Hotel RFP Checklist: What to Include in Every Request

Use this checklist to make sure your hotel RFP is complete before you send it. Missing any of these items results in incomplete proposals, off-budget quotes, or surprises at contract stage.

Event Basics

• Event name and brief description
• Event type (conference, offsite, training, gala, etc.)
• Primary dates and alternate dates if flexible
• Expected and maximum attendee count
• Decision-maker name and contact
• Response deadline

Guest Rooms

• Arrival and departure dates
• Rooms required per night (broken out night by night)
• Room type mix (standard, superior, suite)
• Requested rate (exclusive or inclusive of breakfast, taxes, city tax)
• Complimentary room ratio (e.g. 1 per 40 paid)
• Attrition clause expectation
• Cut-off date for unbooked rooms
• Payment method (master account, individual folios, mixed)

Meeting Space

• Main plenary room: capacity, setup style (theatre, classroom, U-shape, cabaret, boardroom)
• Breakout rooms: number, size, duration
• Exhibition or registration space
• Access hours (including setup and breakdown)
• Natural light requirement
• Dedicated space or shared with other groups

Audio-Visual and Connectivity

• Projector and screen (size)
• Sound system and microphones (handheld, lapel, roving)
• Video conferencing / livestream capability
• Recording capability
• Simultaneous translation booths (if needed)
• Dedicated event WiFi with minimum bandwidth

Food & Beverage

• Breakfast format (continental, buffet, plated) — included or separate
• Morning and afternoon coffee breaks
• Lunch (buffet, plated, grab-and-go)
• Dinner arrangements (private dining, gala, restaurant)
• Dietary estimates (vegetarian, vegan, halal, kosher, gluten-free)
• F&B minimum spend if any

Budget & Commercial

• Per-person budget range
• Total budget ceiling
• Payment terms (deposit percentage and timing)
• Cancellation policy expectation
• Force majeure terms
• Invoicing requirements

Evaluation & Response

• Evaluation criteria and weightings
• Required response format (sections, Word or PDF)
• Response deadline
• Finalist notification date
• Contract target date

Adapting the Checklist for Different Event Types

A hotel RFP checklist built for a three-day conference is not the same as one built for a board dinner or a product launch. The core elements, dates, capacity, accommodation, and catering, apply to all event types. But the weighting and the specific questions change significantly. A board dinner needs a private dining room, discreet service, and high-quality menu options. A product launch needs strong Wi-Fi, flexible lighting, and the ability to bring in external production teams. A training workshop needs multiple breakout rooms, writable walls, and natural light.

Before sending your RFP, review the checklist and remove sections that do not apply to your event type. A hotel receiving an RFP with 40 questions about requirements that are irrelevant to the event will give you a slower, lower-quality response than one that receives a focused 15-question brief. The discipline of tailoring the checklist also forces you to be clear about what your event actually needs, which often reveals assumptions that have not yet been discussed internally.

Using the Checklist to Brief Your Team

The hotel RFP checklist is a useful briefing document for your own team, not just a tool for communicating with hotels. Before you send the RFP, circulate the checklist internally and ask each stakeholder to review their area. Your finance team should confirm the budget parameters. Your IT team should sign off on the connectivity requirements. Your operations lead should confirm the room setup and catering preferences. This internal review catches misalignments before you go to market, rather than after proposals have arrived and a preferred hotel has already been engaged.

After the event, use the checklist as a retrospective tool. Which requirements were met as specified? Which were not? Were any requirements on the checklist irrelevant to how the event actually ran? A checklist that is reviewed and updated after each event becomes a progressively more accurate reflection of what your events actually need, and a progressively more effective tool for sourcing the next one.