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A Product Story: How Instant Booking became the new standard for transparency in group travel

A Product Story: How Instant Booking became the new standard for transparency in group travel

For years, the process that’s connected group travel planners with the right hotels for an event, meeting or group has relied on the Request for Proposal (RFP) system — a system which was, in large part, developed by hoteliers and catered to their own needs, timing and internal sales processes.

This “old school” way of doing things created friction and inefficiencies that have long been unaddressed, leaving planners shortchanged and facing hours of work to source properties without the information that would help them quickly and easily find the hotels that best match their needs.

While it’s understandable that the hoteliers’ need for a lot of specific information beforehand led to the older, complex RFP process. And to be clear, our flagship product GroupSync includes an RFP process, a process that will continually be needed as I mention further below. It’s one that has evolved to a faster, more efficient way to conduct RFPs – by providing deeper relevancy and a more streamlined process.

But now, advanced technology and new ways of thinking have opened the door to innovating a new solution for hotel sourcing and booking for groups — one that does a better job at bridging the gap between a planner’s need for information to more easily and efficiently source, and the hotel’s desire to simply and easily book the best groups for their property.

This is exactly what we set out to create when building one of the most game-changing features of our GroupSync hotel sourcing solution: Instant Booking. And while you are likely familiar with traditional solutions for direct booking or RFPs, we designed our product to be so much more than that. But before we dive into Instant Booking further, let’s do a quick recap of the more common terminology for group booking processes and their differences.

RFP vs. Direct booking vs. Instant Booking

The RFP

In the group travel business, there’s a decades-long practice of sending a Request for Proposal (RFP) to all the hotels a planner thinks might be a good fit to host their meeting, event, or overnight group stay. They do this, however, without any visibility into room rates or availability at these properties. The planner has no way to know if a hotel falls within budget, or if it has rooms or space to accommodate their group until a response to the RFP is received from the hotel.

Depending on the complexity of the request, this can create a long waiting and proposal process where event organizers find themselves in limbo before knowing which hotels may be able to accommodate their needs. This process becomes even more frustrating when the request is for a simpler, less-complex room block or meeting space booking.

Hoteliers, for their part, receive hundreds (if not thousands) of RFPs every month. They must dedicate resources to reviewing and processing these requests, sifting through the opportunities that fit their property’s inventory, availability, and align with the planners needs from a rate, amenities, and service offering perspective. Unfortunately, the majority of RFPs hoteliers receive do not fit — but they still have to be processed regardless. To Groups360, this felt like a process ready for improvement.

Direct Booking

“Direct booking” describes any room reservation that was made in one instant, online transaction — no RFP waiting period necessary. Direct booking has long been the practice for transient business and when individual group travelers reserve their own rooms. But when it comes to directly booking groups (which hoteliers typically define as a reservation of nine hotel rooms or more), it’s been a challenge to create the same efficiency and move away from the RFP process.

That’s partially because RFPs do have their time and place. While meetings of all size require at least some planning, there is a difference in planning a three-day corporate offsite that requires a dozen sleeping rooms, a meeting room and some snacks, vs. flying 6,000 people to Las Vegas for a week of networking, entertainment and speaking engagements in multiple ballrooms. Those larger events will continue to rely on the RFP process due to the sheer complexity and scale. But until now, planners were spending the same amount of time — an average of 75 days — to source and book both large and small group events.

Instant Booking

Which leads us back to why we created Instant Booking. Instant Booking is the industry’s first ever direct booking option at scale for groups — meaning event organizers can book both hotel room blocks and meeting space in one instant, online transaction. It’s exclusive to our GroupSync sourcing solution, and after spending years helping to develop the feature, I can point to many legitimate reasons why it’s taken hoteliers and planners decades to figure this out. But there were a couple pain points that created our biggest hurdles:

    1. It takes serious industry knowledge, connections and incentives to get the biggest hotel brands on board with changing industry norms. Groups360 was founded by hotel veterans, and our investors include the biggest brand names in hospitality. But it took the combination of all the above, plus an incredible time investment, to bring hospitality’s big players together and agree to make such a deep, permanent change in the way business is done.
    2. We had to find a way to make it work without paid placements in our search results. Kemp Gallineau, Groups360’s CEO and co-founder, was adamant about creating a transparent search platform that avoided pay-for-play placements. Many of the legacy sourcing systems that planners and hoteliers have used until now turn out search results that aren’t based on an event planner’s preferences, but rather, based on properties that have paid to show up in a similar search. Imagine how frustrating it would be if, every time you searched on Google, you had to sift through pages of paid ads that were completely irrelevant to your needs? We’re proud to have created a sourcing solution that generates the most relevant, specific options for organizers as they’re planning their event.

