Launched in early 2021, GroupSync Engage is a platform that lets hotels present some or all of their meeting-space and guest-room inventory online, allowing event planners to see availability over specific dates and purchase rooms and space directly.
In March, IHG was the first major hotel chain to implement this tool into some of its properties’ reservation systems, with the goal that 500 of its more than 5,000 properties worldwide would offer GroupsSync Engage by year’s end. Then in late May, Omni Hotels & Resorts rolled out the platform at five of its 50 properties and said that the remainder of its portfolio will have the booking engine by September.
Now, Hilton joins that group but to a much larger degree, rolling out GroupSync Engage across 5,000 properties within its family of brands by the end of June. Further, all 6,500 properties under the Hilton umbrella will offer GroupSync Engage by the start of 2022.
According to Kemp Gallineau, CEO of Groups360, the platform is focused primarily on events requiring 50 or fewer guest rooms. But in a press release, Hilton noted that “by giving organizers a view into real-time availability and group room rates, GroupSync streamlines the experience for approximately two-thirds of the RFPs seeking basic information for event planning.”
Besides IHG and Hilton, the other chains that contributed to a $50-million investment in GroupSync Engage in 2019 were Accor and Marriott International. At the moment, there is no word as to when those two chains might roll out the platform for at least some of their properties, but a spokesperson for Groups360 said that “there will be additional news coming soon.”
