Streamlining room block management with Cvent Passkey

Managing large events involves many time-consuming tasks, from finding the right venues to managing the on-site attendee experience. Often, event organizers and hotels spend countless hours on manual processes like managing room blocks, where technology can step in to save both sides time and money while enhancing collaboration. The American Council of Engineering Companies of Arizona and the Westin Riverwalk have both adopted technology that enables them to improve the planning process.

BACKGROUND & GOALS

Tackling manual housing complexities 

The American Council of Engineering Companies of Arizona (ACEC Arizona) hosts multiple small- to mid-size professional trade and government meetings and a large annual conference with about 2,000 attendees. The Westin Riverwalk is in a perfect location in San Antonio, with 474 guest rooms and 20,000 square feet of meeting space. This enables it to host hundreds of events annually and frequently house guests attending events at the nearby convention center.

The ACEC AZ conferences are well attended, with engineers traveling from all over the state to participate. “In Tucson, Arizona, I’m dealing with smaller hotels and I have about 300,000 room nights to figure out across four or five different venues,” says Amerigo. “It’s a rooming list nightmare because each of those hotels has its own rooming list and its own format.” As with many conferences, ACEC aims to protect certain room blocks for specific registration types, such as VIPs, exhibitors, or general attendees. Amerigo collects this information and much more through the registration process and passes that along to her partner hotels. “We get a lot of information and don’t often know how to deal with it or what would best serve the hotels.”

The Westin Riverwalk is just one of many hotels that could participate in the room blocks for a large conference such as those ACEC plans. The hotel receives over 1,200 RFPs through the Cvent Supplier Network each year, 53% for events with more than 100 attendees. Brittany and her team are responsible for tracking all their registrations and reporting to event planners. As part of the process, they want each reservation to be as profitable for the hotel and as smooth for guests as possible. “I don’t have a conference without my hotel partner,” states Amerigo. “I need to be able to rely on them in the same way they rely on us."

This creates a seamless attendee experience from the first touchpoint. With custom booking sites, Passkey offers guests a simple, branded experience for self-managing bookings and shoulder night requests. Amerigo explains, “They don’t have to go to another site or call a hotel, and they have all the information they need.” Dashboards provide consistent communication between the hotel and planner around pickup rates, room availability, and any specific requests. Amerigo can also track pickup and attrition in real time, giving her the ability to make more informed decisions and take proactive measures.

For guests making a reservation at the Westin Riverwalk, Passkey’s technology offers additional options and amenities to improve the quality of their stay. “We’re more of a destination city,” says Brittany. “People want to come and experience the Riverwalk outside of the conference hours, go out to eat, and have a good time.” She adds that optimizing their use of Passkey is key. “In Passkey, we put as many pictures as possible to let the attendees know what they will see, building anticipation and excitement."

Expanding communication between planners and properties

Having one consolidated source of truth for complex housing blocks improves visibility and coordination for both the event professional and the hotel. Each can monitor reservations, track pickup, accommodate special requests and changes, and ensure correct billing and attribution. Passkey offers a planner portal so Amerigo can check each room block and reservation independently and as needed. “It’s a constant communication,” said Brittany. “Passkey keeps the event flowing all the way up through the event date.”

She adds that ensuring venues maintain consistent communication is an important factor in building strong relationships with planners. “We could be working a year in advance, but we know each other so well that by the time the day comes, it’s all a breeze!” she shares. “The planner can just check their portal and see what their pickup’s at or who hasn’t registered.” Building that collaborative relationship is vital, Brittany says. She adds, “I’m there to support them, but they have the empowerment to do everything on their own."

For her large events using multiple hotels, ensuring each attendee books the correct location used to be a spreadsheet nightmare. With Passkey, she can establish rules for booking, rates, and duration from the start instead of trying to fix mistakes after they are made. She shares, “Whether I’ve got 3,000 or 100 room nights, I always set it up in Passkey."

Protecting guest data with secure Cvent solutions

When attendees register for an event and select a hotel room, they entrust the event organizers with highly personal data. Amerigo and other planners know they must protect that information. “We have a lot of data, and it’s sensitive data,” she notes. Security is another important reason Amerigo trusts Passkey as her preferred room block technology. “In Passkey, that room is secured,” she explains. “The charge processing goes through Passkey, and it’s housed there.”

Brittany and her team rely on Passkey for the same data security. “Being able to restrict access really does create confidence for the customer,” she says. “Everything is encrypted.” The Westin Riverwalk processes more than 24,000 reservations through Cvent Passkey annually and are able to assure guests that their personal and credit card information is secure.

With the basics easily handled, Brittany and her team at the Westin Riverwalk can focus on improving the guest experience. “We’ve implemented primary inventory, giving attendees the option to stay in a better room with a great view,” she explains. “That extra revenue only helps the planners and has given us more options for property improvements. We get to pass on all the benefits to the guests and create better guest experiences that lead to repeat clients.” These upsell and extended stay options bring in more than $700,000 in additional revenue for the hotel annually.

In addition, the time saved for both parties translates to an upgraded event and local San Antonio experience. “All of those integrations are a pretty sweet thing,” Amerigo shares. “For me, it’s priceless – it saves hours and hours of manual work.” The same is true for the host hotel. “Passkey takes a lot of time off of our team, which is the biggest money saver at the end of the day,” Brittany agrees. “We can instead be building more events.” They both look forward to continued use of Passkey to help grow their success.