 

What group travel planners can gain from Instant Booking:

The game-changing new ability to instantly secure a room block reservation and the meeting space that they need in one single online transaction.

  • Without GroupSync Instant Booking, planners that need to book more than nine hotel rooms must go through multiple transactions, plus weeks or even months of waiting and back-and-forth with hotels relying on legacy RFPs before booking.

Get smaller meetings off their plate so they can invest more time planning large-scale events.

  • The back-and-forth of the traditional RFP process is too much overhead for smaller, simpler events. We save RFPs for larger more complex meetings that require a lot of collaboration and coordination and make it easy to get the small stuff completed quickly.

Access to an unprecedented level of visibility into hotel inventory and real-time pricing data.

  • Before GroupSync, planners tell us they tend to book with the hotels that they know about already. But our marketplace gives you information about destinations or cities that you might not have considered before, with search results delivered via our unbiased scoring algorithm based on the planner’s needs and priorities. And here’s the bonus: this level of visibility into real-time rates and availability also helps planners send a better, more qualified RFP should they choose to do so. By having the information and search results focus on those hotels that are within budget and have availability, we are creating a more efficient marketplace.

 

What hoteliers gain from Instant Booking:

An automated source of group business, lifting some of the burden to review RFPs so that hotel sales teams with limited bandwidth can focus on booking better-fit, more profitable events.

  • “Lead spam,” or RFP spam, is a real thing for most hotel sales managers. Instant Booking streamlines and automates booking for smaller group business so that there is more time to dedicate toward building planner relationships and ensuring large events run smoothly.

A higher volume of group business that’s streamlined and fills key need dates for a property.

  • With smaller teams on hotel staff and hundreds or thousands of RFPs coming in every month, there’s simply not enough time to address all the requests that hotels receive. This leads to dissatisfaction and poor customer service among one of the most vital customer types — meeting planners. Instant Booking enables a planner to book without having to engage directly with hotel staff, filling up group inventory fast and more efficiently, creating time for hotel sales to focus on providing great service to their clients.

 

It’s all about transparency

For more than 50 years, the older RFP process has been the standard operating model for organizing group meetings and events. It’s created a huge imbalance of information that gives hoteliers leverage over event organizers — but we’re trying to show that transparency actually creates a higher quality experience for the planner, the hotel, and at the end of the day, for the ultimate consumer: the attendee.

In-person meetings and events are back—with some changes

In-person meetings and events are back—with some changes

While a semi-return to normal is welcome after more than two years of a worldwide pandemic, event planners remain divided about the best way to host. In-person? Virtual? A hybrid of the two?

Planners again have the opportunity for in-person business events, with flexibility due to the tech lessons learned along the way. The best course isn’t clear-cut and depends on an organization’s priorities; what’s more, attendees will have their own personal safety concerns.

Planners in the B2B space, specifically, know in-person events and trade shows drive the most conversions. While we’re all eager to see people in person again—without “Sorry, you cut out there for a minute” and “Is it my connection or yours?”—there are COVID safety guidelines to keep your IRL event safe and smooth.

 

Why you might want to meet in person again

First, and most notably, the severity of Omicron is diminishing. While it is still raging in hot spots, fewer cases are severe enough to result in ICU stays.

While there’s still a ways to go, the majority of Americans are vaccinated. As of April 20, 2022, 66% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated, and 77.4% have received at least one dose.

And since it’s safer to meet in real life now, what’s most notable about considering a return to these events is this: the people want it. A whopping 96% of planners say they will opt for an in-person event in 2022, with only 4% waiting until next year, according to a March 2022 Northstar Meetings Group survey.

Planners’ enthusiasm and optimism is promising for businesses, which see stronger engagement with in-person events that get people out from behind their computers and again interacting with co-workers and associates.

Most companies have money to burn on meeting space and travel, too. American Express’s 2022 Global Meetings and Events Forecast survey found 64% of meeting professionals say their overall meeting budget is increasing this year.

 

How to make it work: in-person event considerations

You’ve got the desire and the cash, so … how do you make it happen? The landscape looks different now, so the event-planning playbook has been revised.

