How to quote a hotel group: rates, free places, deposits and terms

A group quote is a written, dated offer that fixes the rate basis (per room or per person), what the rate includes, any free places, the deposit and payment dates, and the cutoff, attrition and cancellation terms. It should let the buyer recompute the total and let the hotel check every line at checkout.

The group is worth taking: displacement analysis says so. Then the quote goes out with a rate, a vague line about free places and a cancellation clause copied from last season, and months later the block arrives half empty and nobody agrees what was owed. This article shows how to turn an accepted group into a document that holds its value: how to set hotel group rates, price concessions, schedule payments and write cutoff, attrition and cancellation so both sides read them the same way. If you have not yet decided whether to take the group, start with group displacement analysis first.

What turns a displacement yes into a written group quote?#

A quote is a priced contract, not a price. It fixes what is included, who pays, when the block shrinks and what happens if it does.

Displacement analysis answers one question: is this group worth more than the business it pushes out. The quote is where that value is either kept or given away, so treat the two as one process rather than two departments. The sales conversation and the document should carry the same numbers.

Six lines decide the commercial outcome: rate basis, inclusions and supplements, concessions, payment schedule, cutoff and attrition, and the cancellation ladder. Everything else in the document is presentation. Get these six right and the rest is formatting.

Every quote needs a version number and an expiry date. A rate given on the phone without either is a rate you will be held to months later. Name one person inside the hotel who may change a quote, and say in the document that earlier versions are superseded. Groups are often negotiated over weeks by several people on both sides, and the paper trail is what settles the argument.

Write for two readers at once: the buyer's finance team, who must recompute the total, and the hotel's night auditor, who must be able to check every line at departure. A line that cannot be checked at checkout is not a term, it is an opinion. Send the quote with the arithmetic visible: rooms by night, supplements, concessions deducted, taxes shown separately. A total the buyer cannot rebuild will come back as a dispute, not a signature.

Should you quote per room or per person?#

Quote per person when board is part of the deal and per room when it is not, because the basis decides who carries the risk of single occupancy, children and beds left empty.

Per person per night is the usual basis for tour operators and all-inclusive groups. The hotel carries the single-occupancy risk unless a single supplement is written into the quote, so write it in or price the risk into the rate. Per room per night is the usual basis for corporate and meeting groups. The group pays for the rooms it blocks, whether or not every bed is used, which shifts the risk to the buyer and usually lowers the rate you can ask.

Board is a supplement, not a separate product. Quote a bed and breakfast base and add half board, full board or all-inclusive per person per night. Say what happens when a guest is out at dinner, because the kitchen still cooked. Meeting and function space is either a hire charge or a minimum food and beverage spend, never both by accident: decide which, and state the hours the space is held and what an extra hour costs.

Extras outside the package, such as parking, spa, transfers and minibar, should be listed as excluded and billed to the guest or to the master folio. Silence here is how a group bill grows after departure. Children and extra beds need age bands and a price per band, plus a rule for an extra bed in a double room. Without it the front desk improvises at check-in and the rate you quoted stops matching the bill.

Show the arithmetic line by line: rooms multiplied by nights multiplied by rate, plus supplements, minus concessions, plus taxes. The buyer should reach your total with a calculator.

How should free places and tour-leader rooms be priced?#

A free place is a discount with a shape. Price it into the rate before you offer it, and write down what each concession is worth.

There is no universal free-place ratio. One free place in a given number of paying guests is a commercial decision that depends on the group's size, the season and what the group displaces, and it should be argued in the same meeting as the rate. If the rate discussion and the concession discussion happen in different meetings, the concession will feel free.

There are two ways to give a free place. The first is not to charge for one room in the block. The second is to raise the per-person rate slightly and make the organiser's place free. The first is visible and easy for the buyer to value; the second is quieter and easier to withdraw next season. Choose deliberately, not by habit.

Count what a free place actually costs: the room, the meals, the housekeeping, the laundry and any transfer. A concession that looks small per night is a real cost across a long stay. A tour leader room is usually a single occupancy of a double room, sometimes on a different meal plan from the group. State the room type, the meal plan and whether the leader counts toward the free-place calculation.

Non-room concessions carry cost too: meeting room hire waived, a welcome drink, one late checkout, complimentary parking, a staff meal, a complimentary airport transfer. List each with a value so the buyer sees what they received and the hotel knows what it gave. Never bundle a concession you cannot deliver in the week you are quoting: a promised meeting room that is already sold is a complaint, and a promised late checkout in a full house is a queue at the desk.

Put an expiry on concessions. They apply to this group, these dates and this version of the quote, and they do not become the starting point for the next negotiation.

Each item needs two numbers: its cost to the hotel and its value as shown in the quote.

