Author: Archit Patel

File a Fraud Report – Help stop them!

If your company has received fraudulent emails or phone calls soliciting you to purchase attendee lists, book hotel rooms, or other products/services – file a report!
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has created a new process for individuals and companies to report these activities.  The FTC will share these reports with their law enforcement partners to help with investigations and stop these practices

How to file a fraud report:

• Go to Federal Trade Commission: ReportFraud.ftc.gov
• Click on “Report Now”
• For Question 1:  “Is your report about any of these common problems?”
  • Select “An Impersonator” (top left answer)
• For Question 2:  “Who were they pretending to be?”
  • Select “Well-known or trusted business”
• Click “Continue”
• Add as much information as you have and submit!

Thank you for helping us report these frauds – with enough complaints, we can work to stop these practices from targeting exhibitors!

Additional Resources:

Exhibitions & Conferences Alliance Applauds Federal Trade Commission for Finalizing Anti-Impersonation Fraud Rule (February 15, 2024)

What is a “Poacher”?

A “poacher” is defined as a hotel or third-party hotel agency who is unaffiliated with the event, yet solicits business from known or potential event participants. Why is this a problem? Well not only are these bureaus offering nonexistent rooms or false pricing that can cost attendees hundreds of dollars, but you can incur attrition penalties for not filling hotel blocks. Relationships between you and your hotels can be affected, causing issues with future negotiations.

So how can you avoid this? Education! By educating your audience about onPeak, the official hotel partner, you can better protect your participants against pesky poachers. We have put together everything you need: tips on how to fend them off, email templates, recommended messaging, and a sample cease and desist letter. Simply see below for everything you need to be prepared.

Download the Poacher Action Plan

Download our Messaging Suggestions

Download a Cease and Desist Letter Template

Download Poacher Email Templates

Looking for other ideas to deter participants from booking with poachers? Talk to your event team about adding a custom card to the reservation website. Take a look at an example of one of our favorites below.

Email continues to be the easiest and most effective way to communicate with your audience and promote the official hotel block. We have provided below a selection of some email templates & email content we think can be best utilized throughout the show cycle.

We have found that the most successful events in promoting their official hotels have emails sent out to participants that are dedicated to the housing message but also include the housing message in already scheduled emails to participants and prospects.

TOP 10 EMAIL MARKETING TIPS AND TRICKS FOR SENDING EFFECTIVE CAMPAIGNS

Top 10 Email Marketing Tips and Tricks PDF

We understand the importance of email marketing in driving engagement, nurturing leads, and increasing conversions. To help you make the most out of your email campaigns, we’ve compiled the top 10 email marketing tips and tricks that are proven to be effective.

EMAIL MESSAGING

  Download Email Messaging

Download a sample of messaging you can include in your event outreach to promote the event and also promote housing.  You can also download some of our easy-to-edit email templates that are dedicated to hotel promotion. All of our email templates have been designed with every device in mind!

ONSITE

Download Onsite Email Template

HOUSING IS OPEN

  Download Housing Open Email Template

BENEFITS OF BOOKING IN THE BLOCK

  Download Benefits Email Template

POACHER WARNING

  Download Poacher Warning Email Templates

LAST CHANCE

  Download Last Chance Email Template

We integrated our award-winning Compass Direct feature with Expedia Partner Solutions (EPS) to offer competitive rates and availability via Expedia Group’s vast network of accommodations. This feature allows for quick site set-up and still allows participants a secure place to book convenient hotels at the lowest available market-rates.
To help you successfully market these great hotel options to event-goers, we’ve created a suite of content and messaging that’s sure to attract your participants.

CREATIVE ASSETS

Click Here to view and download useful creative assets and logos to help participants feel confident they know who the official hotel provider is.

YOUR EVENT WEBSITE

The hotel landing page of the event website is one of the first and main places that an event participant will look for the official hotel program information and offerings. As such, it’s very important to clearly communicate the details of your hotel program.

Click Here to download an easy to use template that includes all the details about how and why to book with onPeak. All you need to do is copy and paste the HTML right into the Travel/Hotels page of your website.