Here’s everything you need to know so your group can meet in person again:

  1. Update your meeting policy: Be specific about your company’s requirements for in-person attendance, health screenings, and safety measures so everyone’s prepared and knows what to expect.
  2. Find a large enough space to accommodate social distancing: Within that updated meeting policy, if 6 feet of social distancing is a priority, remember you’ll need a bigger room that allows for this. Plan your seating arrangement in advance.
  3. Review the fine print of venue contract changes: Some venues have changed their capacity restrictions specifically to accommodate social distancing.
  4. Inspect travel guidelines: Will any event attendees fly in from out of the country? The government has mandated travel restrictions that require anyone traveling into the United States to show COVID-related documentation and contact tracing information, or proof of vaccination. This might also mean a temperature check upon landing. Airlines have policies that require some travelers to show their negative COVID test or even quarantine.
  5. Allow for individualized attendance opt-outs: Some attendees will know early on that an in-person meeting won’t work for them, while others will waver until the last minute. Using a room block management solution like GroupSync Housing makes it easier to manage attendee rooms and preferences.
  6. Follow local governments’ masking restrictions, as well as venue requirements like temperature checks and symptom screening: The rules differ from town to town, so don’t assume the law at home is the same as your destination. And if your event location isn’t set in stone, you might plan it based on the local travel and health restrictions.
  7. Define your emergency course of action: Fingers crossed, you won’t need this —- but decide exactly what will happen if someone develops symptoms or tests positive for COVID at the event. Who does that individual need to contact first, and what steps will you follow to keep everyone safe?

 

The cons of virtual events

As you see, there are new considerations for planning an in-person event in 2022. Don’t let these changes force you into continuing to host virtual events, though.

Sure, there are pros to hosting online events: they’re environmentally friendly, and your group has likely grown comfortable with the technology. Yet the cons do include two big hurdles that in-person events can clear:

Engagement

Digital fatigue = all-around fatigue. People have grown tired of attending meeting after meeting from behind a screen. Sometimes, admittedly, their attention moves to something else in another browser window.

To combat this, organizations are incorporating wellness activities, meal delivery, entertainment, games, and more special offerings to keep attendees interested — all of which add more to the overall budget.

Cost

There’s a slight difference in cost for in-person vs. virtual or hybrid events, but there’s a difference nonetheless. Depending on your event’s size, it adds up.

According to American Express’s 2022 Global Meetings and Events Forecast: “The cost per attendee per day for in-person meetings ranges from a low of $484 for small and simple meetings to a high of $851 for incentives and special events (in U.S. dollars). For virtual and hybrid meetings, the cost per attendee per day ranges from $501 for small and simple meetings to $776 for incentives and special events.”

 

So, is virtual event planning a thing of the past?

In a word, no. Worldwide, the virtual events market is forecast to reach $504.76 billion by 2028 according to a 2021 Research and Markets report, so virtual and hybrid events are firmly here to stay.

For one, they’re more inclusive for people of different capabilities or family roles, for whom travel can be challenging.

Second, and perhaps most obviously, tech makes it possible. What started as a pandemic stop-gap has turned into a bonafide win for companies wanting to collaborate on big ideas in a shared space.

 

Next steps

These new considerations for in-person event planning will become old hat in no time, so if you’ve missed gladhanding, you can definitely make it happen.

Plus, GroupSync makes planning today’s live events easy, even with COVID safety guidelines. Source available meeting spaces based on size, get faster hotel RFP proposal responses, and even book your event — all in one place.

Finding profits and productivity in the new era of group travel

Finding profits and productivity in the new era of group travel

Hoteliers continue to optimize in the face of inconsistent travel regulations that limit business opportunities and force staff to do more with less. While in the UK we are getting back to pre-pandemic routines, we still have a long way to go. Hoteliers must get creative in order to hold on to loyal customers and generate revenue.

Group travel has long been the security blanket that provides stable, predictable business for hotels; but a world affected by the pandemic is different. There is only so much that hoteliers can do to stimulate cross-border travel, and with the inevitable rise of home working on the domestic front, there remains a substantial psychological impact on travel. To win business, companies need to find new pockets of demand.

Luckily, Groups360 is now able to identify two key strategies that help hoteliers maintain a healthy business as they ride out the waves of change – and more importantly, minimize the risk of getting left behind.

