Recent posts have focused on how searching and shopping for meeting venues feels stuck in the dark ages. We have described that event planners deserve a better solution and how our differentiated strategy delivers better results.
This week, I want to talk about our value added technology. Technology has helped make our lives easier. It has made us more knowledgeable (Google, Zillow, Twitter) and more efficient (the internal combustion engine, LED bulbs). In some cases it has even created new categories of service (Uber).
Some of the most transformative technology has been created as a result of new marketplaces. Amazon, Zillow and eBay all had transformative effects on their industries by making products more available, easier to buy, or easier to understand. Groups360 is inspired by these examples and are making the lives of event planners and hoteliers easier with GroupSync, our technology for procuring meetings.
The most trusted online marketplace for meetings
Procuring meeting space is a lot like buying a home. It can be overwhelming. It’s a very large transaction — the average meeting is over $100,000 — governed by a complicated contract where buyer and seller come to a negotiated solution.
Neither the event planner nor the hotel sales executive wants to be at a disadvantage. But neither has much actionable data to use, either. Event planners don’t realize that hotel values change day by day, and hotel sales managers don’t know how valuable a particular group might be unless that group has stayed with them in the past. There are thousands of possible options and no objective way to compare them.
GroupSync solves many of these issues. It enables quick, intuitive search based on a corporate event planner’s specific preferences. It brings transparency and visibility to the meeting planner through unique, forward-looking daily pricing estimates and a clean, simple-to-use interface.
The first truly transparent hotel sourcing tool
GroupSync also provides clarity around market occupancy dynamics that can help event planners make better sourcing decisions. Finally, it makes available direct comparisons between markets, which is where planners tend to save the most money. Hundreds of event planners have used GroupSync and are amazed at the time, energy and money they have saved in the process.
Transparency and visibility are two of Groups360’s core values. We believe making this process more transparent will benefit both meeting planners and hoteliers. Others seem to think we have something special, too. We are honored to have been selected as an Industry Innovator by PhocusWright, the industry leading travel technology research firm.
