HILTON BOSTON PARK PLAZA

Reflagging success and group sales transformation with Cvent One

31%

Market share

56%

Increase in awarded RFPs

6.3%

Conversion rate

INTRODUCTION

The Hilton Boston Park Plaza is more than a historic landmark in the heart of Boston’s Back Bay—it’s a case study in adaptability and innovation for the modern meetings and events industry. As one of the city’s largest hotels, boasting 1,060 rooms and 70,000 square feet of meeting space, the property has long served a diverse clientele ranging from corporate giants to social gatherings, association meetings, and milestone celebrations. But in a city saturated with major brands and high expectations from event planners, how does a property maintain relevance, build new business, and deliver exceptional results year after year?

Linda Rindos, Director of Sales at Hilton Boston Park Plaza, knows the answer lies in embracing change and leveraging technology. “The hotel opened in 1927. We are the second-largest hotel in Boston. It’s a very special place,” Linda reflects. With nearly a century of experience, the hotel remains a popular and enticing destination, ranking #132 on the 2025 Cvent Top Meeting Hotels in North America list. “Being in the top 250 hotels in North America is just such a great shout out to what our property is and what we bring to the meetings industry in the Northeast and in New England.” 

online listing for Hilton Boston Park Plaza

Hilton Boston Park Plaza’s recent journey is a transformation—rebranding from an independent hotel to a Hilton flag, adapting processes, and harnessing the full power of Cvent’s suite of technology to compete and win in Boston’s bustling group sales market.

CHALLENGES

Rebranding, process pains and a fiercely competitive landscape

The Rebranding Hurdle

In October 2024, Hilton Boston Park Plaza reflagged from an independent hotel to a Hilton property. This transition brought both opportunities and hurdles. As Linda noted, “Reflagging was, in my long career, something I'd never experienced. When Hilton came in, it was drastically different, in a good way. But there were hurdles. Our emails were all different. Our Cvent platform and the way we got at things were different. We had to actually log back into our old system to respond to certain leads, or to update them because it was a totally different platform.” 

pictures of the exterior of a hotel and the ballroom

Market Competition

Boston is a premier meetings destination, but its competitive intensity is daunting. “It’s a first-tier city. Great airlift, desirable, clean, small, and walkable—but it is expensive. What we find ourselves competing with is exactly that: the other large hotels in Boston. We also compete frequently with Washington, DC, Chicago, Philly... so it’s really about staying on top of the RFPs that we get and building good proposals.” The hotel receives nearly 2,000 RFPs each year through the Cvent Supplier Network, and it’s essential to respond to each one with a complete proposal or a relationship-building response to maintain the response time and customer service that planners expect from the property. According to the 2026 Cvent Planner Sourcing Report, 60% of planners currently use RFP tools for all or most of their events, and they expect venues to use similar technology to respond quickly and efficiently. 

 

Manual Processes and Lost Efficiency

Before their digital transformation, the team struggled with manual processes, disparate data sources, and inefficiencies in responding to RFPs, tracking sales activities, and understanding market performance. “We have our own Salesforce, obviously, and we can run reports from that. However, I feel that looking at things on Cvent provides us with the full picture, whereas if we only run current leads from Salesforce, we don’t get the complete picture. We don’t really see everything that we would like to see.” As a sales leader at the hotel, Linda requires easy access to data that supports pricing strategies, group bookings, prospecting, and event planning. 

SOLUTION

Embracing Cvent One for market leadership and a technological advantage

To transform its group sales processes and capitalize on the Hilton rebrand, Hilton Boston Park Plaza invested in Cvent One—combining visibility, automation, and intelligence to drive measurable results.

Cvent One provided a centralized platform for managing RFPs, reporting, and sales activity, streamlining everything from lead capture to proposal submission and follow-up.

“Cvent One and our Four Diamond listing keep us on page one of the search results. We are number one for bids, response rate, and response time compared to our competitive set. We have a Cvent Top Responder badge. We are number one in awarded business compared to our competitive set. We utilize Response Automation to analyze the data, enabling us to strategically bid. We are holding our own in the market due to our Cvent strategy and investments.” 

As a leader, especially, I feel like Cvent is a one-stop shop, and I can click back and forth through screens. I can run reports without having to open another platform. Everything is there. It’s the actual information that clients enter, including their contact details and specifications. And then, of course, it keeps our responses up to date and concise.

Linda Rindos
Director of Sales

CSN Advertising: Enhanced Visibility

A Four Diamond advertising listing on the Cvent Supplier Network provided Hilton Boston Park Plaza with prime placement in search results, enhancing its exposure to a global audience of meeting planners. They use Suggested Ads to expose new planners to the hotel and offer a new possibility for sourcing event professionals. “Suggested Ads are a great secret,” said Linda. “To suggest the Hilton Boston Park Plaza when they’re searching other brands or other cities means we can put our name in the hat. The value of bringing someone new to the hotel is invaluable.” 