Rethinking ways to create stability

People have felt deprived of the world as they know it for more than two years. Today there is a pent-up appetite not only for travel, but also experiences. Wise hoteliers can invest in their property’s longevity by devising a plan to invite people back out of their homes and into hotels. Creatively marketing food and beverage services and spa services is a simple way to monetize a hotel’s resources outside of room bookings.

While one may assume that revamping a property’s marketing is the last thing that already busy teams need, there is good news. Equipped with the proper tools, hoteliers can easily add up to 25% to their bottom line with little additional effort.

Innovative platforms such as GroupSync Gifting have already shaped new ways for early adopters to create an instant, stable revenue stream, by selling vouchers, food and beverage services, amenities and even wedding packages to corporate and leisure guests through a hotel-branded website that is easy to create.

Businesses learned quickly how to do more with less during the pandemic: fewer resources and less staff, to name but a few changes. Now the industry is evolving using technology that helps businesses do more with less, and do it better.

It’s time to get closer to customers

Customer loyalty information is a powerful tool for hotels. It empowers direct communication with a guest from the moment they book, up until arrival. But for valuable segments such as group travel, hoteliers are given limited access to any information about the individuals staying at their property. Instead, it resides on a planner’s rooming list until a point much closer to the guests’ arrival.

Evolving this planner-hotelier relationship to increase transparency will be a massive area of innovation in the industry. It helps to know that the next generation of meeting planners—those who hold the future of the meeting and events industry in their hands—have a basic expectation that the businesses they work with will use simple technology that streamlines their work.

hotel-occupancy

Booking a group trip can be stress-free with features like viewing hotel occupancy rates ahead of time.

Traditionally, it could take up to three days to create a booking link for an event. Using GroupSync Housing, creating an event-branded microsite to share with planners and attendees takes only minutes. Most importantly, the tool gathers essential attendee information that hoteliers can use to capture shoulder night demand, market directly to attendees and monetize amenities.

The world is emerging from the pandemic with a fresh pair of eyes, driven by an urge to challenge the status quo and adopt better ways of living. The hotelier industry is no exception—and the businesses that begin innovating today will experience gains in productivity and profits in the long run. There has never been a better time to evolve.

Originally published in Hotel Management International. This blog has been slightly modified for a digital audience.

How Omni’s instant group booking announcement is breaking new ground in hospitality

How Omni’s instant group booking announcement is breaking new ground in hospitality

There’s a rule of thumb in event planning that says the best time to source is when hotels want to sell.

While this may sound obvious, most group travel planners find this advice far from easy to follow. A lack of easily accessible property information pertaining to groups, including rates and availability, makes it challenging for planners to determine where they should focus their sourcing time and effort – and even then, legacy RFP processes create literally months of work for both group travel planners and hoteliers who simply need to identify the perfect hotel to work with.

These and many other pain points are the reason why we do what we do. At its core, our mission is to make booking groups less complicated – and Instant Booking is just one piece of that strategy. Group travel planners can now book guest room blocks or meeting space in one instant, online transaction on GroupSync. The capability is available at nearly 7,000 properties worldwide, with an additional 20,000 properties expected to begin offering Instant Booking within the next year.

And our expansion doesn’t stop there. Today, Omni Hotels & Resorts became the first brand ever to offer GroupSync Instant Booking for both group rooms and meeting space. The move breaks new ground in the business of group travel, and Omni’s rollout serves as a roadmap for more hoteliers to drive innovation

Breaking new ground in group booking

Starting with the Omni Frisco Hotel in Frisco, Texas, the capability to book rooms and space instantly is an industry first that will become available at more than 50 Omni properties in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Searching, sourcing and booking groups at Omni properties will be as simple as any other online shopping you do today.

“This technology provides an on-demand booking option for planners who seek to book a small room block and meeting space with ease and confidence,” said Peter Palli, chief commercial officer for Omni Hotels & Resorts. “We take great pride in being leaders and innovators in the meetings and events industry, so we were eager to explore the opportunity to adopt paradigm-shifting technology destined to change the way hotels have been booking groups.”

One of the unfortunate realities of event planning has always been that sourcing venues for a small group usually takes just as long as it would for a large event. Seasoned group travel organizers know that if a hotel is stuck using the traditional RFP process, it won’t matter if they’re planning a 15-person corporate offsite or coordinating a group of 500 that needs a hotel banquet room – legacy RFP processing means sourcing takes time, a long time. (An average of 75 days from start to RFP award date.)

