June 2009 - Instant, online procurement of hotel room blocks and conference space has the potential to fundamentally reshape how corporations plan their meetings, just as online booking revolutionized air travel. A self-service tool capable of delivering policy-approved rates, dates and space could allow an organization to decentralize the planning function, freeing meeting buyers from mundane logistical tasks and allowing them to be more strategic.
"Real-time, small-meeting bookings reduce costs, risks and resources," Debi Scholar, PricewaterhouseCoopers hospitality and leisure practice director, told
Procurement.travel. "A self-service, convenient, online model that provides options, support and easy access works in almost any environment--especially with Generation Y, as they're so used to immediate confirmation when booking reservations. Real-time access eliminates the time-consuming, disconnected activities, such as e-mail or phone calls trying to find properties."
Hotel chains and a scattering of third-party providers claim to offer real-time booking tools to meeting buyers, but they usually fail to live up to the hype, planners contend.
Marriott's Quick Group tool allows room blocks of up to 25 to be booked, but meeting space is reserved in a similar fashion as the request for proposal process.
Hilton's e-Events allows booking of up to 25 sleeping rooms, meeting space and such services as food and beverage, but doesn't allow corporations to load in negotiated rates.
Such third-party vendors as StarCite and Worktopia offer tools that show promise, but a universal platform of real-time inventory that can be compared across all the major hotel chains and booked immediately remains out of reach.
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"The RFP process can be incredibly slow, depending on meeting size, chain and other variables; however, that work process is not directly tied to room booking other than holding a block open."
— E.J. Siwek, Flashpoint Technologies founder
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"Hotel booking sites provide the real-time access, but meeting leaders have multiple sites to manage. In contrast, one centralized supplier provides a single point of entry for consistency and data consolidation," said Scholar. "When the third party includes client-specific or agreed-upon contracts and attendee management, then we have the icing on the cake."
Small meetings that pop up on short notice and require minimal add-ons for audiovisual and F&B needs are the most likely candidates for real-time booking, said E.J. Siwek, founder of technology consulting firm Flashpoint Technologies and technology consultant to the Convention Industry Council. And planners appreciate shortcuts to the booking process.
"The RFP process can be incredibly slow, depending on meeting size and chain and other variables; however, that work process is not directly tied to room booking other than holding a block open," Siwek said.
American Express recently introduced a tool for meetings of fewer than 50 attendees, in partnership with Worktopia, that does allow planners to hold space. Amex also negotiates flat discounts and packages that are loaded into the tool. (Small meetings make up nearly two-thirds of a company's managed meetings spend, according to Amex.)
The Worktopia platform is being picked up by GetThere, Travelport, Sabre and such hotel system providers as Newmarket International and Micros Systems--but the "hold space" function is exclusive to Amex for now.
These tools are developing steadily, and both the technology vendors and meeting buyers see real-time booking as key to managing small-meetings spend, but are we there yet?
"It's all about the definition of what 'there' is," said George Odom, senior director of business development for BCD Travel's Advito. "There are systems doing it, but it depends on if you're located where those properties have signed up. Otherwise, it doesn't matter if the technology works or not."
Although the economic pressures facing corporations today have made such tools more important to companies, adoption of any technology requires an investment in time, money and resources, which many companies simply cannot afford this year, Odom said. "On paper, it's great," he said, "but [consolidating small meetings] seems like it's easy, but it's really not."
Eventually, the industry will reach a tipping point of mass adoption, Odom predicted, but, until then, these tools--no matter how good they are--have limited usefulness.
