1,042.
Yup, I checked recently and estimate that I’ve responded to 1,042 requests for proposals (RFPs) in my career. And, I’ve read and evaluated thousands more.
After more than twenty years in travel and tourism marketing, you start to see the same patterns repeat.
Some RFPs make it easy to understand what a destination really needs. Others create more confusion than clarity. Most fall somewhere in between.
If you work inside a DMO, you already know the RFP process isn’t something anyone wakes up excited to do. It often comes with procurement rules, shifting internal input, tight timelines and pressure to get it right the first time.
Agencies feel the same way on our side. A single response can take dozens, even hundreds, of team hours across strategy, creative, technical and account teams. It takes collaboration across teams to review requirements, gather examples, write, edit and assemble a full response, all while maintaining the client work already in motion.
That lift is worth it when the RFP is clear and built around its real goals.
When it isn’t, both sides end up working harder than they should, and the final proposals don’t give you the clarity or confidence you need to choose the right partner.
This article comes out of many years of seeing what works, what gets in the way and what simple changes can help DMOs get better proposals with far less friction. The goal is to make the process smoother for everyone and help you attract partners who can actually deliver what you’re looking for.
Before You Start: Getting Aligned On Goals
Before anyone drafts an RFP, the most important work happens inside the DMO. After so many years reading these, I can usually tell within minutes of review whether the team had a clear internal conversation around goals and objectives, or if the document was stitched together hurriedly (and often from piecemealing other RFPs).
Start with the real problem
The strongest RFPs come from DMOs that take the time to define the actual business problem. Not the list of deliverables, not the buzzwords, but the thing that is keeping the team from reaching its goals.
Maybe the current website can’t support your marketing automation. Maybe the brand has drifted away from what visitors actually experience. Maybe your campaigns work, but you lack consistent reporting to defend the investment. When the problem is clear, the scope becomes clear too.
I’ve also seen the opposite. Sixty-five pages of every idea that crossed someone’s desk. Length doesn’t make an RFP more strategic. It usually means the team wasn’t aligned from the start.
Internal alignment is hard, and that’s normal
DMOs live in a complicated environment.
Depending on the composition of your DMO (501(c)6 or Government Department), marketing, tourism, meeting sales, communications, procurement, IT, economic development, the executive director, parks and recreation and even entire committees and councils may all have a say in the process. Getting everyone aligned is difficult even in the calmest season.
One example sticks with me. A County-Gov DMO had a solid new website RFP draft out in the world. Agencies were already well into their responses (or had even submitted them) when the IT department stepped in and added major sections two weeks before the original deadline. The addendum changed the tech requirements so dramatically that it shifted the project’s direction entirely. The DMO team ended up with a result they didn’t even want. No one was trying to derail the process. They were simply out of sync.
Alignment is about slowing down long enough to make sure every team and stakeholder involved knows what problem the RFP is meant to solve, and are on the same page from the start.
Describe your current state so agencies aren’t guessing
One of the easiest ways to improve the quality of proposals is to describe what your internal team looks like today. Do you have a designer on staff? A copywriter? Someone dedicated to paid media or SEO? A freelance photographer? Someone identified as the primary contact related to actually managing the project? Agencies need to know what skills you already have.
The same goes for your MarTech stack. What CMS are you on or would prefer? Do you use a CRM? Do you use reporting platforms, an email marketing system, Canva, Figma or anything else? What about any desired 3rd party integrations? Do you have a DAM or a robust video/photo library? Are you managing assets in-house or through partners?
Even if the RFP may not be directly related, these details shape how we approach solutions and help us figure out how to support you without recommending tools you already use or may not need.
When you don’t know what you don’t know
A lot of DMOs don’t write RFPs often, so it’s normal to feel unsure about the right scope. DMOs aren’t expected to know every technical detail of a website or every step of a rebrand. That’s totally ok!
If you feel uncertain, it is completely reasonable to acknowledge that and ask for guidance. The destination marketing community is collaborative and full of people who are willing to share examples. Destinations International groups, peer networks and even informal Facebook communities can give you a sense of how others structure their RFPs.
There is no need to guess your way through crafting an RFP. The more clarity you build before writing, the better proposals you will receive on the other side. It is far better to start with a peer-tested structure than to assemble something that leaves agencies filling in the gaps.
RFP Essentials DMOs Often Overlook
Once your internal team is aligned and the real problem is clear, the rest of the RFP comes down to a handful of choices that either smooth the path or make it harder than it needs to be.
Budget transparency
If there is one pattern that shows up more than anything else, it is the missing budget. I understand why DMOs hold it back. There is a fear that every agency will magically come in at the ceiling. In reality, withholding the budget creates far more problems than it solves.
