having done this a few times with landing teams in lodging for extended out-of-town consulting engagements....

1. Pick the cities (up to 10?) that you think will be in the location rotation
2. Pick two hotel brands/banners that your booking service has preferential rates with
3. Find those brands' locations in the cities you are looking at (via their booking sites) and validate amenities you want (conference room) are available
-> Doing it this way you should be looking at ~20 site listings on 2 brands' websites

Also to consider:
1. How are your people getting from (airport?) to hotel? Everyone renting a car? Shuttle service/Uber? Impacts how far you want to be from the airport, as well as if the hotel you are looking at has paid or free parking
2. Does the hotel brand/locations have complimentary breakfast and/or happy hour/buffet?
3. If the team is going out for lunch/dinner, proximity to restaurants
4. Rental rates/availability for things like a projector (or is someone bringing one) or upcharge/membership needed for WiFi access?

We had pretty good luck putting teams into extended stay/suites hotels, managing the number of people who had rental cars. Breakfast and dinner buffet/beer/wine were typically available at the hotel, lunch outings were from the client site, and we'd pre-decide on dinner outings and transport. First night in town had a trip to a grocery store so people could stock up on snacks/etc to keep in their rooms. Only downside was that typically they weren't within "walking distance" of much in the way of food or entertainment if that's important.

Thanks John. The grocery store tip is something I hadn't thought of at all. I have been trying to find a place somewhat close to the airport. I do need to figure out transportation.

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Re: Transportation
In my recent experiences, it's faster and more convenient to just contact an Uber after you arrive and have luggage in hand, instead of coordinating transportation in advance. No need to micromanage too much. These are professional adults here. Not a group of high schoolers on a field trip.

Just tell them the day, time and place. If it's an interesting locale, some people may actually want to arrive a day or so early. Or leave a day later. Spend the weekend. Maybe a spouse has joined them. It's not unheard of. I can appreciate that you want everything to go smoothly but you might be overthinking it.

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Quote
d4
Re: Transportation
In my recent experiences, it's faster and more convenient to just contact an Uber after you arrive and have luggage in hand, instead of coordinating transportation in advance. No need to micromanage too much. These are professional adults here. Not a group of high schoolers on a field trip.

Just tell them the day, time and place. If it's an interesting locale, some people may actually want to arrive a day or so early. Or leave a day later. Spend the weekend. Maybe a spouse has joined them. It's not unheard of. I can appreciate that you want everything to go smoothly but you might be overthinking it.

For most of the transportation, I'd just do as you say as that's what I've done at other companies. But there's two outings that make that tricky. That's the transportation part I still need to figure out.

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