For many incentive events – a race occurs, on the part of the Invitees, to register as quickly as possible to get the pick of the litter of activities on offer.

Wise to the fact that activities such as golf will be limited in quantity, the experienced bird arrives early to get one of the 16 worms.

Essentially, many incentive events choose to ration activities through quantity.   There will be a limit on the number of golf slots, and perhaps a limit – expressed in some way – on the number of activities an Invitee can sign up for.  This is a legitimate way to do it – if not always the most fair.  But policing activity limits can sometimes be politically challenging.

A different approach involves room credits.  Each Invitee is allocated an amount as a credit. $300 perhaps, plus $150 for a guest. This credit can be “spent” by the Invitee on activities – with any spending beyond the credit being added to the “extras” account on the room and paid for by the Invitee. Activities are priced explicitly – a round of golf costing $100, club rental $20, spa treatment $125 and a tennis lesson $75, as examples.   The cost is then deducted from the room credit.

The pricing of activities, and the risk of going over the room credit allowance, act as natural limiters on overindulging on activities.  And hence can be fairer than pure first-come, first-served – and less patronizing than policing arbitrary limits..

Hotels and Resorts are able to manage the administration of this room credit, and of course return unspent amounts to the meeting host.  So there is no extra cost to the meeting host, merely a more orderly distribution of Activity sign-ups.

MeetMax is used by one of our clients in this manner, and MeetMax’s real-time calculation and display of the room credit balance helps the Invitees find the right mix of activities for their taste.