Without even a range, agencies end up guessing, or worse, decide not to pursue at all (and that might be the agency that’s best for the work). Some will assume the project is larger than it is. Others will assume the opposite. The result is a stack of proposals you cannot afford or proposals that don’t meet the scope you had in mind. It also forces agencies to dig into public records to estimate your marketing allocations, which is rarely accurate.
A simple range or not-to-exceed ceiling saves everyone time and instantly improves the quality of responses.
Realistic timelines
Timeline issues show up in almost every RFP.
DMOs often underestimate how many proposals they will receive and how long internal reviews take. A three-week review window can easily turn into six or eight once Board schedules and stakeholder feedback are added in.
Then there is the project timeline itself. A website or brand launch needs space to breathe. Launching two weeks before your biggest event of the year almost guarantees stress on both sides. If your peak seasons are fixed, plan the project around them rather than fighting them.
A realistic timeline isn’t just kinder to agencies. It also protects your internal team from marathon review cycles that no one planned for.
Clear and structured scopes of work
This is one of the easiest places to create clarity. The most effective scopes separate the must-have deliverables from the nice-to-haves. They also hold all requirements in one place. What derails things is when new items show up later in a section labeled “proposal must include.” Those additions often contradict or expand the original scope without warning.
A clean, organized scope helps agencies give you accurate estimates and comparable proposals.
Attracting Quality Responses
Once the budget, timeline and scope are set, the next step is strengthening the inputs that guide the proposals themselves. This is where the quality of the responses can improve quickly.
Clearer language helps agencies understand what you truly need. Well-structured evaluation criteria show them what matters most. Simple submission guidelines free them to focus on the work instead of the mechanics around it, leading to stronger, more relevant proposals.
Avoid vague language
Vague language forces agencies to guess, and guessing rarely leads to the solution you need. I see this most often with broad, aspirational goals like “elevating the status of our destination” or requests for “AI-driven solutions” without explaining what you want the technology to do.
Clear, specific language gives agencies a real understanding of your priorities so they can build a proposal grounded in what you actually need.
Set evaluation criteria that bring in the right partners
The fastest way to push away strong agencies is to weight price as the dominant factor.
When price carries a third of the score or more, it signals that the decision will be driven by cost rather than quality. That’s fine if the goal is simply to find the lowest bid, but it will not attract strategic partners.
Stronger evaluation criteria focus on experience, approach, team expertise, case studies and measurable results. These are the things that help you understand how an agency thinks and whether they are the right match for your destination.
Just as important, the criteria should line up with what the proposal asks for. When the requirements and scoring don’t match, the process becomes confusing on both sides.
Additionally, if local experience matters, say it up front. Many DMOs genuinely prefer local partners. There are good reasons for that. The problem is when the preference is not disclosed. It’s frustrating to learn after the fact that only local or regional firms were considered. Whether that takes the form of bonus scoring or specific requirements, clarity helps everyone.
Read the submissions and then talk to finalists
I strongly recommend interviewing a shortlist instead of choosing based on written responses alone.
Written proposals can tell you what an agency has done. A conversation shows you how they think and how they communicate.
It also gives your team a chance to see whether the dynamic feels right. That matters when things get sticky. You want to know you have an actual partner.
Ideally, these conversations happen in person, but even virtual interviews make a difference.
Don’t make submissions harder than they need to be
Requiring printed and shipped proposals might seem minor, but it can be the deciding factor for many agencies. Printed submissions require extra time, coordination and production costs, and the risk of shipping delays is real. Many agencies simply choose not to participate.
Allowing emailed or digital submissions opens the door to a wider, stronger field of partners and keeps the focus on the quality of the work instead of the logistics around it.
Make the Process Easier for YOU!
After over twenty years in this industry, I can say this with confidence: going to RFP is brutal.
But, here’s the thing, it does not have to drain your team or discourage the partners you want to attract. When the goals are clear, the scope is grounded in what you actually need and the communication is straightforward, the entire experience becomes easier.
Over the years, I have heard people describe the RFP cycle as a kind of awkward dating ritual. You go through all the motions, you try to make a good impression and hope the connection works out. The difference is that in this case, a few small changes can make the experience far less awkward for everyone involved.
If you want to talk through your next RFP, get a second opinion on structure or walk through these ideas in more detail, our team is happy to help. We work with DMOs of all sizes, and we have seen enough variations of this process to know what works and what tends to get in the way.
Editor’s Note:
A special thanks to Faith Delfin, Senior Client Engagement Manager, for contributing her experience and insight to this piece.