EMAIL MARKETING

Send emails dedicated to your hotel program to help spread the word and encourage reservations. Our templates include everything you need – simply download a template and drop the HTML into your email program to deploy the message.

Download Email 1

  Download Email 2

Download Email 3

SOCIAL MEDIA

Enhance your marketing strategy by incorporating the housing message into your social media channels to help fill your room blocks. Click Here to find recommended content and images that we invite you to utilize as part of your online presence.

BEST PRACTICES TO CONSIDER

The hotel landing page of the event website is one of the first and main places that an event participant will see and digest the look for the official hotel information and offerings. As such, it’s one of the most important areas to consider in your marketing strategy.

We have tested our web content and created a template that we feel best displays the important information to make sure participants see information in the right order, and are well educated on the hotel block.

Looking to use our full template? Download the below HTML template & how-to kit to help you get a head start on your hotel and travel page!

  Download HTML Template

Enrich your event marketing strategy with onPeak’s social media resources!  We have created unique captions, engaging imagery, and useful hashtags just for you.  With this information you will have everything you need to post quickly and easily. Our messaging will help you share important information, encourage booking within the block, and link seamlessly to the hotel reservation site.

Social media is an excellent platform to promote the hotel block and ensure your eventgoers know where to book. So don’t skip this marketing step!  Your posts will put the hotel link front and center. Following onPeak’s social media strategies will help your hotel block fill up quickly!

Download our social media resources below to get started!

  Download onPeak’s Social Media Resources Here

Social Media Post Examples:

At onPeak, we strive to represent ourselves consistently across all of our assets to ensure the integrity of our brand and to establish ourselves as the official hotel provider for your event. Please feel free to download and use these when you feel appropriate. Our graphics are provided in neutral grey to seamlessly integrate with your event’s color scheme.

onPeak representatives travel to over 140 shows each year to provide information and help re-book for the next year’s event,  because of that, we want to share our onsite best practices and what to look out for.
A great place to start with the onsite housing strategy is to go through our handy check-list of suggestions to make sure you’ve talked with your dedicated onPeak Account Executive and Marketing Manager about.

ONSITE BEST PRACTICES

Will onPeak be onsite at the event and will we be selling rooms for the next year?

We find rebooking onsite to be an extremely effective tactic to help increase capture and provide legitimacy that onPeak is the official hotel provider.

If we will be onsite, where will the onPeak desk be located?

We suggest including onPeak next to registration or next to the CVB for your event’s future city to excite event-goers about next year’s destination and encourage them to book their hotel early.

We also suggest avoiding having onPeak in areas of low traffic.  When we are onsite, it is our goal to assist participants if they have any issues with their current hotels and also assist participants in re-booking rooms but the number of participants we have access to can depend on our location.

What will the desk look like?

It’s important that the hotel desk be well labeled.  We suggest having signage that says “Official Hotel Provider” or “Official (2020) Hotels” to make it very clear what we can help with at that desk.

Signage

Is there an opportunity for onPeak to provide any additional signage such as a pop-up banner, backdrop or tabletop signs? We’re happy to create custom pieces when it will enhance the onsite experience and increase traffic to make reservations.

Print and Digital Advertising

Is there a show daily or email that is created to send out to participants on a daily basis and is there any placement that onPeak could provide an ad?  Anywhere we can find to increase the exposure of the official block, the more chance that we will be able to capture more event participants in the block.  Any ad, any size – we’d be happy to work with you on it, just reach out to your dedicated marketing account manager, or take a look at the creative assets section of this website if you’d like to make something yourself!

Mobile App

If your event has a mobile app, we’d love to provide information and creative for an ad in the app or have a push notification sent. We know participants will be in the app during the event and it’s a great place to promote housing as well. And don’t forget to include links to the booking website participants can book their hotel online.

Housing Open Email

One of the most successful email campaigns that we send at onPeak is the housing opening email.  This email will let participants know where the housing desk is located, give them the link to start re-booking rooms and remind them of the benefits offered through the housing block like discounted rates, flexible policies, support, and many others.

SOME OF OUR FAVORITE ONSITE DESKS FROM RECENT YEARS: