In April, Washington,
D.C.-based ASAE and The Center for Association Leadership sent
e-mails to exhibitors who have signed on for the group’s annual
meeting this year, warning them not to book hotel rooms through a
company it believed was improperly offering housing services, a
practice some call “room poaching.”
According to Jill Talley, an ASAE
spokesperson, Las Vegas-based National Travel Planners and
Conventional Housing (NTP) found a list of exhibitors on ASAE’s
website and contacted several, offering to book them rooms for the
meeting, to be held in Chicago, Aug. 11 to 14. Talley said NTP is
not affiliated with ASAE.
When reached by phone, Tim Tran,
president of NTP, said he had “no idea” if representatives of his
company had called ASAE exhibitors and said his company does not
specifically target convention attendees. He said NTP gets sales
leads through Leads.com, and “whoever’s on that list, we call.”
If room poachers don’t assert that they
officially represent a meeting association, they probably aren’t
breaking any laws, said Steven Hacker, president of the
Dallas-based International Association of Exhibitions and Events.
“But in my opinion, it’s highly unethical,” he added, noting that
if exhibitors or attendees book rooms with poachers, associations
might not fill their room blocks at hotels, thus risking attrition
penalties.
Hacker recommends threatening poachers
with lawsuits for trademark infringement, if the company uses the
association’s name in a sales pitch, or “tortious interference on a
contract” if room blocks aren’t filled.
The best way to avoid the situation is
to maintain clear, constant communication with exhibitors, Hacker
said.