Crowne Plaza Refines Mtg. Service
Crowne Plaza Hotels and Resorts in March will debut a meeting package for small corporate events that includes specific service guarantees at more than 100 hotels throughout North America. The package includes a guarantee that all requests for proposals will be responded to within two hours, the assignment of a senior-level hotel staff member with a Certified Meeting Professional certification as a single point of contact throughout the meeting and a daily briefing document with updated expenditure totals, including contracted billing, consumed budget and estimated final billing totals. The chain, a unit of Six Continents Hotels, expects to roll out the program to all 190 of its properties worldwide by early 2004. "Meeting planners told us that no national hotel brand is effectively catering to the needs of the small to midsize meeting segment—these meetings get lost in big hotels," said vice president of marketing Kevin Kowalski. The chain also offers a program that allows buyers to tailor complimentary options, including room upgrades, meeting room rentals and frequent traveler credits.
Omni, Amex Join Forces For Mtg. Benefits
Omni Hotels and American Express have created a package to offer benefits to corporate meeting planners, their corporations and attendees when events are booked at Omni properties with an American Express card. The package, affecting new bookings for meetings to be held before March 31, 2003 that cost at least $10,000, offers 25,000 airline miles to the planner from an Omni partner carrier, a $25 allowance per room night that can be used toward future meeting expenses and an attendee certificate for $25 off of a future stay. "Group business remains an increasingly important part of our business model, and by recognizing everyone involved in the meeting, we are building relationships that will have long-term effects," said Omni senior vice president of sales and marketing Tom Chevins.
Aramark, PlanSoft Launch New Harrison Site
Continuing the integration of Harrison Conference Centers into Aramark Corp.'s corporate portfolio after the service management and conference center chain acquired Harrison from Hilton Hotels Corp. in May
(Meetings Today, June 3), the new entity—Aramark Harrison Lodging—has teamed with PlanSoft Corp. to create a new Web site. The site includes property and meeting space details and the ability to submit electronic requests for proposals. Aramark Harrison's properties also have been added to PlanSoft's mpoint.com searchable listing of meeting properties and facilities.
AMI To Resell Certain Reg. Services
Attendee Management Inc., a service created this past summer by industry veterans Jeff Rasco and Rod Abraham to sell existing attendee management technology to small corporations and organizations, last month announced a deal with Certain Software to resell its Register123 attendee registration services. AMI previously struck a similar deal to offer StarCite's RegWeb technology
(Meetings Today, Aug. 12). AMI buys transactions in bulk from its partners and resells them, allowing smaller corporations and organizations to avoid set-up fees and transaction costs.
Newmarket Takes Passkey To Europe
Hotel and group yield management technology provider Newmarket International last month announced an exclusive agreement to resell group housing technology provider Passkey's Enterprise Solution in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The two companies have a standing relationship and technology integration alliance. Once a given meeting is proclaimed "definite" in properties supporting both Newmarket's Delphi yield management solution and Passkey's group housing solution, Passkey assumes blocked inventory management from Delphi and updates the system as booking activity occurs. "There are significant synergies between our firms," said Passkey vice president of alliances Tom Walker, "and Newmarket has the infrastructure, network of hotel clients and technology sales track record to achieve tremendous success representing Passkey in EMEA."