Passkey, a hotel booking technology for meetings and events, has rolled out a free housing portal for event organizers that includes a new set of accommodation management tools. PasskeyANYWHERE is a Web-based portal that offers a dedicated housing option for planners of any single-hotel event—held anywhere in the world.
Up until now, planners have had free access to Passkey’s existing cloud-based GroupMAX housing technology when booking events at certain hotels, or through convention and visitor bureaus and travel management companies that have licensed its GroupMAX technology engine. The hotels include IHG, Caesars Entertainment, Fairmont, Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, MGM Resorts, as well hundreds of independently flagged properties.
The technology behind both PasskeyANYWHERE and GroupMAX allows planners to monitor an event’s accommodations, track reservations, make and modify reservations, and send confirmations in real time.
With PasskeyANYWHERE, meeting managers can integrate the same housing functionality GroupMAX offers, whether or not the venue licenses Passkey. It can be integrated into the meeting registration process, and attendees can receive e-mail communications and information about social networks for the event. The new tool also allows meeting planners access to all of their events in a dashboard format.
“With the new portal, we are trying to make life easier for meeting planners by providing them powerful tools and a consistent experience across all their events,” said Greg Pesik, CEO and president of Passkey.
With the PasskeyANYWHERE portal comes an unveiling of a new set of cloud-based tools that include planner hotel reviews, preferred hotel and venue search, and “event certificates.” An event certificate provides a record of each event, which can be valuable for both meeting planners and hotels when they are discussing their future events, added Pesik.
