Cruise ships can double as hotels in ports of call that are short on rooms for large association meetings.

Ever heard of a “floatel”?

A floatel is what you use when you need a few thousand extra hotel rooms at your meeting destination. And Joyce Landry is the person you call to get it.

Landry’s got a line on all the major cruise ships, many of which she has booked as floating hotels (that is, floatels) for major international conferences and sporting events. CEO of Landry & Kling, Miami, Landry adds that cruise ships don’t just provide extra accommodations—they also offer supplemental meeting space.

For example, Trinidad and Tobago was tapped to host last year’s Summit of the Americas—a gathering of 5,000 attendees from 34 nations, including heads of state, says Landry. The April 2009 event could not have been held in the island nation without the use of the Carnival Victory and Princess Cruises’ Caribbean Princess, which together provided 3,000 rooms.

“If a destination were to build enough hotels to accommodate a large event, it would overload their infrastructure and would be unsustainable after the event,” Landry says. “Hotels support the idea of floating hotels because it doesn’t crash their rates going forward.” And for meeting planners, she adds, “this opens their eyes to new possibilities. They can meet in a place they wouldn’t necessarily have thought of. It’s instant infrastructure.”

Learn more about Landry & Kling’s range of services at the company’s Web site or visit its new online cruise ship comparison site, to call up all ship itineraries and tap into decades of cruise meetings expertise.