2 New Room Reservation Systems for Meetings and Events

Expedia has created an online booking engine targeted to the meetings, incentive, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) industry. Planners can use the system to search for and book meeting space and group lodging in real time on a hotel’s website, based on data regarding the number of participants, seating plans, audiovisual equipment, catering, and lodging requirements. Expedia tested the system in Germany and then rolled it out with chain partners and independent hotels in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. On Monday, Expedia began making it available to hotels in the United States. The Best Western Hotels Central Europe reported the automated process allowed them to decrease average response time to RFPs to 14 minutes, versus an average of five hours for a manual response. Hotels can integrate the white-label solution into their websites.

Stay22 is an interactive map of lodging options that planners can embed on their event websites. The system currently offers more than seven million bookable listings in nearly 200 countries around the world, including inventory from Airbnb as the site’s exclusive partner. Additional suppliers include Expedia, Priceline, Booking.com, and more. Planners fill out an online form and the system generates the map for their event showing a minimum of 10 to 15 accommodations. Attendees click on the options in the map to get more details, including the distance and travel time to the event venue, and complete the booking process. Stay22 receives a commission for each booking completed through its widget and splits that revenue with the event host. The system allows planners to track attendee data including their length of stay, property booked, and country of origin. Planners that want to also offer a traditional room block can include the partner hotel in the map, although they do not receive revenue from reservations at those properties.