Monty The Mascot's Ramblings

Monty and the team at nexusvenue would like to wish you a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Just to remind you that the office will be closed from noon on Friday 23^rd December for the holidays and will reopen at 9am on Tuesday 3^rd January 2012.

Great Value

January and February are often great months to hold meetings and conferences. With hotels quietening down after a busy Christmas season they often have increased availability for the first couple of months of the year and as a consequence offer more competitive rates. To make the most of the new year call the team on 01793 739283 and they will be more than happy to find some fantastic venues for you.

Christmas is fast approaching!

Did you know that we can help you find a great venue for your companies main Christmas party? Weather you are looking to organise a private event tailor made to your requirements or would like to join a pre-organised Christmas event we can offer help and advice. Give the team a call on 01793 739283.

Off on your holidays?

"Don’t forget to send us any conference, meeting, Christmas or accommodation bookings before you go so that we can have all the information ready for when you get back.”

London 2012

The Olympics are a hot topic of conversation at the moment (whether you have tickets or not!) and it is worth considering their impact on room availability over the next 14 months or so. We are already seeing a decrease in bedroom availability in London and as a consequence room rates are getting higher and higher with rates starting at around £200 for B and B in a basic hotel. Our advice is to let us know as far in advance as possible when you need London accommodation and if at all possible to consider venues outside London.

Changes to the website

We thought the website could use a special area dedicated to you, our regular bookers. This will be called ’Clients Corner’ and amongst other things will provide a forum on which you can leave feedback about the venues we have booked on their behalf. We are still in the planning stages but will keep you up to date on developments.

Tell us what you think.

As an independent venue finder our aim is to find the best possible venue to fit our clients requirements, budgets and dates. In order to get the best possible picture of the hotels that we put forward we draw on our own experience of venues visiting hotels as often as we can and receive regular presentations from hotel representative but we also encourage our clients and their delegates to let us know what they thought of the hotels and venues that they have used. If you have any comments to make about the hotels that we have booked for you, whether they have impress you or have room for improvement, please drop us a line at clientservice@nexusvenue.co.uk

Happy New Year

January is a great time to take stock and plan the year ahead. Take full advantage of our consultancy service by calling us to discuss your future plans and the best way to approach your bookings in order to ensure a stress free and totally successful year of events.

Planning the year ahead

Forward planning helps to spread the load. If you have a rough idea of the events that you will be organising in 2011, whether a series of training sessions, a group of presentations, quarterly meetings, or stand alone events it is always a good idea to think ahead. The team at nexusvenue will be more than happy to discuss your next years requirements and by outlining your plans in advance it gives us an opportunity to keep an eye out for suitable venues and special offers that might be of interest to you. If you would like to discuss your next years plans please call Sylvain on 01793 739283.

Make the most of the winter months

Exciting New Hotels

Though out the country and indeed the world there are always lots of new hotels opening and even more properties being taken over, refurbished or renovated. We often receive presentations from such venues and visit as many as we can so that we have a truly broad base of hotels to contact for your enquiries. Some such hotels include Coworth Park, The Savoy, Four Seasons London, Windsor Hotel (Macdonald) and many more.

Our advice, when it comes to new hotels, is to give them 3 or 4 months to find themselves before using them for important meetings and conferences so that any glitches can be ironed out. If you always book the same venue and fancy a change or if you just want some help, give the team a call on 01793 739283 and see what fantastic venues they can suggest.

Help with London Bookings

London is always a popular destination for those attending trade shows or conferences, or individuals visiting London offices and the Capitals hotels seem to be getting busier and busier and this can only mean more and more expensive!

Our advice is to call us as soon as you think you might be needing accommodation in London. We will always check the cancellation policy for the bookings we make on your behalf and include details on the bottom of your confirmation. In most instances, cancellation is usually okay up until the day of arrival and by booking in advance you will almost certainly get a much better rate.

Alternatively you could consider hotels outside central London in locations such as Heathrow which leaves you with just a short commute to the capital.

Because we are constantly booking hotels in London (and the rest of the world!) you can be sure that if there is availability we will find it for you! If you would like to talk to the team about your requirements please call us on 01793 739283 or email Tanya@nexusvenue.co.uk.

