Meeting Planners' Perceptions of Relationship Quality

Hotel salespeople involved in the marketing of meeting facilities often negotiate with meeting planners. In this situation, relationship quality between the salesperson and the meeting planner is important in assessing the possibility of a long-term relationship. The purpose of this study is to identify meeting planners' perceptions of their relationship with hotel salespeople during the meeting planning negotiations. The study offers a research model of relationship quality, and tests this model empirically using a quantitative method based on a survey of meeting planners' perceptions. Major hypotheses are tested with 300 meeting planners (a 29.2% response rate). The findings indicate that salespersons' expertise, power, and willingness play important roles in determining a good quality of relationship perception in meeting planners' minds. The findings also indicate that a good quality relationship is a predictor of establishing an intention of a long-term relationship. In addition, salespersons' rapid turnover is found to be a problem in building good relationship quality.