What is SMERF sales?

Answer 1

SMERFE is an acronym used to describe group business that does not fall into the traditional market segments of Corporate, Association, Government or Tour & Travel (no, not the little blue men). The most common definition I have seen is as follows:

· S - Sports

· M - Military

· E - Education

· R - Religious

· F - Fraternal

· E - Ethnic

Some hotels will switch out the S for Social, other will replace one of the E's for Entertainment - that's ok, its up to each hotel to define their own market segments. Essentially the meaning behind SMERFE is the same - what Sports, Military, Education, Religious etc all have in common is that they are groups where it is highly likely that the attendees are paying for themselves and are attending outside of their regular work hours. In other words, being part of this group is not their job. This is a big generalization, but SMERFE groups are usually the most rate sensitive which is why we look to often use groups as 'fillers' during time periods where we would otherwise be slow. This often works out well as the dates and times that a SMERFE group is looking for is often the opposite of when your Corporate groups are looking for.

The point that I am getting to, is to not lose sight of the fact that what truly defines SMERFE is far more than just an acronym. If your hotel merely uses an acronym to define what SMERFE is then you are bound to have some conflict at some point in the future.