It’s also true that hotel sales managers, who are motivated by quarterly closings and sales goals, are more driven to close with planners who can sign within a short timeline in order to meet those goals. GroupSync Instant Booking provides a win-win for both parties: planners drastically reduce the time they spend sourcing – often by 60 days or more – and hoteliers can easily fill booking windows without the sales effort by selling them online, 24/7 via Instant Booking.

“Omni’s innovation will significantly benefit its staff and their customers by automating group bookings, allowing more time to focus on those things that create a great experience,” said Kemp Gallineau, CEO of Groups360.

Learn more about GroupSync Instant Booking and its role in transforming group travel:

The time is now for direct, instant booking for groups

Over a Million Guest Rooms available for Instant Group Booking on GroupSync

Learn more about GroupSync Instant Booking

Groups360 raises $35M in funding to support rapid growth

Groups360 raises $35M in funding to support rapid growth

Groups360’s $35 million investment from Zigg Capital, Blackstone Innovations Investments and Fir Tree Partners will accelerate the adoption of GroupSync technology for hoteliers and planners worldwide.

We’re excited to announce that Zigg Capital, Blackstone Innovations Investments and Fir Tree Partners have invested a combined $35 million in Groups360 to enhance our GroupSync platform. The funding will help speed up the development of products that create greater efficiency in group booking, accelerate the launch of housing solutions for better room block management, and expand our operations to bring GroupSync’s cutting edge technology to hoteliers in Europe and Asia Pacific.

“Meeting planners increasingly expect their entire hotel purchase experience to be seamless, instantaneous, and online,” said Dave Eisenberg, founding partner at Zigg Capital. “Groups360 has built an integrated, intuitive platform that benefits hoteliers and event organizers anywhere in the world.”

Creating ease, efficiency and transparency

GroupSync has changed what it means to source and book hotels for groups. Hotels on our marketplace are positioned to drive more valuable group revenue, experience more efficient RFP and room block management, and receive more qualified leads. Our suite of products is designed to help hoteliers create more value in less time, with fewer resources.

As the no. 1 hotel marketplace for booking groups, GroupSync’s enhanced electronic RFP capability empowers planners to more efficiently search, source and book groups at over 200,000 properties worldwide. This single web-based solution provides greater access to hotel group inventory and rates for faster, smoother booking.

As a result of this rapid adoption of GroupSync technology, we anticipate that an additional 20,000 leading hotel properties will begin offering instant group booking in the months ahead. Already available at nearly 7,000 properties globally, instant booking gives planners the option to skip the RFP process for smaller group reservations, taking hotel sourcing time from months to minutes.

“Groups360 offers a solution that is truly differentiated in the marketplace,” said John Stecher, Chief Technology Officer at Blackstone. “The Blackstone Innovations Investments team is focused on identifying, investing in, and partnering with pioneering companies like Groups360 to help take their businesses to the next stage of growth. We believe that Groups360’s inventory distribution model and instant booking capability will help drive industry-wide transformation and can create value for Blackstone’s real estate portfolio.”

We’re on a mission to make group travel better for all – from hoteliers to event planners to attendees. This investment will play an important role in accelerating our efforts to improve group booking across the hospitality industry.

“Groups360 is reshaping the hospitality industry in a manner that makes booking groups simple, transparent, and efficient for both hotels and event organizers,” said Kemp Gallineau, CEO, Groups360. “Now, with support from our new partners, Groups360 is positioned to more quickly seize the opportunities which lie ahead for improving group travel.”

 

More about this announcement:

 

Read the press release on PR Newswire

GroupSync for Organizers and Planners

GroupSync for Travel Partners and Hoteliers

3 trends that signal we’re entering a new era of group travel

3 trends that signal we’re entering a new era of group travel

Following group travel trends over the past couple of years has been a rollercoaster. Between fluctuating national priorities and the uncertainty posed by an ongoing global pandemic, the business of organizing and hosting events is a new ballgame with entirely new rules.

Living and working during the pandemic has made digital meeting and event tech solutions a necessity, and the hospitality industry continues to make changes that create better ways to conduct events, and business. And along the way come trends in travel, born from lifestyle changes and destined to become part of our norms. Read along as we uncover three group travel behaviors that will change the way hoteliers and organizers will work in 2022.

