As the country begins to reopen amidst the pandemic, many companies have new policies in place when it comes to their employees’ business travel. What was once a simple trip for a planner to visit a venue in person might not be an option for the foreseeable future. This results in the need for virtual site visits.

While a virtual site visit will not give you the same experience as seeing the venue in person, it is a great option to consider for preliminary visits while you are still considering multiple properties.

Here are five tips to ensure that your virtual site visit is as productive as possible:

• Ask that the venue send you a diagram of the hotel. This will help you visualize where you are in the hotel when you participate in the virtual site visit.
• Have the venue send you photos of your event space in use. Seeing photos of previous events helps you understand what the space looks like when in use and allows you to better visualize that space for your group.
• Make sure your venue contact walks you through the property as if you were an attendee at your event.
• Take some time prior to the virtual site visit to create a checklist of all questions you want to cover during the site visit —questions such as meeting space, front desk service, surrounding areas, transportation, sleeping rooms, audio/visual and services/amenities may be on your list.
• Record the virtual site visit so you can watch clips later if necessary.

These recommendations can be further modified to meet the specifications of your event. If you would like to learn more or talk about your next event, Special D Events’ subject matter experts are available for hourly consulting sessions at your convenience. We are here to help.