Travel providers capture untapped and unmanaged revenue by bringing innovative new small group and meeting technology to their enterprise customers
Boston, MA – September 17, 2015, Groupize, an award-winning innovator in small group and meeting technology, announces Strategic Group Management Solutions for third parties. The Groupize SGM, Small Group and Meeting Booking Engine, is the first and only strategic solution for enterprises and third parties to source, book and manage multi-room bookings, extended stays, small group bookings and all requirements for small meetings in one easy to use application.
This visionary solution empowers TMC’s and Corporate Travel Agencies to meet the growing demands of their enterprise customers to better manage their bookings of less than 25 hotel rooms and meetings with less than 50 participants. With 80% of this business currently being conducted outside of company travel departments or policy, the new Groupize solution will provide TMC’s and Corporate Travel Agencies with the tools to capture this revenue while ensuring visibility, compliance, data and savings for the corporation. Known for innovation and slick user experience, Groupize offers the only platform based on real-time negotiated individual and group rates and availability with the option to book instantly with self-serve room block management tools or submit an eRFP.
“Individually these groups are small bookings, but as an aggregate they are a large opportunity,” states Charles de Gaspe Beaubien, Groupize President, and CEO. “Groupize SGM is a sourcing solution to address the $50B global market for mid to long term stays, the $35B multi-room and small groups market and the unmanaged small meetings market. Anywhere from 50%-80% of meetings are still unmanaged. For a large corporation, these bookings represent thousands of meetings and events with no oversight.”
Groupize SGM launch customers include Corporate Travel Planners, Orbitz for Business, leading TMC’s and corporate travel agencies.
“More and more Universities are looking for solutions to complement the RFP process when it comes to groups and meetings spend within the organization,” shares Christy Prescott, CEO of Corporate Travel Planners in San Antonio, TX. “We now have a state of the art solution that will make it easy for our partners to book and track their small groups and meetings. CTP has become one of the largest women-owned full service travel management companies in Texas and among the top 50 in the nation.”
After ten years of Strategic Meeting Management (SMM), enterprises are still not tracking over two-thirds of their bookings of less than 25 hotel rooms and meetings with 50 or fewer participants. Coining the category “Strategic Group Management” Groupize addresses the needs for the next frontier of managed travel programs that CFO and procurement department are now starting to mandate.
Currently, there are excellent tools for larger groups and meetings but corporations and third party planners have had to deal with manual and inefficient processes to source, communicate and manage accommodations and requirements for small ones. The existing self-booking tools, transient sourcing processes, and eRFP meeting tools just don’t support the needs for this category of travel. The Groupize SGM enables TMC’s, Corporate Travel Agencies and Enterprises to provide a better experience for their internal users, streamlining negotiations and communications with suppliers. This results in achieving greater savings through a competitive bidding process while maintaining the core pillars of SMM including policy, data management, sourcing strategy, the duty of care, business intelligence and operational efficiencies.
Corporations can have a customized white labeled Groupize SGM. Occasional travel arrangers, such as personal assistants and sales executives can either fill out a request form or self-book their trip using a state of the art user interface and shopping experience designed for both professional and occasional planners. This solution simplifies the most time-intensive tasks of shopping, negotiating, booking and managing room blocks. The online portal allows novice planners such as personal assistants and sales team members to shop their preferred hotels and see their negotiated rates for transient or group rooms. Planners can choose either book in real time up to 25 rooms or request a lead.
The TMC or Corporate Travel Agency can manage requests in the Groupize 3PS, their third party sourcing tool, compiling and updating bid summaries. The portal can be supported by TMC’s or Agencies Group Coordinators, who can negotiate directly with the hotels via the bid management tool and track the savings negotiated on behalf of the corporation. TMC’s can offer their customers a request form combined with a self-service portal, meeting all needs of their bookings for staff travel for projects, training and events, as well as for conferences, seminars, team building events, board meetings, executive retreats, shareholder meetings and more.
The Groupize SGM will also save planners time in sourcing properties and deliver new savings through a competitive bidding and negotiation process.
Notable features include:
Direct Connect to hotel systems allowing Instant Bookings at select hotels for up to 25 rooms
Ability to load and display a corporation’s existing preferred transient rates, extended stay rates, group rates negotiated meeting rates to support maximum leverage
Communication and negotiating tools with hotels
State of the art and intuitive user experience to enable use by non-specialists, including personal assistants and the leaders of teams of consultants.
To schedule a demo or request more information about Groupize SGM, please visit groupize.com.
