Passkey Launches GroupMAX 2, Industry's First Up-sell Centric Hotel Booking Engine
Waltham, MA (PRWEB) July 10, 2013 -- Groups and events account for about a third of all hotel bookings, or about $100 billion in annual hotel revenue worldwide. For a vast majority of events, rooms and rates are contracted in advance by meeting planners, and reservations are made via phone or Excel spreadsheet, leaving little room for attendees to upgrade their stay, for event organizers to drive more bookings or for hotels to generate up-sell revenue.
This all began to change a few years ago when Passkey, the industry's leading hotel booking technology for groups, introduced its innovative revenue expanding online technology, GroupMAX. Today, Passkey is announcing the launch of its next breakthrough, GroupMAX 2, the industry's first up-sell centric hotel booking engine.
The new booking engine was designed from the ground up for maximum revenue creation. At its core is a highly visual design that engages guests in an interactive online environment rich with creative cues, imagery, promotional tools and other innovative content. These elements work together to drive higher online booking rates, greater guest satisfaction and maximum up-sell revenue. Best of all, the booking engine is easily customized for each event, creating a sense of exclusivity that is reinforced with guest-to-guest social sharing.
Passkey customers who have already begun using the new technology have reacted positively; a UK-based customer recently tweeted, “I'm onto three new events on the new engine now! Even our clients agree it's very 'swanky.' We really like it!”
Passkey clients who have leveraged GroupMAX’s up-selling tools have experienced consistent revenue and RevPAR gains of 4-6 percent. GroupMAX 2 is expected to raise that bar by at least 50 percent, while allowing more hotels and event organizers to enjoy these benefits with its simplified user experience and “shared success” commercial model.
A few highlights of GroupMAX 2 are:
• Dedicated event “showcase” page: This full-image page is the entry point for each event and creates an aura of exclusivity with high impact branding and images that conveys to attendees that the website offers private rates not available on any public booking channel.
• Dedicated up-selling pages: The booking process includes pages dedicated to room upgrades and extended stays, engaging guests in a natural shopping experience while driving maximum up-sell revenue. Up-sell offers can be easily customized and targeted to specific groups or sub-set of groups, which is proven to drive up-sell revenue even further.
• Hotel add-ons: Event organizers and hotels can now generate revenue beyond sleeping rooms, from the sale of add-ons such as Wi-Fi, meal specials, parking, late checkout, a massage at the hotel’s spa or any other hotel offering.
• Promo cubes - Up-selling on every page: GroupMAX 2 includes an all-new feature, Promo Cubes, which allow hotels and event organizers to easily promote hotel services, local attractions and activities or event sponsors to their attendees via highly inviting cubes that can be placed on any page of the booking process.
• Engaging booking process: Attendees can find hotels and rooms using several engaging views, all embellished with helpful information and images, so attendees can easily book the right room for their stay. Social sharing can be embedded to drive even more attendees to the event’s private booking website.
As with the first version, GroupMAX 2 is 100 percent cloud-based and connected to most major hotel reservation, sales and revenue systems, as well as to over 70 event registration systems, allowing for seamless and swift deployment by hotels and event organizers with no need for any special hardware, software or expertise.
About Passkey International, Inc.
Passkey (http://www.passkey.com) is the travel industry's leading hotel booking technology for meetings and events. The Company's cloud-based platform, GroupMAX, is used by thousands of hotels, destinations and meeting planners worldwide to manage the hotel accommodation process for events of every size. At the heart of GroupMAX is the ability for group guests to book their hotel rooms online in event-specific booking websites while enjoying multiple stay and upgrade options. With offices in the U.S., UK, Hong Kong and Singapore, the Passkey global network now includes over 90 percent of major U.S. and UK Convention and Visitors Bureaus, as well as a wide range of hotels, casinos, resorts, meeting planners, corporations and meeting management companies.
Lindsay Faria, Passkey International, 781-373-4131, [email protected]
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