Groupize rolls out new automated hotel-booking features

Groupize introduced event booking pages and Instant Block—two new features to improve housing and management of projects, groups and events in a single platform. The new service targets a void in the current hotel booking process for hospitality spend management and includes recruiting, training, project teams, special events, and more.
 
The two new features are included as part of Groupize Simple Meetings solution. With the enhanced functionality, travel agencies and corporations are able to improve efficiencies for the setup and management of attendees booking their hotel rooms. It closes the gap between a single transient booking and the inefficient “off-line” rooming list exchange process.
 
With event booking pages, planners can customize their own dedicated white labeled event booking page within minutes just by adding branding, images, videos, descriptions, locations, and dates. Planners can curate their properties from one hotel to many, and offer public, transient, or negotiated room block rates, all of which will integrate directly into their agencies’ global distribution systems.
 
With Instant Block, planners can pre-negotiate their blocks and get the hotels to load room block rate codes for groups of any sizes that can be booked in real-time, therefore creating instant room confirmations and live PNR segments within an exclusive booking process, which includes special rates that are only visible to the event attendees.
 
Because all the enhanced capabilities are integrated in the Groupize Meetings platform, a planner has access to his or her own portal for the event to upload a list of attendees and send an invitation to them to book their sleeping rooms. Planners can even capture additional information such as custom questions, add-ons and offer air, including integrating to Concur. The system supports encrypted ghost cards, virtual cards and removing the laborious faxing of credit card authorizations for prepaid hotel rooms.
 
“Groupize has a long history of innovation within the hospitality industry which is a direct result of our singular focus on client needs,” CEO Charles de Gaspe Beaubien said in a statement. “As a result of this commitment, we were led by our forward-thinking clients to develop event pages and Instant Block to address the business needs that are incapable of being satisfied with the existing manual and rooming lists processes.”