Владельцы отелей должны инвестировать в продвинутые инструменты продаж для роста прибыльного ивент-бизнеса в 2027 году

In Brief: Mike Pavicich writes that hotel owners and operators planning for 2027 should prioritize funding advanced sales tools to enable their teams to secure more profitable event business amid rising competition and evolving client expectations. Get a head start with our free 2027 Budget Season Blueprint, packed with practical guidance to help turn next year’s goals into a stronger sales strategy. Every budget season ends the same way. Last year's actuals are open, next year's forecast is taking shape, and you're working through room nights, rate, F&B, banquet revenue, covers, average checks and what each segment will need to produce. If you run a management company, you're doing it 10, 20, 50 times over. By the end, everyone knows what sales teams are expected to deliver in 2027. Far fewer budgets answer the other question: what are you giving the team to help them get there? If the plan calls for more group revenue, higher conversion and better profitability, raising the target is only half the job. The months of September and October are a perfect time to look at how group business actually gets sold and serviced today, where you lose hours, where revenue leaks and fund the fixes while the budget is still open. Start With the Goal and Work Backward Hotel budgeting is built around production: group rooms by segment, then banquet and catering built from breakfast, lunch, dinner, receptions, beverage, AV, room rental, covers and average check. You need to know what drives your revenue. But when the budget says group revenue grows 10 or 15 percent, the next question is how. More leads may be part of the answer, but they are not the only answer. The hotel may be able to respond faster to the opportunities it already receives and convert more of them. It may be able to increase revenue from each booking. Sales managers may also be able to spend more time selling if administrative work takes up less of their day. That is where the expense side of the budget begins to connect to the revenue side. If next year’s sales plan assumes the team will work more efficiently and produce more, the tools that make that possible need to belong to the same conversation. Put Sales Time Back Into Selling Response time matters, but there's a difference between acknowledging an RFP fast and putting a thoughtful, relevant proposal in a planner's hands. Hotels that consistently win business tend to combine speed with specificity. They identify what is missing from the RFP and ask better questions. They also understand whether they are selling to a corporate meeting, wedding, association group, and the proposal reflects what that planner is trying to accomplish instead of filling in required fields. Technology shortens the distance between that first conversation and a strong proposal. Picture a salesperson working a trade show. A planner stops at the booth and shares dates, room requirements, and meeting space needs. In a traditional process, those notes sit until the salesperson returns to the office and has time to build the proposal. With AI-assisted proposal tools, those specs start building it immediately — notes, emails, even recorded conversations translate into meeting details. The salesperson starts with a draft to refine instead of a blank page. The salesperson still decides what should be offered, checks the details and owns the relationship. The technology simply removes the work around it. According to our client data, ProposalPath helps proposals close up to 33% faster. The value is not only faster proposal creation, but it's also the hours that go back into understanding the client, following up, negotiating, prospecting and finding revenue that was already there to find. Instead of asking whether a tool saves a few minutes on a task, ask what your sales team could accomplish with the time it gives back. Budget for More Revenue Per Booking, Not Just More Bookings A common disconnect appears when the budget assumes F&B, ancillary revenue or average checks go up, but nothing changes about how those opportunities get sold. If you want more from every group you book in 2027, put a plan behind the number. That doesn't mean padding proposals. When a planner shares a $100,000 budget, a $150,000 proposal proves nobody was listening. Understand how the budget is allocated instead. Maybe the planner set aside more for guestrooms than the program actually needs. That's room for an upgraded reception or a stronger F&B package. Present the option that fits the original budget, then show what a modest step up would add to the event. Think of these as experience enhancements, not add-ons. The goal isn't a bigger bill. It's a better event that also earns more. Budget season is a good time to make those opportunities more systematic. Look at which enhancements planners actually buy and which produce healthy margins. Consider what works well for corporate meetings, weddings, association events and other important segments. Then make those options easier for salespeople to present. When the process is already in place, incremental revenue becomes less dependent on a busy salesperson remembering to bring it up. Don’t Forget What Happens After the Contract Is Signed The signed contract is a great moment for the sales team. Business on the books, everyone celebrates, attention moves to the next deal. The planner still has six months — or more — before the event. Menus change, counts move, deadlines land, questions surface. This is where seemingly small inefficiencies add up. A planner asks for the latest document. Someone sends an attachment. A count changes, so another version gets created. Sales has one copy, catering has another, and operations has information sitting in an email