The long-awaited possibility of easily organising small meetings online is no longer so far away. The Radisson group has recently enhanced its meetings offering with the launch of a real-time reservation platform. Called Book it easy, this solution aims to simplify the lives of organisers by offering them a fast, efficient process. And that saves a great deal of time when planning a meeting or event.
Deployed in the main conference hotels in the EMEA region, the platform offers a number of innovative features, including a 360-degree view of rooms. Developed in partnership with EY, the Book It Easy platform makes it possible to find out about the availability of meeting spaces in real time, 24/7, then book the venue and ultimately receive instant booking confirmationwith the guarantee of the best available rate and transparent pricing. All this is accompanied by secure online payment for the service.
The platform can also be used to organise tailor-made packagesincluding audiovisual material or additional equipment. " We have conducted extensive research with our meetings and events partners to create this new platform and ensure that it includes all the technologies and information needed to deliver a seamless, real-value, real-time experience." said Chema Basterrechea, Operations Director of the Radisson Hotel Group.
This move towards online booking of meetings is an emerging trend in the hotel industry. Last January, the Marriott International group has announced that it is offering the service in more than 1,500 establishments. in the United States and Canada. To achieve this, the American hotelier is relying on the GroupSync solution developed by Groups360, a company in which four major hotel groups - Accor, Hilton, IHG and Marriott - had invested together in 2019 to accelerate the digital transformation of MICE reservations.
" Thanks to our collaboration with Groups360, we can now offer real-time instant booking via GroupSync Marketplace in hotels in the United States and Canada." said Drew Pinto, Global Head of Sales at Marriott International. " With the addition of Marriott International, we expect more than 20,000 leading establishments will be equipped to offer online group booking in the coming monthscommented Kemp Gallineau, CEO of Groups360. Event organisers benefit not only from instant reservations for rooms and meeting spaces, but also for à la carte catering and audiovisual equipment." .
Through the integration of GroupSync Marketplace, the solution is based on a Instant Book" functionalityfor both rooms and meeting spaces. This simplifies the booking process for relatively simple meetings of up to 50 participants and 10 to 25 rooms. Organisers can find out in real time about the availability of spaces and the best available rates, before sending a booking request for all the services. Hotels then receive instant notification so that their requests can be processed and executed more quickly. For more complex events, the solution also simplifies the sending of RFPs.
By March 2021, another Groups360 shareholder, IHGannounced the launch of this solution in around thirty hotels in the United States, before further developments in the British group's North American hotels. In the summer of the same year, Hilton announced that it was implementing this solution in 5,000 of its establishments, before Accor followed suit. the autumn movementannounced that this step would be taken in the coming months. This project is still very much on the agenda for the French group, but has been delayed. Once launched, the tool will initially enable organisers to send 'RFPs' to hotels, before moving on to instant booking. As part of the ongoing relationship between hoteliers and Groups360, Wyndham has just been added to the list of partners of the MICE technology company.
In France, the Best Western network is also focusing on digitalising its MICE offering. Firstly, with the launch at the end of last year of a platform for centralising requests from seminar groups, created in partnership with Backyou (formerly Groupcorner) and, secondly, from its MyWO coworking offer which, in addition to providing workspaces, also includes the possibility of reserving meeting rooms. While all 300 Best Western hotels should have MyWO spaces by the end of the year, the MyWO Meeting solution, which is already available online, will undergo a number of changes this year, including an optimisation of its registration and payment tunnel, as well as a focus on B2B subscriptions and offers.
Blackstone focuses on MICE
Is the evolution of technology a major challenge for the years to come? In any case, it is the gamble taken by investor Blackstone, which has just put $4.6 billion on the table to buy Cventone of the key players in technologies applied to meetings and events, with 22,000 customers and 302,000 hotels and event venues listed. " The continuing upturn in events and travel is one of the most promising investment themessaid David Schwartz, Senior Managing Director of Blackstone. Given its extensive experience in the hotel, events and property sectors, we believe that Blackstone is well placed to become the growth partner of this business." . " Thanks to his support, we will continue to invest and deliver innovative solutions that meet our customers' needs and fuel the meetings and events ecosystem" commented Reggie Aggarwal, CEO and founder of Cvent.
Shortly before this takeover, in February, Cvent formed a partnership with the German start-up hivr.ai to integrate its technology for digitalising and automating the meeting and group request process. " We are proud to partner with companies like hivr.ai to bring real innovation to our sector and further improve collaboration between meeting organisers and hotels and event venues." said Jim Abramson, Vice President of Product Management at Cvent. The NH group will be the first to benefit from this integration. which will materialise in the first half of 2023. In this way, hotels will see the data from Cvent synchronised with their management tools, without manual input and the associated risk of errors. And with the assurance of a rapid response to organisers - the essentials, in short.
