“The prices online are usually the best available because venues want to show their best prices against their competitors”


all meeting reservations data in one place for the employer. Another contemporary-looking booking


tool is MeetingPackage, which is based in Finland. It claims to offer 250,000 rooms and conference venues in 125 countries, and no booking fees. One reason, presumably, Airbnb has not yet ventured into meetings is that most venue space cannot be booked in real-time. MeetingPackage is one of the first companies to change that, says founder and chief executive Joonas Ahola. Mainly through integration with Oracle Opera, a property management system used by many hotels, 51 per cent of MeetingPackage’s con- tracted inventory can be booked instantly. But what of good, old-fashioned negotia-


tion by buyers with venues to obtain the best possible rate? Ahola says corporate clients can load their negotiated rates into Meet- ingPackage, but adds: “Is it worth the time you spend? The prices online are usually the best available because venues want to show their best prices against their competitors.” MeetingPackage is essentially shifting meetings to a dynamic pricing model and away from requests for proposal; the direction in which transient business travel hotel booking is also moving. Meeting venues prefer dynamic pricing too, according to


Ahola, because RFPs are a hugely inefficient process. “Fewer than 10 per cent of the RFPs they respond to are successful,” he says.


B2C INFLUENCE But start-up entrepreneur, Nour Mouakke, chief executive of Wizme, takes the oppo- site view. He says corporate clients receive a better deal if they negotiate directly. “Would you rather book instantly at the rates they are offering or get optimum deals?” he asks. Mouakke believes RFPs need mod- ernising, not ditching. “We are taking the old-fashioned RFP system and revitalising it by bringing the best of the B2C world into the B2B world,” he says. Like MeetingPackage and Gaest, that


means having a slick user interface and diverse offerings (40 per cent of Wizme’s venues are not hotels). Wizme also attempts to overcome RFP inefficiency by reducing


the number of unqualified leads. A meeting planner can configure a pricing request to allow only three venues to submit pro- posals. The principle is first come, first served, but planners can decline a proposal, allowing space for another venue to bid. Planners can request proposals in one


of two ways. They can either quote their own price, and ask if any venue will meet it, or they can stage a reverse auction. “You ask, ‘What price will you quote me?’ for a fixed period,” Mouakke says. There is little arguing that, as in the rest


of travel, digital start-ups are creating more choice. In the short term that means extra work for the buyer because choosing the right platform is less of a simple commodity negotiation. Each platform offers something different. But research will pay off. What- ever you want, the right option is there for you.


How meeting booking disruptors are making


buyers think again • Not all meetings have to be in hotels • Offer your company’s own meeting space to others • Book and pay for space in real-time • Shake up the RFP model – or discard it completely • Let bookers choose anywhere they like beneath a rate cap


BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM BBT July/August 2018 91


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