All-Inclusives

For decades, American leisure travelers have flocked to all-inclusive resorts throughout the Caribbean and on both coasts of Mexico, lured by picturesque surroundings and the promise that for one price, they can live like royalty; eating as much and as often as they would like, drinking from a bottomless cup and enjoying as much recreational activity, or inactivity, as they care to.

For one price, all-inclusive resorts typically include accommodations, food, drinks (including alcohol), scheduled entertainment, transfers, taxes, gratuities, and a range of activities including non-motorized water sports. For an additional fee, most all-inclusive properties can offer guests further activity options such as golf, spa treatments, scuba diving, and jet ski and boat excursions.

With such a liberal dose of indulgences, it is not surprising that the group market was slow to embrace all-inclusive options.

"We started catering to the group market about 10 years ago and a lot of people were reluctant to bring a group to an all-inclusive property at the beginning," says John Corry, director of group sales for Sandals Resorts, which features 23 luxury all-inclusive resorts throughout the Caribbean.

More recently, however, the group market has become more open to the idea of gathering at an all-inclusive resort.

"Amongst our leisure guests are owners, managers and executives from companies all over the United States, and we started to get more and more inquiries from them about 'would it be possible to bring a corporate group,'" says Paula Hayes, senior vice president of sales for Club Med, which has all-inclusive "villages" around the world, including nine in the Caribbean, Mexico and the U.S. "So three years ago, after talking to the villages and hearing about all of this interest, we started providing sales kits, tracking inquiries and being proactive in the market place, and we found a nice little gold mine there."

Even with the increase in interest, Hayes notes that planners are often reluctant when first considering a group outing at a Club Med property.

"We have people who think, 'Oh my gosh, I can't propose Club Med to our board of directors—they're going to think that this is just a big vacation and it's not going to be a productive meeting environment,' so we have had to overcome those perceptions," she says. "But we now have a core group of meeting planners and past customers that we can use as references that allow us to communicate to a perspective client that they in fact did have a very successful meeting and they did not encounter any problems in managing the group or keeping the group within their agenda."

Breaking Down the Mix

With such beautiful surroundings, so many activities and unlimited food and beverage, it is not surprising that all-inclusive options are extremely popular with incentive groups. Yet many all-inclusive properties are more than capable of accommodating other types of meetings.

"I would say 70 percent of our North American groups are incentives," says Daniel Muller, group sales manager for the InterContinental Presidente Los Cabos Resort, an all-inclusive property on Mexico's Baja Peninsula. "From the Mexican market we see mostly meetings, but for the U.S. and Canada we are seeing about 70 percent of our group business is for incentives."

Leo Sarmiento, director of corporate communications for Sol Melia Hotels & Resorts, which operates the luxury Paradisus all-inclusive brand, as well as the more prevalent Melia all-inclusive brand, notes that Sol Melia's all-inclusive group breakdown is about 60 percent incentive groups and 40 percent meeting groups.

"More recently we have been getting more and more corporate meetings in there, but still incentives are the stronger part of our group business," he says. "It also depends on the property. For example, Puerto Rico is really big for the pharmaceutical industry, so we get a lot of pharmaceutical groups in our Paradisus Puerto Rico resort."

Other types of groups, including trade shows, are also getting in on the all-inclusive resort action.

"We recently hosted an Accor Hotels group at our Sandpiper Village in Florida that brought together the franchisees for Motel 6 and Red Roof Inns, along with their preferred suppliers," says Club Med's Hayes. "Instead of having a normal trade show environment where everybody would be in the ballroom with their pipe and drape and booths and equipment, we did it all outside, by the pools and by the river. The environment was wonderful. It started at 10 in the morning and people could grab a bloody mary from the pool bar or have a soft drink because everything's included, and the suppliers were able to speak to the attendees in a style and manner that was so much more relaxed than what you would usually find in a ballroom or trade show environment."

Affording Simplicity

There are many advantages to hosting a group at an all-inclusive property, and much depends on the type of group and their specific needs. Usually, however, the overriding sentiment is that all-inclusive properties make life easy for the meeting planner.

"The biggest advantage is that after the first conversation, the meeting planner can get a handle on the budget," Sarmiento says. "Meeting planners don't have to sit there and add the meals or the entertainment or the activities."