What deposit and payment terms should a group quote carry?#

Take a deposit at signature, a second payment at cutoff and the balance on the master folio, and say in the quote which currency each payment is made in.

A deposit at signature turns a hold into a commitment. State the amount, when it is due, whether it is refundable, and what it is offset against: the final invoice, cancellation charges, or both in a stated order. A second payment at cutoff ties money to the moment the hotel can resell unsold rooms. It also gives the group a reason to send the rooming list on time.

The balance is a billing decision as much as a payment one: which charges go on the master folio and which the guest pays personally. Say it in the quote, not at departure. The details of running agency and company accounts after the group leaves are covered in the city ledger.

Quote, deposit and invoice should be in one currency. If the buyer pays in another, name the rate source and the date used, for example the daily central-bank exchange rate on the payment date, and say who carries the difference. How the conversion is treated for tax is a question for your accountant.

Name the contracting party: the agency, the company or the individual organiser. The invoice follows the contract, not who arrives at the desk. Late payment needs a plain consequence, not a threat: the block is released and the rate is no longer held. Write the date and the time it happens. Keep deposits and cancellation charges as separate lines. A buyer who can see what is refundable is far less likely to dispute what is not.

How do you write cutoff, attrition and cancellation so both sides read them alike?#

Define each term with a date, a local time, a time zone and a counting unit, then test it against a real scenario before you send it.

Cutoff is the moment unsold rooms in the block return to general sale. Write the date, the local time and what happens to rooms the group releases earlier than that. Attrition is the share of the block the group pays for even if it does not use it. Define the base, whether rooms, room nights or revenue, the date it is measured, and whether it is expressed as a room count or a percentage. An attrition clause without a base is unenforceable in practice because nobody can calculate it.

The cancellation ladder is a series of dates with charges attached. Write each step as a number of nights or a share of the deposit, never as reasonable charges or as a gesture of goodwill. Cancelling the whole group and shrinking the block are different events: give each its own clause, because a group that drops one night is not the same risk as a group that disappears. The general principles behind clear cancellation wording are covered in how to write hotel cancellation terms.

Force majeure needs a definition and a consequence: what counts, what happens to the deposit, and who decides. Leave the legal test to counsel and keep the operational part in the quote. No-shows and early departures need a line each: what the group pays for a room held but not occupied, and for nights booked but not used.

Test the wording before sending: read the clause as the buyer's finance officer would. If two reasonable people can read it two ways, rewrite it. Penalty enforceability and consumer-law limits belong to your lawyer, not to the sales manager.

What should a rooming list deadline say?#

It should give a date, a time, a format and a named recipient, and it should say what the hotel does with a list that arrives late.

The rooming list turns a block into named reservations. Without it the front desk cannot pre-assign rooms, prepare keys or plan housekeeping for the arrival day. Set the deadline relative to arrival, for example seven days before the first night, and align it with the cutoff so the two dates do not contradict each other.

Say what happens if the list is late: rooms stay as the block, names are taken at check-in, and special requests may not be met. That is fair, and it is checkable. The mechanics of blocks, lists and the master folio are covered in group bookings: block, rooming list and master folio.

A name list carries personal data. Collect only what the stay needs, say who receives it, how long it is kept and how it is transferred, and use an encrypted file rather than a spreadsheet attached to an ordinary email. KVKK, the personal data protection law, applies to the list as much as to the reservation system.

Separate swaps from additions. Swapping one name for another after the deadline is routine; adding rooms is a new booking, subject to availability and to the rate you quoted. Tie the list to billing: mark which rooms sit on the master folio and which guests settle their own extras, so the front desk and the finance team work from the same document.

What does a group quote template look like?#

One page of terms and one page of arithmetic: the buyer should be able to recompute the total and find every condition without asking a question.

The header carries the hotel, group name, arrival and departure dates, number of nights, version number, expiry date and the person who prepared it. The block section shows room types and counts per night, because groups rarely arrive and leave on the same day and a single total hides that. The rate block carries the basis, board, supplements, concessions with their values, and taxes shown separately.

Commercial terms come next: deposit, payment dates, currency, cutoff, attrition and the cancellation ladder, each with dates and times. Operations covers the rooming list deadline, arrival and departure times, meal times, and one named contact on each side. The signature block names both parties, the date, and a line stating that this version supersedes all earlier offers and discussions.

Keep the template in one place and version it. The quote that gets signed is the document the front desk must be able to read at check-in, so it has to survive the journey from sales to operations without being retyped.

What to do next#

Take the next group you have decided to accept and rewrite its quote with the six lines from this article: rate basis, inclusions, concessions, payment schedule, cutoff and attrition, cancellation ladder. Give each line a date, a time and a counting unit, then read it once as the buyer's finance officer and once as your own night auditor. If both can follow it without calling you, the value displacement analysis found will still be there when the group leaves.