KIMPTON HOTEL EVENTI

Demonstrating hospitality expertise with Cvent One

$2M

Awarded business each year via CSN

6000+

Floor plan views per year

11%

Conversion rate

INTRODUCTION

In New York City’s fiercely competitive group meetings market, standing out with corporate planners takes more than a great address and beautiful spaces. Hotels need to be discoverable where planners search first, quick and strategic with every RFP, and able to prove value to increasingly data‑driven buyers.

Kimpton Hotel Eventi, a 292‑room lifestyle luxury hotel in Midtown Manhattan, operates in exactly that environment. With 30,000 square feet of flexible indoor and outdoor event space and a guest mix that is “mainly corporate” – particularly financial services, healthcare, tech, and entertainment groups – the property relies on a steady stream of qualified group business to fuel revenue.

Director of Sales and Marketing Carol Ajikata leads the hotel’s commercial strategy, overseeing transient, group, and catering sales in close partnership with operations. Her team turned to Cvent One to centralize their group and meetings technology. The result is a prime example of how to use Cvent’s tools to transform a property into one of New York’s most data‑driven, planner‑friendly hotels.

Most of our group leads really come through the Cvent channel. Everything that we’re doing in partnership with Cvent shows that it works.

Carol Ajikata
Director of Sales and Marketing

CHALLENGE

Competing in a dense corporate meetings market

Kimpton Eventi’s corporate‑heavy mix means the hotel must continuously win high‑value programs in a city where planners have endless options. The property targets 50–60 room groups that layer well with other segments – a sweet spot that requires precise targeting and high conversion on the right RFPs rather than chasing every opportunity.

CSN listing and screen capture of roof top event space

At the same time, New York’s volume and pace can overwhelm sales teams. In 2025, the hotel received more than 1,500 RFPs, totaling $78 million in RFP value, through the Cvent Supplier Network. That volume is an incredible opportunity, but only if the team can prioritize the right business and respond quickly.

Before consolidating their group business tools through Cvent One, Kimpton Eventi used several Cvent products individually but still had to juggle multiple workflows. Carol’s goal was to centralize RFP management while maintaining an extremely high response rate and rapid time-to-market. To meet the needs of modern planners, the sales team also needed to improve bid quality and personalization at scale. This will keep the sales funnel full of new planners, not just repeat relationships. Exposure and new relationships are core to the hotel’s strategy. In a mature market like New York City, relying solely on repeat clients is risky. Carol is intentional about using Cvent tools to expand beyond existing contacts. The team needed a scalable way to discover and nurture those planners while still delivering highly personalized experiences.

Unique planners are important because it really just builds our funnel. You’d be doing yourself a disservice if you don’t look for new clients.

Carol Ajikata
Director of Sales and Marketing

Like most urban hotels, Kimpton Eventi’s revenue is anchored in transient business. As corporate travel programs become more data‑driven and complex, hotels must understand competitor rate positioning and buyer expectations. To improve their processes and win rates on business transient contracts, Carol wanted better insight into how competitors were pricing and packaging these offers, how often companies were negotiating, and where the hotel needed to adjust rates or values to win profitable transient accounts.

SOLUTION

Cvent One as the integrated growth engine

Carol’s strategy is to “invest in all the products Cvent has” that help her team attract, convert, and improve group and transient business. With Cvent One, Kimpton Eventi consolidated key capabilities into one ecosystem:

1. Cvent Supplier Network Advertising: Diamonds, Diamond Plus, and Suggested Ads

To maximize visibility on the CSN, the hotel uses a multi‑layered advertising mix:

  • Diamonds and Diamond Plus to secure persistent premium placement and rich content.
  • Suggested Ads to capture “almost missed” opportunities when planners compare venues or receive turn‑down emails.

This holistic ad strategy generated 1,500+ RFPs to the hotel via CSN in 2025, driving double-digit growth across key KPIs. During the same year, RFPs received from Suggested Ads increased by 16%, and those from Diamond Plus ads increased by 137%. 

The way we use the different ad types depends on where it’s at in the marketing funnel…We also do it based on seasonality and need periods.

Carol Ajikata
Director of Sales and Marketing

2. Smart Custom Proposals: Personalized at Scale

With 97% of RFP responses being created as Smart Custom Proposals, Kimpton Eventi has fully embedded visual-first proposals into its sales process.

Key benefits include:

  • Branded, visually rich proposals that differentiate the property.
  • Templates tailored by segment (financial services vs. tech) to support the hotel’s highly personalized approach.
  • Faster assembly of complex responses, contributing to sub‑7‑hour average response times.