thread. A live planner dashboard gives the customer one connected place that works together — current documents and event information in one spot, so they're working from the latest details instead of chasing versions. Automated tasks and reminders do the same on your side, protecting the details that matter: signed agreements, introductions and planning deadlines that stay on track. Less chasing, fewer dropped details. A better experience for the planner, and one version of the truth for sales, catering and operations. At one hotel, that's time saved. Across a portfolio, it's a real productivity gain. Measure Return on Time You already measure the revenue a group produces — rooms, F&B, meeting room rental, AV, ancillary, all of it. Here's the number most hotels don't track: how much organizational time did it take to earn that revenue? Let’s call it return on time. A group can look terrific on paper and still consume an extraordinary amount of staff effort. Weeks of back-and-forth before signature. Repeated catering revisions. Hours of operations reconciling information from three places. Another group at comparable revenue sells easily, services cleanly, and has a better shot at rebooking next year. None of that means avoiding complicated business. It means knowing what that business really costs to win and deliver. Conversion rates and response times can show what is happening at the top of the sales process. Booking windows, segment performance and enhancement revenue show which groups actually deliver. For a management company, the patterns matter even more. One property excels at corporate meetings booked inside six months; another owns social business. One sales team captures far more enhancement revenue than the rest. Those patterns tell leadership where to focus next year — instead of just raising last year's number. Before the Budget Is Final, Look at How the Work Gets Done There's always pressure during budget season to finish the numbers. But before the final spreadsheet gets approved, it is worth looking beyond the revenue lines and walking through how group business actually moves through the hotel today. When a lead arrives, how fast can the team respond? How much work does a proposal take? Can an interested planner sign easily? Once the contract comes back, how does the next person know what needs to happen? When the event changes, is everyone looking at the same information? If the hotel wants to increase revenue per booking, does the salesperson have the time and tools to find it? And if management wants better performance next year, can leadership actually see what is working? That's where a 2027 technology budget stops being abstract. Built by people who know the work, SalesAndCatering.com has built technology for hospitality sales and events since 1989, and the work has changed considerably in that time. One thing hasn't: hotel teams are busy, the details matter, and the best technology makes the work easier to manage rather than adding another layer of complexity. So this budget season, don't only ask what your sales team has to produce next year. Ask what will help them produce it — and fund it. Turn Your 2027 Budget Into More Profitable Group Business Download your free copy of the 2027 Budget Season Blueprint for Winning Profitable Groups & Events for practical strategies to help your sales team prioritize opportunities, improve performance, and turn 2027 goals into measurable group revenue. About Mike Pavicich Mike Pavicich is the Global Sales Vice President at SalesAndCatering.com, where he leverages over 20 years of rich experience in the hospitality industry. His professional trajectory is marked by a series of leadership roles across prestigious hotel brands, demonstrating a consistent ability to drive sales performance and revenue enhancement. Mike's roots in the industry trace back to fundamental roles in sales and operations at distinguished establishments such as Hyatt Hotels, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, and Station Casinos. Mike's career trajectory shifted when he began exploring the synergistic blend of technology and hospitality. His contributions have been pivotal in advancing growth-driven solutions at leading technology firms, including Orbitz (now part of Expedia), Rainmaker (later acquired by Cendyn), and Sabre. In a recent role, he played a key part in managing the gaming markets for Priceline-Agoda. As a graduate of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, class of 1999, Mike combines a profound understanding of the hospitality sector with a keen insight into technological innovations. Outside the professional sphere, this industry veteran is a dedicated family man residing in Las Vegas. When not working, he relishes quality time with his wife and two teenage sons, passionately supports the UNLV Running Rebels basketball team, and contributes to the community as a volunteer youth lacrosse coach. About SalesAndCatering.com SalesAndCatering.com provides the most affordable full-featured Sales and Catering systems for hospitality. Its STS Cloud Sales and Catering system is widely installed and engineered to give property sales teams the sales tools that help them achieve their goals. SalesAndCatering.com’s systems are developed and supported by the company’s US-based offices. It is a trusted full-service sales and catering partner that delivers solutions via a software-as-a-service model that ensures greater client communication to streamline the sales process and maximize staff productivity. SalesAndCatering.com’s systems help hotel companies meet revenue goals through anytime-anywhere data access and integration with multiple PMS systems. STS Cloud delivers unparalleled performance to help you thrive in today’s competitive sales environment. For more information, please visit salesandcatering.com.