Marketplaces for canceled meeting contracts

MeetingTrader, a clearinghouse for canceled contracts, is the latest company to call itself the world’s “first marketplace for canceled contracts.” But several outlets have popped up in the past year as a forum for space to be resold without paying steep cancelation fees.

MeetingTrader matches hotels holding those canceled contracts with the planners looking for last-minute space. “MeetingTrader is the hospitality industry’s answer to real estate’s sublease market, and it’s an idea whose time has come,” says Tim Brooks, founder and CEO of the Chicago-based company specializing in the resale of terminated meeting agreements. “In our beta version, which has been testing since 2008, MeetingTrader.com has already facilitated the exchange of more than $8 million in canceled contracts.”

StarCite is a meetings technology provider that helps companies plan, source, budget and manage meetings and events. “Canceled space has become a big issue for our clients this year,” says Kevin Iwamoto, StarCite’s vice president of enterprise strategy. “It’s an even bigger deal for clients that don’t have a consolidated meetings management program and aren’t protected by legal documents that limit their cancelation and attrition liabilities. This creates a whole new level of complexity when it comes to trying to negotiate these liabilities away or postpone events until a later date.”

Rebooking and reselling canceled meeting space has become a key value-added client service for HelmsBriscoe, a meetings and events procurement and planning company headquartered in Scottsdale, Ariz. “We ask hotels if they will allow clients to rebook space for their own use within a time frame, such as one or two years, or if they’ll refund a percentage of the client’s cancelation and attrition fees if we rebook space and rooms with another HelmsBriscoe client,” says Jenny Summers, HelmsBriscoe regional vice president. “With the current economic climate, hotels have been very eager and agreeable to explore this solution.”

While the economy has created a need for the companies like MeetingTrader, StarCite and HelmsBriscoe, most experts believe the need will be short lived. Although many hotels and facilities are being very flexible in working with clients to help them save money, it’s only a matter of time before the cyclical nature of the industry makes the termination of meeting agreements harder.