Exactly one year ago on August 27th, the now well-known business meeting and conference venue HUONE opened its doors to its creative meeting and event facilities in Kastrup near Copenhagen Airport. HUONE got off to a flying start in the first months after opening last year, where the reservations and requests were growing every day. So far, HUONE Copenhagen hosted 327 different events in the house.
The beginning of 2020 looked positive, the booking habits showed that over 50% of the guests who booked in Spring 2020, were guests from the year before. Despite the coronavirus pandemic has taken its toll on cancellations, HUONE has positive expectations for the coming Fall.
Looking into the fall with careful optimism
HUONE Copenhagen’s CEO, Louise Adolph looks back on the first year with mixed feelings. The expectations for 2020 were very high after an amazing beginning in 2019, but because of the coronavirus crisis, she had to face the fact that expectations had to be lowered, just like the rest of the industry. Luckily, in June businesses started to come back, as companies slowly began to have meetings again. Requests were coming in, the popular tour of HUONE was back as well. After a quiet July with holidays, August is shown to be at the same level as June. And many bigger events are already being reserved in September. Louise Adolph says:
We have, like everybody else in the meeting and event industry, felt the effect of the coronavirus pandemic and has had to adjust the expectations for the rest of the year dramatically. On the other hand, I can see the increased activity in the months to come, which I think is based on a growing optimism in the market, our flexible cancellation policy, and our great focus on communicating with our guests. We can sense that some of the companies are beginning to have regular workdays again, where meetings, conferences and events are once again a part of their activities. The recent annulment of the “six day”-rule on overnight stays, I expect to have a positive impact on the meeting and events industry.
Guests are coming back to HUONE and recommend the meeting and event venue to others
Over 50% of HUONE’s customers are returning customers, meaning past guests rebook and want to come back to HUONE. It is an incredibly positive thing for an only 1-year-old meeting and event venue. HUONE also has maintained very high NPS score as a venue throughout the year. Louise Adolph comments:
It is amazing to see so many of our guests returning; it gives me and all of our excellent staff an indication of us giving them a great meeting experience at HUONE. It is also an important sign especially to us, as new player in the market; after only one year, so many of our customers are becoming regulars. Moreover, we’ve received “customers recommend” status from our NPS scores, which we are incredibly proud of. We are overall at NPS score of 73 since we opened, compared to the industry average benchmark of 54. This means our customers are happy with the meeting experience we provide, and, more importantly, most of them recommend us to others. This gives us a great starting point for the upcoming meeting and events season!”