One of the meetings industry's holy grails—online booking of meeting space with live inventory listed on a global distribution system—finally seems to be coming within reach for buyers. As some GDS providers enter into agreements with sourcing lead facilitators, the groundwork may be in place for a breakthrough in how corporate buyers find meeting locations.
The roadblock in listing meeting space on GDSs is not technological, consultants said, but rather financial: Hoteliers typically negotiate the amenities and services associated with meeting room bookings, including food and beverage, and often do not see any benefit to allowing a buyer to book such space without that negotiation.
Hotels regularly use the system for transient guest room bookings, though it can be plagued by recurring rate-loading problems. Hotels load negotiated room rates into global distribution systems so that a buyer theoretically can book the rooms at the right price and inventory is adjusted to avoid selling the same room twice.
When it comes to meetings, however, distribution changes. A meeting may need food & beverage, audiovisual services, VIP services and sleeping rooms—or it may require none of those. No vendor as of yet successfully has automated that entire process.
Harrison, N.Y.-based Worktopia Inc. claims it can offer online booking of meeting space in more than 150 cities in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The company on Oct. 18 announced that it had partnered with GDS provider Sabre for a booking engine. The company said it offers access to meeting room reservation systems data of more than 2,000 hotels and meeting centers. The system is on demand, meaning buyers or agents can access the system through a Web site, without installing software.
"With Worktopia, we are enabling our hotel partners to offer live meeting room inventory to over 6,000 North American Sabre-connected agencies," said Sabre vice president for hotel distribution Stephen Fitzgerald in a Worktopia release.
In a statement e-mailed to Meetings Today, Sabre said the inclusion of Worktopia in its desktop tools for agents "addresses a segment of the market that targets more regional, last-minute meetings with relatively few attendees-meetings that can be managed in an automated fashion."
However, Sabre said it offers more comprehensive meetings management capabilities through its GetThere meetings management services. "Sabre sees a significant opportunity associated with more tightly managing and automating the meetings management space," the company said.
John Arenas, CEO of Worktopia, said the free service enables buyers or agents to enter the desired city, date, size and duration of an event and filter search results by type of facility, district or neighborhood and room configuration. Buyers then select the type of services they require, such as coffee breaks or lunch, and the type of amenities they need, such as flip charts, teleconferencing equipment or name badges. The searches can be saved as templates for similar future events.
The system then searches the GDS for appropriate matches, and buyers can compare quotes from the facilities, book the space and services, sign a hotel-loaded contract and pay with a credit card, Arenas said. Buyers can also request accommodations for their attendees, and the system incorporates a regular hotel booking function powered by Sabre's Travelocity booking tool. About 20 percent of meetings booked through the tool also require room nights, Arenas said.
"We're solving a problem for the planner, because they're able to efficiently get live pricing and complete their research all in one place and time, and we're solving an issue for suppliers, which is being able to provide them with short-lead-time meeting space rentals," Arenas said.
Worktopia also is in talks with major hotel chains about loading meeting space into the GDSs, Arenas said. During the next few months, the company aims to further expand and refine the tool.
"This is the first step toward our ultimate vision of being able to provide ways for companies to procure, measure and manage what is normally a distributed decision. They can centralize it and manage it for cost savings," Arenas said.
To some buyers, assertions of new developments in distribution sound familiar.
"I've heard these claims before," said Vickie Smith, senior manager of global travel for Santa Clara, Calif.-based Hyperion Solutions Corp. "They've been trying to do this for quite some time. Some of the other independent meeting sourcing providers are also talking about trying to do the same thing. Having both a travel and a meetings background, I would question some of these claims. I would be concerned over what hotels are showing this space. I can't believe that very many hotels would want to have their space shown and to have this many agents go out and start booking it. How would that then be commissionable? How would you negotiate anything?"
Worktopia said participating properties could choose between an annual marketing subscription and a pay-for-performance commission agreement. Most meeting space rates are static for small events, Arenas said, and the data is consolidated for use in corporate transient negotiations or for leveraging in large events.
Rodman Marymor, CEO of Berkeley, Calif.-based meetings technology consulting firm Cardinal Communications and a principal in Tech3 Partners, said he tested Worktopia with mixed results.
In one case, when he attempted to book a hotel on Worktopia system, he was notified that a salesperson would contact him. "Well, that's just an RFP," he said. "That isn't any different then any of the sourcing tech companies." In another case, a facility told Marymor that space that the system offered actually was used for ad hoc internal events, and wasn't available for bookings.
When space is successfully booked, "I still don't know anything except that I have a room in a building somewhere. I have space and I'm going to go there and there's going to be something to eat," Marymor said. "I guess I could get on the phone and talk to them about it, but that sort of defeats the purpose."
Marymor said the only way facilities could keep inventory up-to-date on the tool would be to make manual changes. "Inventory control is a big thing," he added.
Worktopia is affiliated with Regus, a company that searches office buildings for short-term space, Marymor said.
"Regus is a booking company for space that's using Worktopia as a front end for getting leads," Marymor said.
Philadelphia-based StarCite Inc. said corporate meetings are too complex for global distribution systems at present to properly book.
"For example, a hotel may not allow a meeting room that holds 100 people to be booked when only 10 sleeping rooms are booked. In order for hotels to allow meeting space to be booked through the GDS, significant changes must be made with the GDS process," said Stanley Chin, senior vice president of small groups and meetings and product management. StarCite uses EasyBook, a proprietary online booking mechanism that books small meetings directly with hotels.
Professional-level meeting buyers usually don't book a facility without seeing it first, or without the power of a brand or accreditation behind it, Marymor said. To solve that problem, Metro Meeting Centers of Boston has zeroed in on meetings without overnight accommodations at conference centers accredited by the International Association of Conference Centers.
"Beginning Jan. 1, we're going to have real-time booking of meetings," said David Smith, co-founder and partner of Metro Meeting Centers. "You'll come to the Web site and book a meeting, choose the room and have a real-time transaction."
Each room listed on the tool has a picture available. By year-end there will be four properties on the tool, with plans for more than 20 more. The company is also in talks with the Amadeus global distribution system to load rates, Smith said, and aims to list properties after the first four centers are open.
The tool is similar to online bookings offered by some hotel companies for their meeting space. Since the booking tool is controlled by the facility provider, it can ensure that listings stay up-to-date. There are no charges for attrition. Alternative booking dates are offered before cancellation fees are charged.
Further online booking of meeting space is inevitable, Smith said.
"This is the E-generation, and everybody wants it faster. They want it now," he said. "We're really trying to meet what we perceive as a need to allow people to have rapid transactions without necessarily requiring a face-to-face conversation."