The Hotel Liaison – Authorized!

To add a little more about our “hotel liaison“:

One of the reasons it is wise to assign a person to this job is that those authorized to make decisions or bring complaints to hotel management should be limited.  This avoids the confusion caused by allowing anyone and everyone (all well-meaning, of course) to bring issues to hotel personnel.  Without a designated person authorized to speak for the group (normally our retreat coordinator and/or hotel liaison), you can end up, for instance, with women going to the front desk to complain that the room is too hot, while others are complaining that they are too cold.

The person authorized to be the “hotel liaison” needs to be introduced to your group, as well as to the hotel management.  Your women need to know that they are not authorized to speak for the group, and that they should take any complaints to the “hotel liaison.”  The hotel needs to know that only the “hotel liaison” is authorized to give them instructions or changes.

A “Runner”

So many issues that a retreat coordinator is called upon to resolve require going to the front desk, going to a particular room, finding a certain individual, a leader or various hotel personnel. There are times when the coordinator needs someone to run errands for her.  She needs someone to follow her instructions, quickly and efficiently.

Having a “runner” to call upon for minor errands can save many steps for the retreat coordinator.  When assigning this responsibility, it would be wise to consider someone who:

• Is familiar with how retreats are run;
• Knows her way around the retreat location;
• Knows the key retreat people;
• Is not easily distracted;
• Works well under authority.

The Hotel Liaison

The hotel or retreat center normally assigns a person to your group with whom you are to communicate most of your problems during the retreat–probably the event or banquet manager.  It is wise for your retreat coordinator to name her own “hotel liaison” for ease of communication with the hotel staff during a retreat. When issues arise that require the attention or service of the hotel staff, the retreat coordinator calls upon her “hotel liaison” to be the one who speaks to the hotel staff and pursues resolution of any problems.  This prevents the confusion that may arise as individual (unauthorized) women take it upon themselves to communicate problems with the hotel/retreat center.

It is ideal if this person has a professional demeanor and experience in this area.  She needs to be able to communicate the problem(s) or need(s) effectively, concisely and tactfully.  The person assigned to be your “hotel liaison” will be very busy during the weekend, and needs to be prepared for that.

Additionally, she needs to be available and easy to find–not only to the retreat coordinator, but also to the hotel or retreat center’s event manager.  One year, our liaison was a young woman who actually planned professional meetings as her day job.  She wore a distinctive sweater all weekend which helped hotel personnel identify her.

Help for the Retreat Coordinator

While the retreat coordinator may be the visible “head” that everyone sees running the retreat, she relies on many support people in that role.  The retreat coordinator needs to be aware of all the issues arising at the retreat, but there is no way that she can resolve those issues on her own.  She needs  ladies who are familiar with what needs to get done, and are willing be the coordinator’s hands and feet behind the scenes.  We have many ladies that our coordinator can call on.  Most of our women’s leaders are available should the need arise, but we have a couple women who are “assigned” to help the coordinator.  We will be talking about two of these in the next few posts.  They have the unofficial titles of “hotel liaison” and “runner”.