Location, location, location

Often the first consideration when planning a conference is the location. Central London is great for those who already work in London and is accessible by train from all around the country but can be an expensive location. By moving your event outside London you may find better rates, more outside space, complimentary car parking, ‘different’ venues and still take advantage of great rail links. For advice on where to hold you next conference, meeting or private dinner call the team on 01793 739283.

What we did this Summer?

Saving you time and money.

We pride ourselves in providing the best personal service available to find and book hotel accommodation, meetings, conferences and much, much more and this not only in the UK but worldwide.

Our Operations team always negotiate the Best Available Rates at the time of the booking and although we often make savings for our clients, we rarely "brag" about it.

Here is just one example of how we have excelled recently.

Our client needed to organise a 3 day conference for 17 delegates, with accommodation and long haul flights in Dubai. She contacted nexusvenue to see what we could do.

nexusvenue investigated and negotiated fantastic rates saving the client over £2600, beating the previous travel agents rates and the rates available online. Then, with the go ahead from our client, we contacted a trusted company who specialise in a variety of extra services that may be required by conference bookers. They were able to secure great flights for all delegates and negotiated better rates making a saving of £600.

The client was very happy because she had one point of contact – us – and got all the specialists help that she needed. Not only did this free up her time to concentrate on the conference itself but it also saved her company more than £3200.

For more information about the company we used or for help with your conference contact me, Sylvain, on 01793 739283 or email me on sylvain@nexusvenue.co.uk

August Press Release

As new members of the Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce we were asked to submit a press release and though you might find it interesting.

In these times of economic uncertainty businesses have worked hard to reduce costs and make efficiencies to ensure that they are running a "tight ship" and make certain of survival. With all this belt tightening the importance of a good and committed work force is not to be underestimated. Staff need to work harder to justify their place but equally they want and deserve to be valued and appreciated. One of the ways that businesses can reward staff for their extra efforts is by arranging away days when they can not only enjoy time away from the workplace but also have the opportunity to improve their skills through team building exercises and brain storming sessions on ideas for the business – "thinking outside the box" as the "in" phrase goes.

Sylvain Bouteiller of nexusvenue has certainly found that more and more companies are looking to provide something different in training sessions and away days as an incentive for their staff. "We have had a number of requests from businesses large and small to arrange events such as this. It can be just a day away or maybe two but we always get good feedback from how the event has gone and the way that ideas have flowed and, most importantly, how everyone has benefited from time in a different environment. There are many options for how the events can be structured. Agencies specialising in providing team building games or staff fun days can be brought in. Alternatively the structure of the away days can be developed in house with a mix of workshop sessions and free time. Whatever is planned and whatever the budget there is no doubt that companies find that, for their staff, getting away from the workplace for a short spell both to enjoy themselves but also to enter into some meaningful exercises will not only improve the morale but also provide the company with some excellent ideas to take forward."

Apart from rewarding staff it is clearly important in recessionary times that members of staff can focus specifically on the job in hand. Companies need to identify where members of staff are taking on additional work that can easily be outsourced. One such example is the booking of hotel rooms and the organising of meetings and conferences. The time taken to arrange these events with searches and phone calls is too often disproportionate to the task in hand particularly when there are so many other things to do. Again Sylvain Bouteiller gives his thoughts on this. "There is no need for someone who already has a backlog of work to get on the phone and endlessly check out hotels and venues. Agencies such as ours are free to the user and we are the ones who are experienced in finding out what is required and arranging it. We discuss with the client what is needed – anything from a one night stay to a conference for 1000 people anywhere in the world – then, unless they have a clear idea what they want we provide them with options and in all cases secure the best price. Staff time is precious and they need to be able to get on with their day to day work and make sure that they are not overloaded with mundane jobs that can easily be handed over to an outside agency. The overriding benefit is that the service is free and agencies have great bargaining power which means that companies can save money as well as releasing staff for other work."

How our clients rate us.

The results of our recent Client Survey have been collated with over 33% of our clients completing the survey - a great response as we know how busy you all are. Here are some statistics.

For our service for accommodation bookings we scored a staggering 94% excellent overall, leaving 6% scoring us as good.