Cvent Passkey: Automated Room Block Management

Cvent Passkey automated and simplified group room block management, enabling the hotel to upsell, manage reservations efficiently, and provide planners with self-service tools. “Passkey for us is user-friendly, and it’s a benefit for the customer that they can go in and see how their group is pacing and how they’re picking up. It helps keep the whole process smooth and efficient. Through Passkey, we offer upgrades, extended stays, and other add-ons for sale. Most recently, we’ve topped half a million dollars in incremental revenue.” 

images of room booking software pages

Planner Navigator: Intelligently building new relationships 

The team also leveraged Planner Navigator to identify and pursue new prospects, analyze planner behavior, and benchmark against competitors—a critical advantage in Boston’s dynamic market. It has become a shortcut for Linda’s team to identify groups that are a great fit for the hotel but are not currently included in their sourcing process. “Planner Navigator is a great tool to dig in deep to the clients and what types of meetings they’re looking for, what other cities they’re looking at, and how many meetings they source for.”

Smart Custom Proposals and 3D Diagramming: Visually immersive content

Linda and her team used Cvent’s Smart Custom Proposals and 3D diagramming tools to deliver visually engaging, accurate, and personalized proposals that stand out to planners and help them visualize events in the hotel’s unique, historic spaces. The hotel’s event spaces reflect the history of the property and include panels, columns, and balconies. These features create a unique ambiance, but they can pose a challenge to planners who are unfamiliar with the space's capacity. “In a meeting room like ours, there’s a lot more to see. One of the special things about a building like this is that it does require a little extra finesse. And sometimes people can’t imagine what a setup would look like in our ballroom.” Photo-Realistic 3D tours solve this challenge for the hotel and the event planner. 

diagram of a ballroom with chairs

RESULTS

Measurable growth, efficiency, and customer satisfaction

The impact of these strategic investments and operational changes is clear in the numbers:

  • RFP Volume: Up 12% year-over-year
  • Organizations Sourcing via the Cvent Supplier Network: Up 45%  year over year
  • Response Metrics: Maintained a 99.6% response rate and 67.2% bid rate
  • Awarded RFPs and Room Nights: Awarded room nights increased 50.2%, and awarded RFP value increased 89.8%
  • Passkey Upsell Revenue: Recent total incremental revenue from upgrades and extended stays exceeding $500,000
  • Response Time: Maintained an average response time under 10 hours

One of my favorite things about Cvent, quite frankly, is the ease of response. You can attach the space. You can do everything you need to right there, and it’s easy. It’s one click. Having everything in one place has just streamlined the whole process. It’s a really strong, useful tool.

Linda Rindos
Director of Sales

BEST PRACTICES

Key takeaways for hotels when reflagging or seeking to gain more market share in a busy region

Hilton Boston Park Plaza’s success illustrates the transformative impact of embracing change, investing in technology, and leveraging data-driven sales strategies. By partnering with Cvent and adopting the integrated Cvent One platform, the hotel has not only weathered the challenges of rebranding and a fiercely competitive market but also emerged as a leader in Boston’s meetings and events industry.

A blue gear icon with a blue background and a blue and purple gear with a black background.
  • Invest in integrated sales technology to streamline operations and maximize visibility.
A blue arrow pointing to the right with a black square in the middle on a black background.
  • Prioritize rapid, high-quality RFP responses and empower teams with data.
Blue and purple pixelated stars and ribbon on a black background, possibly for a ranking or award.
  • Utilize digital tools to visually tell your story, differentiate your property, and deliver exceptional experiences for both planners and guests.
Products used:
Hilton Boston Park Plaza logo and image of building exterior

MEETING SPACE

70,000 sq. ft.

GUEST ROOMS

1,060

LOCATION

Boston, MA

CHALLENGES

  • The hotel reflagged from an independent to a Hilton property, resulting in operational disruptions as systems, emails, and Cvent access all changed, requiring staff to toggle between old and new platforms.
  • The team competes not only with other large Boston hotels but also with major first-tier cities like Washington, DC, Chicago, and Philadelphia
  • Leadership lacked a single, comprehensive view of leads, pricing strategy inputs, and market performance.

SOLUTIONS

  • By adopting Cvent One, the hotel consolidated visibility, automation, and intelligence into a single platform.
  • Integrated sales enablement lets leaders manage RFPs, run reports, and review planner-entered details in one place, streamlining lead capture, proposal creation, and follow-up without switching systems.
  • The hotel layered on CSN Advertising (Four Diamond listing + Suggested Ads), Passkey, Planner Navigator, Smart Custom Proposals, and 3D diagramming to boost visibility, automate room block management, target the right planners, and visually bring complex historic spaces to life.

RESULTS

  • Group demand and reach expanded.
  • Performance metrics improved across the funnel.
  • Operational and revenue gains included more than $500,000 in incremental Passkey upsell revenue.
  • Sub-10-hour average response times.
  • Implement easier one-click RFP responses.
  • Sales team freed to focus on high-value selling and prospecting.
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