How Dolce La Hulpe Brussels is using online tools for their Meetings and events sales

MEETINGS & EVENTS

Recognizing the rapidly evolving world, Dolce strategically decided to provide a tool for their guests to book their meetings online. While guests could book their bedrooms online for many years, there was no efficient tool for booking meetings. Therefore, they wanted to be at the forefront of this trend and partnered with MeetingPackage to offer this innovative solution.

Why it matters: One significant advantage of MeetingPackage is the real-time availability feature. Dolce doesn't need to worry if a room can be sold for tomorrow or the next day. The system automatically updates and shows which rooms are available. It's a game-changer for them, as they stated.

This change resolved Dolce's challenges as their conference center has 40 meeting rooms and a commercial sales team to handle them, as their core business is in residential meetings. Therefore, MeetingPackage is a great sales tool for day meetings of less than 30 delegates.

Top 3 Core Objectives: Dolce was looking for a tool for their guests to book their meetings online as their conference center has 40 meeting rooms.

Automate the manual work: Implementing the online booking system has been a major advantage for the team. It has reduced manual work from entering information and handling contracts to getting signatures and managing deposit sheets.
Enable instant booking: Instant booking feature allows reservations up to two months in advance without any maximum restrictions. This means the capacity is blocked for instant bookings if the event date is over two months from today. This availability window is set like it is because their core business primarily focuses on residential meetings. These meetings often require multiple breakout rooms, and they typically have 300 guest rooms available each week.
Online pricing strategy: Dolce offers promotional codes that provide customers with discounts to encourage them to book through the platform. Instead of storing static prices in Delphi, they have implemented a flexible pricing mechanism that allows customers to adjust prices based on seasons, whether daily, weekly, or monthly. This means they can create a price chart for the entire year, allowing customers to compare prices with neighboring properties easily.

Innovators Mentioned

MeetingPackage

Pieter Allaerts

Director of Sales & Marketing at Dolce by Wyndham La Hulpe Brussels

Dolce by Wyndham La Hulpe Brussels

"I believe the most significant benefit for both our customers and employees is the ability to save time and book with confidence."

Pieter Allaerts

Director of Sales & Marketing at Dolce by Wyndham La Hulpe Brussels

👍 Director of Sales & Marketing at Dolce by Wyndham La Hulpe Brussels Pieter Allaerts said that Improving booking services was crucial, and digitizing their processes played a vital role in achieving this goal.:

"I believe the most significant benefit for both our customers and employees is the ability to save time and book with confidence."

⚖️ The selection process: During their research process, Pieter Allaerts evaluated MeetingPackage's product differentiators, customer support, and holistic value as a strategic partner and ultimately decided that MeetingPackage was the best fit solution:

Director of Sales & Marketing at Dolce by Wyndham La Hulpe Brussels Pieter Allaerts said, about their decision: "One major advantage of MeetingPackage is the real-time availability feature."

📈 The results: According to Dolce, this tool is the way forward, as it supports the customers and helps the in-house team. The most significant benefit for both their customers and employees is the ability to save time and book with confidence.

The confirmation rate for instant bookings is close to 80%. The response time on booking requests that are not instant is 21 hours. The European average is 32 hours.
They have provided more flexibility and options for their customers and they are now seeing a steady increase in reservations, and are optimistic that this trend will continue, which is a significant improvement. As they continue to enhance the system with features such as multi-day bookings and group bedroom bookings, Dolce is confident that digitalization is the way forward.
Currently, they stand at 70% efficiency, but they can strive to reach 95% by incorporating the latest tools to enhance the services.