"EventSource.com has introduced unique business practices never before seen in the hotel and travel industry," said Chuck Floyd, senior vice president of sales for Hyatt Corporation. "With their free services and expert knowledge of the industry, EventSource.com will enable hotels to compete for a larger pool of customers that may not have been accessible in the past."
The bidding war held today was the first series of auctions that will be conducted by EventSource.com. To date, the EventSource.com auctions have saved participating corporations 10% - 32% from the opening bids which began anywhere from 25% - 40% lower than current market prices. In less than 20 minutes, winning hotel properties were collectively guaranteed over $200,000 in room night revenues. Corporations sought bids for over 1,200 room nights and meeting facilities from major hotels in the Nashville, Tennessee; Portland, Oregon; and Washington, D.C. areas. Hotels participating in the bidding process include: The Benson Hotel, Crown Plaza, DoubleTree, Embassy Suites, Hilton, Opryland Hotel, Sheraton, Hotel Sofitel, and Westin.
"What typically takes a corporate meeting planner months to research and negotiate, now takes minutes to secure," said Ed Sarraille, President and CEO of EventSource.com. "We believe we have created a win-win situation for both meeting planners and hotels. The bidding war helps planners fill an immediate need and hand delivers to hotels potential business that may not have come to them otherwise. We expect this process to drive the most competitive rates and packages possible. Only market forces will determine the final outcome."
Unlike traditional methods of event and meeting planning that require hours of research, hundreds of telephone calls, and weeks of negotiating, EventSource.com taps its corporate travel experts and database of 10,000 property sites to bring together corporate meeting planners with hotels whose location, facilities and general rate structure meet their specifications. EventSource.com leverages the advantages of Internet technology to facilitate the bidding process whereby hotels compete online to provide the best rates and overall meeting packages based on the planner's RFP. Corporations can specify "low bid" auction or "Planner Discretion" in which the planner reserves the right to evaluate final bids relative to the unique attributes of each property. This eliminates the need to negotiate further about meeting specifics. In a matter of 15 to 20 minutes, a winning bid is secured. The corporation is given 48 hours to sign a contract with the winning property.
Technical requirements:
The EventSource.com bidding war simply requires participants to have Java-enabled access to the Internet.
About EventSource.com
Created in 1995, EventSource.com is the Internet's first online community for meeting planning. Corporate professionals to plan conferences, trainings, tradeshows, and sales and incentive programs use EventSource.com. The site's BookIt! Service is a fast and easy way to locate and secure the perfect site for an event. BookIt! Has managed more than 28,000 event requests to more than 500 cities worldwide and is backed by a team of meeting and event planning experts. EventSource.com was named one of the "Top Ten Travel Sites for 1999" by Business Travel News magazine and one of the most used sites by Successful Meetings magazine. Financing for EventSource.com is led by Sequoia Capital, a top venture capital firm with successful track records in Internet companies such as Yahoo!, eToys and Cisco Systems.