For our meetings and conferences we attained an overall score of 84% excellent and 16% good.

No-one indicated that they felt we needed to improve!

80% of the responses that we received indicate that our clients contact us for all their accommodation and meeting bookings.

We are very please to see that many of our clients indicate that they prefer to make their bookings through nexusvenue because of the added support that they receive from the team. This is particularly good feedback for us and highlights the fact that even if our clients know the venue they want to book it is still worth contacting us at the very beginning of their enquiry in order to receive the full support of our team.

A big 'Thank you' to all those who took part.

Luxury in Dublin

We recently had a presentation from the Four Seasons Hotel in Dublin and were really impressed. The hotel, as you would expect, looks fabulous and they are currently offering accommodation (with breakfast) rates from as low as 165Euro. Contact the team for more info.

Our recent Hotel visits

Sylvain and Louise have just got back from a very enjoyable stay at Chalet Royalp Hotel and Spa in Switzerland. If you want to find out more about the hotel have a look at our Newsletters page or give Louise a call on 01793 739283.

TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE

‘Time is of the essence’ an age old saying that has never been more true. By contacting us first, as soon as you know your requirements, we will work quickly and efficiently to find a great venue for you. Even if you know which hotels you would like to try first by passing the work onto us you can concentrate on the rest of your day. How will you spend the extra time you have saved?

La Residencia in Mallorca

We recently received a presentation from la Residencia in Mallorca and thought you might be interested click here or contact us for more information

Christmas Greetings

We would like to thank you for visiting the nexusvenue website over 2009 and wish you a relaxing and enjoyable holiday.

Click here to view our end of year newsletter and for information on how to win a delicious chocolate prize.

Just to remind you that our offices will be closed from 12 noon 24^th December until the 4^th January 2010.

Have a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

Are you looking for more than just a conference?

For several years now we have had the pleasure of organising many successful, activity packed conferences with the help of a company called Ovation. They are an excellent destination management company who have built up many reliable contacts that enable them to cover 18 destinations throughout Europe, the Middle East, South America, South Africa and Asia.

They can be on hand throughout your event to ensure everything runs smoothly from the ‘meet and greet’ at the airport by a fully qualified, uniformed tour guide right through to the return of your delegates back to the airport.

Contact us with your ideas and we can find some great venues for you to then work together with Ovation to organise detailed proposals for themed dinners, tours of vineyards or olive groves, visits to museums or galleries and countless fun filled activities on land, on water and in the air!

Click here to download an example of a proposal. Then call us to discuss your requirements.

Familiarity with the Venue

Firsthand knowledge of a venue is invaluable but it isn’t always possible to pay a visit before you finally make a decision. nexusvenue, is an independent venue finder. We visit many venues and receive presentations and, because we always ask for feedback from events we have booked, we are constantly keeping up to date on venues that we can put forward and recommend.

Making sure all goes to Plan

Attention to detail makes all the difference and it’s so easy to miss something out. nexusvenue will be with you for every step of your booking from the first enquiry, through the confirmation, contract and any alterations, checking details the day before the event and following up afterwards.

Assessing the Venue

It can be really helpful to visit your chosen venue first to familiarize yourself with the layout of the rooms and meet your contact for the day. nexusvenue can organise this for you and if you want we can accompany you. It’s these extra touches that are designed to ensure your meeting or conference runs smoothly.

Value for Money

It is important to be confident that you have the best value that is available but ringing round lots of hotels and comparing rates can be time consuming. nexusvenue keeps track of all special offers to be had to make sure that we always get the best rate available for you at the time of booking.

Saving Time

Are you plagued by phone calls and emails from hotels and have too little time to deal with them? If hotels are contacting you you can be sure they are contacting us too and it’s our job to take notice of them. You only need one contact at nexusvenue to have access to over 168,000 venues worldwide. Keep your list of contacts simple and save time.

The choice of venue is critical to the success of your event..

More than 80% of the success of any meeting, conference or accommodation is dependent on the choice of the venue itself. Spending money in hotels should be looked upon as an investment in your companies future and should not be looked at lightly.

Consider your requirements fully, look at the venue carefully and book the venue confidently