Sir Rocco Forte was present on the Rocco Forte Hotels stand at Confex in London`s Earls Court last week, to launch his company`s new programme for conference and incentive agents: å‘The Businesså’. This presentation platform, designed by Olga Polizzi, signifies a first for the brandå‘s representation at a trade event.

Picture: Hydrotherapy Pool at Hotel De Russie in Rome

As Europe`s premier luxury hotel operator, Rocco Forte Hotels has established an unrivalled reputation for the individuality of its properties. With hotels in key locations from Edinburgh to Rome and St Petersburg to Brussels, its focus is on delivering high standards of service in stylish accommodation, sophisticated restaurants and rejuvenating spas.

The company carried out detailed research within the UK conference and incentive market last year to research agents` needs. In response to the findings, Sir Rocco made a number of personal promises to conference agents in the UK, such as: guaranteeing that all enquiries will receive a response from the hotel in question within 24 hours; customers will be provided with a single point of contact for each tailor-made event; and agents` commission will be paid within 30 days of payment by the client, without waiting for an invoice.

The new initiative includes a loyalty scheme - Winning with Rocco - for conference and incentive agents, awarding 10 points per £1,000 of revenue generated. Agents can be registered for the scheme by their account manager at Rocco Forte Hotels and can monitor their progress on a password-protected league table within a specially designed website.
The top 50 companies will be invited to attend an awards dinner in spring 2004, hosted by Sir Rocco. Exclusive prizes will be awarded to the top producers, eligible categories being: highest points earned per year; most points earned by a new agent; most points earned by a small agent; largest number of events booked by one agent; and largest single event booked by an agent. There will also be a sixth prize which will be drawn during the evening.

Rocco Forte Hotels has also been working closely with Confex to bring ‘The Pamper Zone’ to the show, introducing the concept of wellbeing as an essential and integral part of today`s conferences and business meetings. Espa-trained therapists from spas within the Rocco Forte Hotels collection were available to administer complimentary five-minute treatments, such as head, neck and shoulder massages. There was capacity to treat 24 people every hour. This new concept is known as ‘Event Therapy and is designed to help ease the tensions sometimes associated with organising and/or participating in such events.

Commenting on the new initiative, Sir Rocco said, “We have invested a great deal of time in identifying 1,500 key points of service delivery and expanding and equipping our conference facilities with the latest technology and facilities in response to increasing demand from conference agents. We believe this makes us stand out from the crowd. The conference and incentive market is important to us and it is appropriate for us to launch our new scheme at Confex, the most important trade show in Europe for this market. We are also delighted to be working with Confex on the Pamper Zone facility to take today`s conferences into the future”.

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