97% of our RFPs go out through Smart Proposals. It boosts engagement, creates visual appeal, and helps us stand out in crowded inboxes. We do see measurable returns as a result.

Carol Ajikata
Director of Sales and Marketing

3. RFP Showcase: Expanding possibilities for winning business

Kimpton Eventi’s sales team relies heavily on RFP Showcase to uncover incremental, high‑value opportunities. Planners submit their RFPs through RFP Showcase so any qualified hotel can bid on them. This provides the organizer with additional options quickly and creates new opportunities for hotels to bid on RFPs they were not originally sourced on. 

In 2025, Carol and her team bid on more than 150 RFPs in RFP Showcase, 75% of which were from planners who were new contacts for the hotel. This provides them with opportunities to fill gaps in their booking calendar and to build relationships with additional event professionals for future event needs.

We bid on a lot of RFP Showcase opportunities, and we use that for short‑term business over need periods. Sometimes, even one RFP will make your month or your quarter.

Carol Ajikata
Director of Sales and Marketing

4. Planner Navigator: Prospecting for High‑Fit Planners

Planner Navigator is Kimpton Eventi’s go‑to prospecting tool. Using robust filtering by geography, seasonality, and group size the team can:

  • Identify planners sourcing properties similar to theirs or competitor hotels.
  • Build lists aligned with need dates and ideal group profiles.
  • Combine “planner you know” and “planner to meet” insights to grow relationships over time.

With precise targeting and personalized outreach, Kimpton Eventi has seen a 34% increase in new organizations sourcing the hotel in the past year. 

Planner Navigator is a great prospecting tool. We are constantly looking for that unique planner who will become a regular client. We have been very successful in using Planner Navigator in getting new business. Just focusing and narrowing down what your needs are and being able to customize your offering helps with conversion.

Carol Ajikata
Director of Sales and Marketing

5. Cvent Event Diagramming and Photo‑Realistic 3D: Visual communication for planning

With 30,000 square feet of unique indoor and outdoor space, visualization is critical for a luxury hotel. The hotel uses the full Cvent Event Diagramming suite to collaborate across sales, banquets, AV, and planners and design to‑scale floor plans for complex programs. This technology enables them to offer immersive 3D walkthroughs to remote or international clients.

In 2025, the team created 145 events and 250+ diagrams within the platform, keeping planners, operations, and sales aligned with each meeting’s layout.

Interactive floor plans and the ability to experience the hotel’s meeting spaces in 3D are popular options for event planners who are sourcing locations in an area with so many venues to choose from. Their floor plans are viewed nearly 5,000 times each year, and more than 1,000 users explored their 3D spaces in 2025. Carol sees 3D as both a sales differentiator and an operational safeguard.

Photo-Realistic 3D has been a huge help. It allows planners to see the flow and even feel the mood, and it really reduces errors on the day of the event. It’s a great selling tool, and both the hotel and planners love it. It does help us close the business, especially when people cannot go to the hotel for actual in‑person site visits.

Carol Ajikata
Director of Sales and Marketing

6. Business Transient Tools: Optimizing corporate travel contracts

Kimpton Eventi uses Cvent’s transient RFP and intelligence capabilities. Carol’s team now leverages BT data to:

  • Understand competitor rate and amenity positioning.
  • See how often companies are negotiating with the hotel.
  • Adjust business transient quotes with more confidence.

With this tool, we are able to check on certain data points in order to help us make an informed decision on how to quote for BT business.

Carol Ajikata
Director of Sales and Marketing

RESULTS

Stronger funnel, faster conversion, and measurable revenue

Kimpton Eventi uses CSN Advertising, RFP Showcase, and Planner Navigator to continuously expand its reach. “Having unique planners all the time just ensures that our funnel is strong,” Carol commented. Additional visibility and the opportunity to identify and connect with new planners sourcing qualified business are essential for a high-volume hotel. Because of these efforts, 76% of RFPs come from new planners, which “is great exposure for the hotel” and keeps the pipeline strong.

By combining centralized sourcing with Smart Custom Proposals and Event Diagramming, Kimpton Eventi sustains elite responsiveness:

  • 99.7% response rate
  • Average response time of 6.5 hours
  • 40% bid rate
  • 11% conversion

Carol and her team track these KPIs obsessively, using Cvent Business Intelligence dashboards to compare performance year‑over‑year and against the market. The team bids on more than 150 RFPs through RFP Showcase. These are additional opportunities to build relationships and win business, even when they weren’t sourced on the original RFP. By diversifying their advertising and increasing their exposure with Suggested and Diamond Plus ads, the hotel receives an additional 300 RFPs each year. In 2025, 36% of those RFPs were from planners who had not previously sourced the property. When submitting proposals, the team defaults to visual and engaging content by using Smart Custom Proposals. They can easily include diagrams, images, menus, photos, and more in these memorable proposals.

