Hilton Hotels Corp. last month announced the further rollout of its E-Events online small meeting booking service, one year after the tool's soft launch. The system allows groups of up to 25 people to reserve a block of hotel rooms, meeting space, audiovisual equipment and food and beverages in one non-negotiable package.
"It really addresses the ongoing demands and the changing customer buying habits that we've seen," said Bob Brooks, vice president of e-sales strategy and performance for Hilton.
The program, which launched in April 2006, has been used to book more than 1,200 events, 45 percent of which were booked by corporate buyers. It not only shows hotel room and meeting space rates, but also the amount of people that a particular room can hold in several different meeting space layouts and a running cost estimate on the side of the Web pages.
While the initial program is aimed at small meetings and events, the ability to book larger groups online could be coming in the near future.
"We've already gotten a sense from a number of our larger hotels that they would like to increase that limit of 25 rooms to 50 or 100," said Brooks.
Upon ordering, the buyer must submit to non-negotiable terms and conditions, meaning that planners hoping to get deals for multiple events still will have to do it the old-fashioned way.
"There's a segment of the market that clearly is willing to exchange some part of the art of negotiation for being able to do it on their own time, quick and efficient, 24/7," said Brooks. "We're finding that there's not much resistance to our contract, but obviously we're not going to replace the whole sales process."
Prices are set by individual hotels based on prices in the local market. Meeting spaces available for online booking also are controlled by individual hotels.
"The hotel decides what meeting rooms they want to put up for sale through E-Events," according to Brooks. "Typically what they put up are small meeting rooms, meeting rooms that can accommodate 25 people."
If both guest rooms and meeting space are booked, there is a deposit equal to the price of one night of the meeting. While rooms can be booked anywhere from one year to three days in advance, there is a penalty for cancellation.
If the cancellation is within 90 days, the buyer is charged for 40 percent of the total; within 60 days, 50 percent; and within 30 days, 60 percent.
After booking space, the meeting planner can then access the Guest List Manager, which allows the viewing of meeting attendees who already have booked a guest room, and the ability to create a Web page complete with pictures, information and the link to make reservations.
Hilton unveiled the E-Events program in December 2005
(Meetings Today, Jan. 23, 2006). At the time, Hilton executives said the application was developed to capture what the chain viewed as a rapidly growing groups and meetings market, which generates more than $3 billion of the approximately $10 billion Hilton Hotels Corp. earns in revenue each year.
However, Hilton's competitors also have developed tools to enable online meeting bookings. Hyatt Hotels Corp. in 2001 launched the first such booking engine
(BTNonline, Aug. 13, 2001). The chain eventually would partner with Philadelphia-based meetings technology provider StarCite to support the tool.
In November 2005, Hyatt announced it would offer real-time response to requests for proposals through its Web site, something it had previously offered through StarCite, and eliminated a feature that allowed users to search for meeting space. At the time, Hyatt officials justified the move by noting customer feedback indicating that space-searching was less important than instant RFP response and booking speed.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts in April 2005 launched its online booking technology, aimed at small day meetings
(Meetings Today, June 6, 2005).The service, called Meetings in a Moment, allows buyers to book meeting space for up to 25 attendees at Starwood properties in major cities. The tool uses an RFP process and promises a response within 24 hours of the request.
Starwood's tool does not allow meeting buyers to contract group guest room blocks, although executives at the time said that feature might be added in the future. A future tool also may allow buyers to bundle multiple meetings or adopt a customized corporate site with the Starwood search tool loaded with prenegotiated corporate rates, executives then said.