Booking platform Engine has added a new feature for travelers and remote workers to book workspaces, with more than 40,000 meeting and event spaces across the United States available for booking, the company announced.
The new Engine Spaces offering lets users browse workspace offerings, ranging from small conference rooms to large event spaces, with estimated pricing, photos and descriptions, according to Engine. It includes a built-in inquiry form that sends requests directly to hotels.
Engine said it developed the tool in response to a growing need for business travelers to find appropriate meeting and workspaces in destination cities as well as workers looking for space as their employers reduce office sizes.
"Today, too many teams are stuck hunting for places to meet or settling for coffee shops and lobbies," Engine founder and CEO Elia Wallen said in a statement. "By bringing professional meeting spaces into our platform, we're making it easier for workers to plan travel and collaboration in one place."
For hotels, Engine said the tool will help them fill meeting space, which the company's internal research showed are often go unused for more than half the time they are available. Requests from Engine Spaces go to a designated inbox for hotels.
Engine announced Choice Hotels International as a "premiere service provider" for Engine Spaces, which an Engine spokesperson said meant that Choice had worked directly with the company to maximize the number of properties available to book on Engine Spaces and provided details and key contacts for each property. The 40,000 spaces available on the tool include some that are optimized by hotel partners and some that are pulled from online sources, the spokesperson said.
The tool will be open to use for anyone, with Engine expecting it will be used for non-business purposes as well, such as birthday parties or baby showers.