We win over $2 million in business through Cvent, and it contributes greatly to our top line as well as our bottom line. Group business is a great base, and we build upon that in order to yield and get better RevPAR.

Carol Ajikata
Director of Sales and Marketing

Enabling event planners to make informed decisions remotely is a priority when turnaround times are tight, and competition in New York is elevated. Cvent Event Diagramming, Interactive Floor Plans, and Photo‑Realistic 3D tours support decision-making and improve communication between the hotel and event organizers. But they aren’t just sales tools. They improve the day of execution through cross-functional collaboration between sales, banquets, and AV. To-scale diagrams ensure every stakeholder works from the same approved diagrams. Real‑time collaboration with planners reduces surprises, last‑minute changes, and errors on event day.

The collaboration between sales, banquets, and AV is critical. Everyone uses the tool to ensure that we’re on the same page and that the event is successful for the client.

Carol Ajikata
Director of Sales and Marketing

With Cvent One, Carol has the data she needs to communicate confidently with ownership. She uses Cvent insights to review and track lead volume and conversion, pipeline health, speed-to-market, and year-over-year performance at both the property and market levels.

We make changes all the time based on data points provided, to ensure that we remain competitive and exceed the market. I don’t consider Cvent a vendor. I consider Cvent a partner. We’ve been very fortunate to be working with partners who are an extension of our team.

Carol Ajikata
Director of Sales and Marketing

BEST PRACTICES

Takeaways for other urban, corporate‑heavy hotels

Kimpton Hotel Eventi’s experience offers a roadmap for properties looking to grow profitable group and transient business in competitive markets:

A pixelated image of a computer monitor with a light bulb inside on a black background.
  • Centralize your tech stack. Cvent One enabled Kimpton Eventi to combine sourcing, advertising, proposals, diagramming, immersive tours, prospecting, and transient tools into a single, data-rich ecosystem—reducing friction and improving decision-making.
A blue and black square with a letter B in the middle of it on a black background.
  • Invest in visibility and relevance, not just volume. By layering Diamonds, Diamond Plus, and Suggested Ads with RFP Showcase, the sales team focuses on high‑fit groups and need periods rather than chasing every RFP.
Blue and purple speech bubbles on a black background representing a conversation or chat.
  • Use Smart Custom Proposals to differentiate. Visual, personalized, branded proposals helped Kimpton Eventi stand out among a sea of responses and turn speed into a true competitive advantage.
Two blue and purple cogs are placed on a black background, creating a visually appealing design.
  • Make visualization part of your sales story. Event Diagramming and Photo-Realistic 3D help international and time-constrained planners “see the flow” without an on-site visit, accelerating decision-making and reducing operational risk.
A blue square with a white line and blue arrow pointing upwards on a black background.
  • Treat data and training as continuous disciplines. Carol’s commitment to regular training and frequent KPI reviews ensures her team continues to extract more value from Cvent’s tools over time.
Products used:
hotel logo and lounge area

MEETING SPACE

30,000 sq. ft.

GUEST ROOMS

292

LOCATION

New York City, NY

CHALLENGE

  • Kimpton Eventi needed to stand out in a highly competitive New York market while targeting the right-fit corporate groups, especially in its ideal size range.
  • The team had to manage a high volume of RFPs while maintaining fast response times, strong personalization, and consistent follow-through.
  • They also wanted to keep the funnel fresh with new planners and organizations while gaining better insight into business transient pricing and competition.

SOLUTIONS

  • The hotel used Cvent ONE to bring together CSN Advertising, RFP Showcase, Smart Custom Proposals, Planner Navigator, Event Diagramming, and Photo-Realistic 3D tours.
  • Advertising and RFP Showcase helped the hotel increase visibility, capture incremental demand, and target need periods more strategically.
  • Smart Custom Proposals, Planner Navigator, and Cvent Event Diagramming helped the team personalize outreach, prospect smarter, and visually sell the space more effectively.

RESULTS

  • Kimpton Eventi built a stronger funnel with high exposure to new planners and organizations, helping keep demand fresh and diversified.
  • The hotel maintained elite responsiveness with a 99.7% response rate, a 97.1% in-time response rate, and an average response time of 6.5h.
  • The property wins over $2 million in business through Cvent each year, with Cvent contributing meaningfully to both top-line and bottom-line performance.
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