A preliminary assessment of the function and conference service product ata UK stately home

The UK conference market is estimated to be worth pound 6 billion and is th ought to be the fastest growing sector of the hotel industry. An increasing number of less conventional venues are aiming to attract corporate busines s, though most empirical research focuses on the hotel conference product. A UK stately home is the venue studied in this article. To identify possibl e areas for improvement, a telephone survey of customers was undertaken to assess the service and facilities. The high average ratings indicate that g enerally organisers have a favourable impression of the stately home. The r esearch revealed significant differences in the average ratings given for t he Main Hall and His Lordship's Apartment, the two rooms available for func tions. Event category and organiser experience were not found to influence the ratings. Due to the relatively small sample size, only tentative observ ations are made about the trends which emerged from the analysis. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.