By Lea Mira, HTN Staff Writer - 6.4.2024
Radisson Hotel Group has implemented of new technology that enables meeting and event planners to book the Group’s Meeting and Events (M&E) venues through external Meeting, Incentive, Conference, and Exhibition (MICE) platforms. This development broadens the accessibility of the Group’s offerings and strengthens its position as a leading digital innovator in the hospitality industry.
In a bid to expand its M&E offerings beyond its proprietary RadissonHotels.com website, the Group has extended its long-standing partnership with MeetingPackage, a leading European venue management Software as a Service (SaaS) solution. A seamless integration has been established between EMMA, the Group’s unified technology platform, and MeetingPackage’s booking software. This integration allows Radisson Hotel Group to utilize the software as a channel management solution to connect with third-party vendors. The new offering provides an intuitive and automated channel management solution for external organizers and third-party event vendors, such as Venue Directory, to explore and book the Group’s M&E venues.
The Group has begun implementing this technology across a selection of UK hotels, with plans to extend the roll-out across its Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) portfolio. The initial focus will reportedly be on key target MICE markets, including Sweden, Norway, and the Netherlands.
At this year’s IMEX, Radisson Hotel Group demonstrated its leadership in integrating AI into fully immersive experiences and MICE booking process automation. The Group, in collaboration with HeadBox, unveiled plans to implement HeadBox 3D Studio, a tool that allows users to create immersive guided tours in minutes by combining 3D tours with AI-generated narrator videos. This technology saves event planners significant time and allows for personalization and localization of each tour.
Earlier this year, Radisson launched its Radisson Meetings Unbound value proposition and AI-powered Radisson Meetings Dream Machine. These innovations allow meeting and event planners to tap into AI technology to generate creative ideas beyond conventional meeting and event boundaries.
Radisson Hotel Group continues to lead in digital innovation. Its award-winning and industry-first immersive experiences have played a crucial role in its digital transformation journey. These experiences are now available for over 123 hotels and have proven to be a strong conversion booster for the Group’s meetings and events. The Group’s Book It Easy tool integrates these immersive experiences, allowing meeting planners to easily search for their perfect event venue, explore various meeting rooms and setups, and book directly or send a request for proposal for a specific space.
Announced early last year, the Book It Easy tool was designed to simplify the event planning process by allowing planners to input their event details, check real-time availability of meeting spaces, view rooms through a 360-degree view technology, book their preferred venue, and receive instant confirmation. The tool boasts a range of features, including 24/7 real-time availability of meeting spaces, transparent pricing, custom-made packages, secure online payment, and ground-breaking 360 technology.
Radisson Hotel Group partnered with EY to develop the Book It Easy platform. The tool is fully compatible with the group’s unified technology platform, allowing for real-time availability and transparent pricing based on event requirements throughout the booking process. The tool is built with a microservices architecture, which provides a swift and seamless user experience and scalability while ensuring rigorous privacy and security testing.
By the end of 2023, Radisson Hotel Group was the first international hotel group to fully implement hivr.ai’s technology, which automates the request for proposal process. This technology improves response rates, saves time on manually processing requests, and enables full demand capturing from different channels. Customers benefit from faster response times, instant responses on availability, and immediate rates for requests for different sizes and configurations of hotel rooms, meeting spaces, food and beverage options, and A/V equipment on compatible platforms.
This year, Radisson Hotel Group plans to accelerate the roll-out of new digital enhancements, new booking management tools, rooming list options, advance payments, and group booking opportunities. These initiatives aim to solidify its position as one of the leading international meeting and event providers.
The Radisson brand is one of the fastest growing brands in the industry. In 2023, Radisson added nearly 40 properties to its portfolio through openings and signings. In Switzerland, the Group opened the biggest hotel in Zurich. The Radisson family of brands portfolio includes Radisson Collection, art’otel, Radisson Blu, Radisson, Radisson RED, Radisson Individuals, Park Plaza, Park Inn by Radisson, Country Inn & Suites by Radisson, and prizeotel.