Corporate Events

As the Cvent Supplier Network expands internationally, it's important to keep in mind that there are practices and procedures that venues overseas do differently from those in the United States. One of those practices are taxes at the venues.

For our Supplier Network tool, an event venue, when completing a proposal, must always include at least one tax to submit back to the planner. Simple enough. But on at least two of my recent international venue trainings, the immediate question after relaying this piece of information to venues is, "We do not have any additional taxes; all of our taxes are included in the room rate we provide the planner...what do we do?"

Venues do not want to have the meeting planner thinking you are charging more than what it does. If they list the room rate and the tax that factored into it, planners may think the tax is an additional cost. However, venues may also be concerned about breaking down room rates from taxes out of fear that it could lead to miscommunication in the final end price of the event.

After listening to these issues regarding the tax entry requirement, we all agreed the best practice is to enter the room rate as is, and then in one of the MANY additional information fields Cvent offers in its Proposal Wizard, specify what the room rate includes.

The additional information boxes are there for suppliers to share with the planner all of the information that needs to be shared, so take advantage of them! You usually can't go wrong providing too many details. However, failing to offer enough information can be harmful and could even lose business!

Event venues should use the additional information fields in Cvent to clarify rates, taxes and costs. Planners can look to these sections for clarification, which is especially useful when dealing with unfamiliar international practices.