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Hilton Shifting Meeting Biz to Online Booking Its e-Events mechanism is getting traction and relieving the pressure from frenetic sales associates. Tuesday, August 12, 2008 Glenn Haussman

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Even as the economy slips, meetings remain an important business driver to hotels. However, hotels frequently lack the resources to have enough personnel to tend to the smallest groups that utilize 25 rooms or less. It’s a problem that sometimes results in sales departments unknowingly missing out on a good chunk of business.

Getting every last group in the door is an essential part to any hotel achieving its meetings sales goal. It’s an issue that got some executives at Hilton Hotels Corporation thinking how they might be able to book these events in a way that both empowered the consumer while also taking the stress away from the sales department.

Now in its second full year, Hilton’s e-Events Small Group Product is gaining traction with consumers planning events such as family reunions, small weddings and business conferences. Essentially, it’s a revved-up booking engine that allows meeting planners to go online and book anywhere from five to 25 guest rooms with real-time, instant confirmation on a booking.  Everything is done online, eliminating the need for RFPs. Contracts are even signed digitally and the whole process can be done in minutes, 24 hours a day.

“We put total control in the customer’s hand,” said Bob Brooks, Hilton’s Vice President of e-Sales. “Before we launched e-Events, the biggest focus group complaint was from customers booking small meetings who felt they were ‘lucky someone has time to deal with me.’ They want immediate decisions and [the sales department] is always pursuing larger pieces of business.”

According to Brooks, an astounding 65 percent of meetings accounted for 25 rooms or less and, while these events didn’t make up the majority of revenue, it made up majority of activity in the sales office. Basically the meetings that brought in the lowest revenue sucked up the most time for associates.

In 1995 Hilton began its new program in earnest, launching the system on a prototype basis in 2006. While it took time to educate the consumer on this new medium, Brooks acknowledged, he said they’re at the tipping point and he sees a paradigm shift taking place. Many customers are beginning to feel comfortable booking online and no longer feel the need to be hand-held through the process. They’re also gaining confidence that all their needs will be taken care of when the event starts.

 “We are in a paradigm shift,” said Brooks. “The perception from the customer was someone won’t be there for me at the hotel. We’ve had to educate customers that for first time ever they have a choice to do it online and they can be in control of the process. Customers also get an instant confirmation e-mail they have booked an event and within 24 hours they get a phone call asking if anything more can be done to service that group. Most events are not booked 9-5, but are booked on a Saturday, Sunday or during the evenings when [the meeting planner is] at home.”

This year Hilton expects to book 20,000 meeting via the e-Events online mechanism and fully expects to triple the number of booked events in 2009. However, that’s still just a sliver of business for the lodging company, accounting for about 3 percent of all meetings booked company-wide. Eventually Brooks sees as much as 20 percent of the meetings business moving through this booking engine.

Additionally, each event gets its own customizable website that allows guests to get event information and of course book their rooms. Meeting planners set up special pages that can be created utilizing personal photos, for example, and can also include items such as directions, area attractions and information regarding all the events taking place during the meeting or get-together.

Meeting planners can utilize the Guest List Manager to see who has booked a room and for how many nights and also get room count summaries. Additionally, each individually booked room can be reserved with a different credit card eliminating the payment responsibility from the planner.

“We have all been taught that it takes personal contact to book a piece in business. That is no longer true. Many consumers see it as intimidating to deal with the hotel sales department, and working on this online forum is actually making many feel more comfortable,” Brooks said.

E-Events is available at all Hilton Hotels Corporation brands such as Hilton, Conrad, Doubletree, Embassy Suites, Hilton Garden Inn , Homewood Suites by Hilton and The Waldorf=Astoria Collection.