Hilton Debuts Meeting SiteHilton Hotels Corp. late last month introduced a specific Web site designed to search meeting capabilities of more than 2,000 Hilton properties worldwide and send meeting electronic requests for proposals. Hiltondirect.com is the product of a five-year deal signed with meeting portal PlanSoft in March 2001
(Meetings Today, March 26, 2001) to use the Twinsburg, Ohio-based company's meeting technology, including its property search capabilities. The site also features group value dates and allows planners to store historical meeting data. "The new site is supported by our domestic and international Hilton Direct group desks and is designed to provide customers with the highest level of service, response and convenient tools necessary to research, find and book group business online," said Hilton senior vice president of sales Steve Armitage.
Hyatt: Offsite Meetings More ProductiveAbout 55 percent of business professionals said offsite meetings result in increased productivity, according to a survey released late last month by Hyatt Hotels and Resorts, and 69 percent of offsite meetings take place at hotels. The survey of 1,003 qualified U.S. business professionals, commissioned by Hyatt and conducted in August by London-based market research firm Taylor Nelson Sofres Intersearch, also included 52 percent who said the ability to book offsite meetings online would simplify the planning process, which Hyatt allows through its E-mmediatemeetings.com feature.
Omni Manages Groups With PasskeyOmni Hotels is implementing Passkey's online group inventory management tools across all of its 40 hotels, the chain announced last month. Omni is integrating Passkey's Enterprise Solution suite of products, including its HotelDirect, CityWide, GroupLink and RegLink modules. The tools give the properties, as well as meeting planners and convention and visitors bureaus, online access to specific room blocks, allowing the hotels to better monitor room block developments, move registrations to the Web and better its group revenue projections. Terms of the deal were not released, though Passkey has negotiated both transaction-based and monthly and annual deals in the past. The company said Omni could recoup its investment in the first quarter of its use.
Dolce Conference Center First In SpainDolce International is building what it calls the first and only dedicated conference center in Spain. The new property, the Barcelona Conference Destination in Sitges, Spain, is scheduled to open in July 2004. "Spain is Europe's fastest-growing destination for meetings and tourism, yet lacks dedicated conference facilities for small to midsize corporate meetings," said Andy Dolce, chairman and CEO of the Montvale, N.J.-based conference center chain. "Barcelona is frequently mentioned by our global customers as a desirable destination for our conference center concept."
McGettigan, EZ-Event Cook Up Meal DealsOnline dinner meeting management application EZ-Event recently announced a deal with Maritz Travel Co.'s McGettigan Partners subsidiary to offer customized versions of the product to McGettigan associates and customers. McGettigan will use EZ-Event's dinner meeting and restaurant sourcing tools and its spend tracking capabilities, and expects to book more than 1,000 dinner meetings, the company said. "Fortune 500 companies exclusively use robust Internet technologies to book their air travel and hotel meetings," said Danamichele Brennen, McGettigan senior vice president of marketing and chief technology officer. "Booking their restaurant events via a Web application, namely EZ-Event, is the final step toward a total Web environment that includes booking air and events and tracking attendees."
MPI Creates Membership PositionMeeting Professionals International last month appointed longtime association management executive Patricia Dameron as its vice president of member growth and care, a new position designed to oversee member services and chapter relations teams and spearhead efforts for member retention.
~Chris Davis