Here’s an interesting question: Post-pandemic, is stay-to-play still on the table, is it an endangered species or is it extinct?
It’s a fair question. After all, travelers’ expectations of hotels, such as daily housekeeping, have changed. And a lot of other aspects of hotels have as well. Those little trial-size bottles of shampoo, body wash and conditioner in many cases, have been replaced by dispensers that can be refilled by hotel staff. Some hotels, meanwhile, are partnering with Clean The World to collect pieces of travel-sized soaps and send them off for processing, where they are milled into cakes of soap that are distributed in areas with poor sanitation practices.
Additionally, many hotels have done away with minimum stays as they worked to entice business back post-COVID and keep people away from the sharing economy, in properties such as Airbnb.
In other words, a lot has changed So where does that leave stay-to-play?
According to multiple sources, stay-to-play is not just alive and well but in great demand as team travel booms and tournaments enjoy record numbers.
“Stay-to-play is more popular than ever,” says Nic Collins, Executive Vice President and COO of HBC Event Services.
For those who need a definition, Event Pipe provides this one: Stay-to-play refers to the requirement (or policy) of a tournament, specifying that teams and athletes participating in that tournament only stay at designated hotels listed within the official tournament housing block.
The intent of the policy is to streamline accommodations for teams and participants while also leveraging the buying power of a large group to negotiate more favorable hotel rates compared to what an individual could secure on their own. It also allows the event owner to track room night use much more accurately; this data can be used to secure accommodations in the next tournament.
All of which sounds great, right? Except that there’s often at least some pushback. For example, many people have a knee-jerk reaction about being told where they can (or can’t) stay. Another objection is often that it is viewed as a “money-maker” for the event owner. And in fact, the policy can potentially serve as a revenue source if the event owner receives a commission and/or a rebate from the hotels for bringing in a large group of customers.
And, of course, with the rise of online booking platforms, there are always people who want to make their own plans, and who say they can do better than the room rate being offered in the stay-to-play properties.
But, says Wix, the benefits outweigh the objections: A housing company can set up the stay-to-play and create a portal for the tournament website, which can then be used to book rooms at the hotels in play. This makes the registration process easier by removing the need for parents to search around for hotels near the competition site, or hotels at the correct price point, or even hotels with the amenities they want.
It also creates more leverage for the event owner: “[A stay-to-play policy means event owners] are able to tell [hotels] that if they do not 'play nice' and offer reasonable rates that parents can afford, they will not be a tournament hotel option, hence not getting the hotel traffic for the event that they want and need. When [the stay-to-play] policy is put in place and managed properly, it benefits both the hotel and the parents attending. When the hotels and parents are both happy, the event continues to grow and it is a win-win for everyone involved.”
In fact, Wix sets up a whole list of objections participants or parents may have, as well as the arguments to counter them. Included in this are items like “This is only so that the tournament can make money,” “Third party websites (Expedia, Travelocity, etc.) are cheaper,” and everyone’s all-time favorite, “You don't have the right to tell us where we can and cannot stay.”
And, says Wix, if stay-to-play were never invented, “hotels would be able to bid one program against another and room rates could skyrocket. Programs would likely also be required to sign for attrition when setting up their own group blocks, meaning they would be guaranteeing the sale of a specific number of rooms. In the event that these rooms were not sold, the program would become responsible for paying the difference.”
Ultimately, the use of a stay-to-play policy, particularly when backed by a reputable housing company, frees the event owner from the tedious process of working with hotels and communicating with parents/athletes, and allows for more time to be spent on the actual organization and implementation of the tournament.
And lest anyone think they are in the minority of events using stay-to-play, well, that’s just not true. Not even a little.
"Stay-to-play is now being used in the majority of all major tournaments,” says HBC Event Services’ Collins.
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