Another planner and I were on a site in Europe. The salesperson from the hotel told us we didn’t need a DMC because he had grown up in this place and would show us around. We were in the car with him from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., with him repeatedly saying, “Look. Over there. Look at the view. Look. Look over there.” We were so tired of looking at the view, which was the same view because it was a small place! At one point we were at the top of a hill, it was raining, and he started to get out of the car to “look at the view.” We revolted! No, we are not getting out to look at the view! Yet he persisted, so just to keep the tour moving we got out and looked at the view. Longest day ever!

We were touring an island property that had previously been booked for an incentive, without a site inspection, by a small company that my company had since acquired. My team was now responsible for implementing the program. The convention services manager wanted to show us the “other half” of the property so we could see the room upgrades. (The rooms in “our half” had not yet been renovated, but would be done by the time our meeting operated.) As we crossed a path with a sign that read, “Entering Au Naturale,” she casually remarked—as the only warning about this: “It’s best if you look them in the eyes.”

My colleague and I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about until we looked farther up the path to the pool and saw an assortment of people, uh, hanging out at the bar, playing Marco Polo in the pool, playing ping pong, sunbathing—all completely naked. We started giggling like school children, having been totally unprepared for this surprise. Needless to say, we didn’t think it was the right environment for our event.

I did a Caribbean site visit after the destination had already been announced to our qualifiers, but before anyone in management had discussed it with me. I called two major resorts and told them that due to time constraints I needed to make my site visits, staying one night in each prospective resort, and then make the decision within a week. I checked in and wandered the first property, getting a feel for the resort, customer service, venues, etc., and reconfirmed a meeting with the on-site salesperson for the next day. I got up, had breakfast, and awaited the sales contact, but the person never showed up. So, later in the morning I gave myself a site visit and in doing so, I ran into the sales representative for the second property I was to visit later in the day. Together we finished the visit, as he was eager to compare and see what the competition had to offer.

I made efforts to get in touch with the salesperson at the first resort, but never did hear back, though we’d discussed meeting at breakfast that morning. Needless to say, we opted to take our five-night program to the second location, and I never to this day have heard from the sales person at the first stop! It was a very odd occurrence, but it said all I needed to know about their commitment to customer service and our prospective piece of business.

It was a cold and rainy site visit in Europe. We were in a tiny car: The driver was the DMC contact and the tour guide sat in the passenger seat, while three of us were in the back scrunched like sardines. The guide insisted on taking us to a monastery that was 30 minutes outside of the city. I tried to tell the guide that we would not be interested in taking the group to this venue; he told me to be quiet! Later at dinner, this guide also told me I could not order red wine with my fish and that I had to drink white. We had a good giggle. We did use the DMC, but requested a different guide for the group.

We flew all day to Las Vegas specifically for a site visit of two hotels. We arrived at the first one, and the salesperson with whom we’d made our appointment was not there. We were told the person was off for the day (even though we’d confirmed a few days before). So after waiting about an hour, a brand-new salesperson took us on what had to be the worst site tour in the history of site tours. This person had zero clue on any detail of the hotel, no answers to our questions, and no real professional experience. It was a total waste of our time. We did not book our business there.

On a site visit south of the border, our salesperson had her own agenda. We told her what was important to us, but we may as well have been talking to a wall. We said no kids come on our program, yet she proceeded to show us the kids club. We talked about our concern that the property was too large, so she proceeded to emphasize the square footage of the hotel and how many rooms they had. We had a concern about event space at pool being too crowded, and that the small beach would get crowded, but she did nothing to make us more comfortable with any of our concerns. We felt as if she did not listen to us at all.

We did a site visit to a resort in Arizona in August, and it was brutally hot. Our salesperson had us walk all over the property rather than asking us if a golf cart would be better. I am not kidding when I tell you that we were sweating and thirsty to the point that it almost became funny. We decided that if the salesperson was not intuitive enough to deal with such an obvious problem/issue, than this was not the type of salesperson we wanted to partner with.

We did a planning visit to a seasonal resort. When we arrived, we got no personal greeting, no welcome note in the room, and accommodations that had seen better days. Because our client had selected the hotel, we really weren’t able to push back on the choice. The sales manager planned to meet us for dinner in the restaurant. Turns out that she invited some of her own family to accompany her on the trip (she worked remotely). We were seated with the sales manager; the family members were seated nearby (unbeknownst to us). As we were having dinner, the relatives got up to leave and stopped by our table, whereupon one said something insulting about my colleague’s appearance. The hotel was filthy, the staff very casual, the food mediocre. We were concerned, but had to figure out how to make it work.

Several years ago we had a very short window to make a venue decision on our large national conference. We contacted a hotel on the short list, and the hotel mentioned they had a large group in house but could accommodate our walk-through. When we arrived (with the president of our company), the group in house turned out to be a large nonprofit association with four people per room, garment racks in the foyer and hallways where people seemed to be trading their goods, and just general chaos. It wasn’t the best showing for the hotel and needless to say, they didn’t get the business. The hotel should have recognized the impression it would make and suggested a rescheduling of our visit.

In addition to collecting the horror stories, we also collected planners' best site inspection memories. Be sure to check out that photo gallery as well.