Manhattan’s Row NYC (formerly the Milford Plaza) and the Park Central Hotel now offer group bookings directly on their websites with the Group Booking Engine (GBE) from Groupize Solutions.

　　Manhattan’s Row NYC (formerly the Milford Plaza), now a boutique hotel in the city’s Time’s Square neighborhood and the legendary Park Central Hotel are now able to offer group bookings directly on their website with their newly implemented Group Booking Engine (GBE) from Groupize Solutions. The Row NYC boasts 1331 contemporary guest rooms on 28 floors, flaunting a recent $600 million dollar makeover. Park Central Hotel also unveiled a lavish renovation of their 761 guest rooms and suites last fall.

　　The Groupize GBE enables operators of hotels, resorts and multi-property chains to attract and retain group business by giving planners a fast, easy-to-use, real-time reservation process on their website. An award winning leader in group travel technology, Groupize provides an intuitive, cost effective platform to facilitate online transactions and planner relationship management for groups and meetings

　　Increased Conversions, Lower Costs

　　Small groups of 5-25 rooms are big business, reported to be up to two-thirds of the hotel group market. Between the long, complicated RFP forms, the lack of instant rates and availability information, and the overwhelmed sales staff, hotels are currently converting online group business as low as 1-2%. When group planners are given the resources they need to book efficiently and effectively, not only do costs to manage unqualified leads decrease, lead conversions can increase 10 to 20 times. Direct bookings also reduce dependencies on third-party sites, dramatically lowering distribution costs.

　　Competitive Advantage

　　Business travel and group bookings are on the rise and forecast to increase 7.2% in 2014, according to Global Business Travel Association BTI™ Outlook report. The GBE provides the planner with an efficient, online group booking process that enhances their experience and impression of the property right from the start.

　　GBE offers hoteliers a powerful suite of capabilities such as:

　　• 24/7 direct website reservations

　　• Seamless customization to hotel brand

　　• Real-time group rates and inventory

　　• CRS connectivity

　　• Group type segmentation

　　• Award winning, guest-centric user interface

　　Operational Efficiency for Sales

　　To maximize efficiency and increase close rates, the GBE is integrated with the cloud-based Groupize PRM (Pipeline Response Manager) allows hotel sales managers to centralize and track all group leads and related activities. Features of the PRM include;

　　• Mobile optimized for tablets

　　• Powerful communication engine

　　• Sales automation enabling best practices

　　• Fully integrated, no manual efforts and reduced errors

　　• Customized proposals, contracts

　　• Pipeline dashboard view and flexible reporting

　　• API Integration to Salesforce, S&C systems

　　Group and Meeting planners make booking decisions every day that have a huge impact on a hotel’s bottom line and Groupize is empowering hotel operators with tools that improve service and make online transactions more efficient and enjoyable for planners and staff.