Hotels and business meeting planners now have a new online platform that allows them to work cooperatively on arranging short term meetings.
Zentila is a new online booking engine specifically designed for arranging short-term meetings – meetings booked within 90 days of the arrival date. Along with providing pre-qualified venues, Zentila provides the ability to work with the United States' top upscale and luxury meeting hotels, which reportedly capture 85% of the STMs. In addition, a three-hour bid turnaround time is promised for meeting planners upon using the site. Not only does Zentila make it easier for meetings planners to get their jobs done, it drives incremental business to hotels within a time period that has traditionally been difficult to sell against,” said Mike Mason, founder and ZEO of Zentila. “The demand was there, but the hotel’s ability to sell against it was not. And, Zentila offers hotels an advantage they’ve never had before, which is the ability to see who they’re competing against before they make their offer to the planner. That’s an invaluable tool for them to be able to make better sales decisions.”
Secret Offer Provides Pre-Selected Hotels
The Zentila business model includes a “secret offer” program that allows meeting planners to shop for multiple hotels for the best package. To use the service, planners create a meeting request and choose which hotels they will consider. When hotels respond, the business meeting planner only sees the meeting package being offered, not hotel names. They will, however, know that the bids they receive back are only from those hotels they pre-selected.
Free Service for Business Meeting Planners
While the search engine service is free for meeting planners, Zentila’s hotel customers will be provided with various membership levels, as well as a fixed fee for each room booked and actualized. We’re the first technology to focus specifically on this growing channel,” said Mason. “We’re revolutionizing how things are done with a game-changing platform that consolidates searching, sourcing, and purchasing down to as little as three hours, which is unprecedented. Planners can now go from needing a site to having one in less than a day. It’s planning Zen.”
Zentila Created by Hospitality Industry Veteran
Mason reportedly saw a window of sales opportunity for hotels that could be lucrative, but was difficult to sell against. In order to capitalize on the growing trend of short term meetings, he sought to create an easier path between hotels and planners. The result is the first-ever online booking engine for business meetings that also acts as a sales solution for hotels.
Teresa Shaw - Teresa J, Shaw is a professional journalist with more than 12 years of experience. She travels for both business and pleasure several ...