 

Trend #1: Virtual event aversion – signaling the return of live events

After nearly two years of forced virtual conferences, meetings and get-togethers, people are eager to meet in person as they did pre-pandemic. In Knowland’s 2021 report, “The State of the Meetings Industry,” more than 450 meeting planners specified that for 2022, they expect nearly 80 percent of meetings to take place in-person – with only 8 percent expected to be virtual and 11 percent hybrid.

“We’re seeing that, naturally, planners are much more focused on live events than they were at the beginning of the pandemic, when the live events industry virtually crashed,” said Dan Humby, Groups360’s vice president of sales for the European region. At last month’s 2022 International Confex in the UK, Dan spoke to a group of Europe-based event organizers and meeting planners who confirmed that the desire for more live events is indeed a global phenomenon.

“When the pandemic struck, the sharp increase in demand for quarantine-safe events meant that hundreds of new virtual meeting platforms entered the marketplace,” Dan said. “But now that travel and meeting restrictions are easing up across the globe, organizers are searching for ways to get people back together in person again. It’s hard to mimic the effects of in-person events via their virtual counterparts.”

The hospitality industry’s digital transformation has enabled a faster rebound in revenue for hoteliers, and certainly offers better ways to maximize resources and meet the elevated expectations of modern group travel organizers. But alongside video conference fatigue and the failure to recreate the benefits of live events, the aversion to the virtual event as we have come to know it is undisputed.

 

Trend #2: ‘Revenge’ travel (not as scary as it sounds)

Much like the world’s aversion to virtual events, revenge travel is the result of groups feeling tired of being cooped up at home. Travelers are getting their “revenge,” so to speak, against COVID-19 by taking any chance they can get to leave home and meet in person.

“There’s a rush among consumers to get out and book travel while they can,” said Ryan Morris, Groups360’s vice president of sales for the Americas. “The pandemic’s peaks and valleys have been unpredictable, and people want to spend time together when they can. People are hoping to make up for lost travel time.”

Destination weddings, non-essential business offsites and incentive trips are all back on the books. As groups make a return to in-person meetings (and begin to prioritize travel again), planners will benefit from an online booking platform that makes it easier to source the right hotels for their event.

“People have felt deprived of the world as they know it for over two years. Not only is there a pent-up appetite for travel, but also experiences,” said Dan Humby. “Wise hoteliers can invest in their property’s longevity by devising a plan to invite people back out of their homes and into hotels.”

 

Trend #3: ‘Bleisure’ turns work trips into a mini vacation

Hoteliers have seen a steady increase in the number of event attendees that want to book additional shoulder nights when traveling for business meetings or events. Instead of choosing between work time and vacation time, employees are asking themselves, why not just do both – from a great hotel destination?

Until recently, companies largely restricted employees from the freedom to choose where they work best. But modern workplaces are open to remote work and flexible work from home policies, which benefits hoteliers as they aim to get back to pre-pandemic business.

“If people can work from home, they can work from a hotel,” said Dan Humby. “This means that hoteliers can benefit from highlighting loyalty programs that incentivize event attendees to book additional room nights and specialty experiences.”

This all translates into a greater demand for digital nomads to enhance their hotel stay. Solutions like GroupSync Housing allow hoteliers to avoid the numerous issues caused by book-arounds, which occurs when event attendees source from their own online travel agency (OTA) instead of booking shoulder nights through the hotel’s own platform. Book-arounds mean that guests are inconvenienced from the get-go and may even book at an entirely different hotel altogether. Investing in the right attendee management solution creates ease and better business for both travel organizers and hoteliers.

 

How to navigate industry changes like a pro

Hoteliers and group travel planners can make changes today to better position their business for the new frontier of group travel and events.

Hoteliers:

  • Invest in digital platforms that make it easy for group organizers and attendees to work with you. Help group travel organizers make better informed decisions and include transparent pricing information and availability in your listings so you can attract the right business.
  • It’s time to give the antiquated spreadsheet an upgrade. With better room block management, you can get to know your guests before they arrive and spend less time managing room blocks.

 Planners:

  • Consider using sourcing platforms that value transparency over paid placements. Sourcing is a process that can quickly become overwhelming and takes months when approached with traditional methods. If you’re still searching for destinations on Google, or spamming numerous hotels with your RFP, it’s time to consider an upgrade.
  • Ditch the rooming list once and for all. GroupSync Housing provides travel planners with a real-time view of their reservations and attendee progress, offering a much more streamlined process.