In addition to convenience, the simplicity that all-inclusive properties offer meeting planners can often be easier on their budget than traditional American resorts or European Plan (EP) properties, which offer room rates that do not include food and beverage, taxes or gratuities.

"Often times the greatest advantage for meetings at an all-inclusive resort is just budgetary," says Rhonda Brewer, vice president of industry relations for St. Louis-based Maritz Travel, a third-party meetings, events and incentives company. "Generally an all-inclusive will come in at a lower budget than a non-all-inclusive."

Sandals Resorts' Corry echoes that sentiment, noting that a group will get a bigger bang for their buck at an all-inclusive property.

"It is a much better value to go to an all-inclusive resort than it is to go to an EP property," he says. "I used to work for EP properties, and for everything they add on, that's where they make their money."

And in the case of Sandals Resorts, because they draw so much traffic to the Caribbean, the company can secure discounted air fare, the largest budgetary item not included in the all-inclusive group price.

"We are a wholesaler into the Caribbean for American Airlines, Delta and Air Jamaica, among others, which means we can often get preferred rates that will be lower than most group rates," Corry adds.

The convenience and value of an all-inclusive property extends to group functions or session breaks as well.

"The meeting planner knows coming in that there are going to be no hidden surprises upon checkout," Club Med's Hayes notes. "We charge a small setup fee for things like a cocktail reception or coffee break. It could be anywhere from $1 to $2.50 per person to set up a separate environment versus going to the bar or going to one of the village's restaurants, but it is very inexpensive to have those things in an all-inclusive environment. We figure, you've already paid for it, so all we are going to do is charge you enough money to get the staff organized and the set up done."

Flexible Options

Because most all-inclusive resorts offer multiple restaurants, one or more theater stages, and on-site entertainment and activities, planners considering an all-inclusive property can expect a range of options to incorporate in their group's itinerary.

"The good thing about the all-inclusive is the flexibility that you have," says the InterContinental Presidente Los Cabos Resort's Muller. "In our case, we have seven restaurants, so when we work with a planner to plan events, for us it is very easy to close one restaurant for them and open the others for other guests."

Sol Melia's Sarmiento adds that all-inclusive resorts' activities directors can help coordinate team-building activities, including unique options that incorporate a resort's on-site entertainment components.

"We have professional entertainers in all of our resorts," he says. "They can conduct activities like dance lessons for groups during the day and perform their Vegas-style shows at night."

And though all-inclusive resorts are certainly not known as hotbeds of technology—much of the point to retreating to an all-inclusive resort is to escape the mind-bending rigors of the modern world—all-inclusive properties are changing with the times.

"Technology is a trend we are seeing throughout all-inclusive properties, and it's something that all the clients are looking for," Muller says. "Last year we added high-speed wireless Internet access, and right now we are setting up new high-speed connections because we are getting so much interest from companies that are going to have to use the Internet."

All-Inclusive Packages

As the group market increasingly looks to all-inclusive resorts for meetings and incentive trips, more traditional hotels and resorts are starting to offer all-inclusive packages that groups can take advantage of. The Ritz-Carlton, Rose Hall in Jamaica, for instance, is currently offering its Key to Paradise Experience package. Available through Dec. 19, the package includes accommodations, non-motorized water sports, taxes, service fees, and all food and beverage, excluding room service from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m., bottles of wine and select premium liquors.

Meanwhile, the Wyndham Miami Airport & Executive Meeting Center, which introduced its IACC-approved executive meeting center in March, offers its own selection of all-inclusive packages, the most elaborate of which includes transportation and vouchers for dinner at off-site restaurants.

"Our all-inclusive meeting package is like going to an all-inclusive resort, but done specifically for meetings," says Sigfrido Varela, director of sales and marketing for the property. "Our all-inclusive meeting package's foundation came from IACC's complete meeting package [which includes guest room, three meals per day, continuous refreshment breaks, meeting room rental, conference services, and audiovisual support], and we have taken it to the next level by including all of your business center needs, taxes, service charges, gratuities, parking, trans-portation to off-site dinner options, and the ability to apply the cost of your dinner at the hotel to an off-site restaurant instead."