A new tool developed by UrVenue and Club Med will be unveiled this week at HITEC, held now through June 27 at the Charlotte (N.C.) Convention Center. The innovative Group Itinerary Builder provides a centralized way for hoteliers to build itineraries for groups while providing travelers with a clear view of their itinerary the entire time.
“Demand for group events is on the rise, and along with that comes a desire among travelers for unique experiences, such as tennis, sailing, kayaking, waterskiing, snorkeling, and even flying trapeze,” said Tracee Nalewak, UrVenue Chief Growth Officer. “Based on our long-standing relationship with Club Med — pioneer of the all-inclusive concept — we collaborated on a tool that will empower group attendees to explore property activities and review their event schedules in one interactive guest portal complete with itinerary management capabilities. We cannot wait to showcase this joint technology at HITEC.”
UrVenue pioneered the hospitality industry’s first Property Experience Management System (PXMS) in 2022 to enable commerce, operations, data insights and knowledge management for resort and entertainment experiences and bridges the fractured booking journey with its unified booking capabilities. Called UV Enterprise, the PXMS was built for nightclubs, dayclubs, restaurants, lounges, pools, resort beaches, sportsbooks, special events/shows, recreation, and more. Club Med was one of the first UV Enterprise users, and together they have a successful track record of advancing the all-inclusive market. In fact, Club Med and UrVenue were a Skift Idea Awards Finalist in 2022 for their joint technology submission.
The Group Itinerary Builder launched in April 2024 at Club Med Cancún. More than 800 group attendees engaged with the solution, and feedback from users showed the tool exceeded expectations with comments such as “very user-friendly,” “it works perfectly,” “loved having all this information in the palm of my hand,” and “I’ve saved so much time with this new automation” confirming implementation success.
Joint Technology Objectives
The Group Itinerary Builder was designed as an efficient, centralized system for tracking guest itineraries. It gives group travelers more control over their experiences while empowering hotels with the tools they need to fulfill rising group expectations. The tool can be adjusted by hoteliers on the fly while allowing group members to track all of their planned group activities through a Guest Portal. This centralized system gives hoteliers an easy way to provide the best possible guest experience while giving travelers the widest possible control over their stay experience.
Additionally, the Group Itinerary Builder . . .
- Enhances the Guest Experience: Develop a digital itinerary builder/manager for group attendees to explore and manage resort experiences alongside pre-scheduled events combining work and leisure activities in one unified itinerary. Provide groups with self-serve information, and operators with the ability to service itineraries on behalf-of-the-guest.
- Provides Scalability: Create a new, globally scalable module within UrVenue’s PXMS (property experience management system) that displays group event schedules and activities in one unified itinerary. (PXMS introduced in Skift IDEA Award Submission 2021 – Resort World/UrVenue – Finalist)
- Advances Group Communication: Pre-Arrival: Generate an email invite for group attendees to access their personalized guest portal, showcasing their group itinerary and information regarding hotel activities during their leisure time. In-Stay: Enable real-time messaging by integrating live updates into the itinerary for group attendees.
- Optimizes Operational Efficiency: Automate manual processes within Club Med’s Meetings & Event sales team and other interfacing resort departments. Additionally, provide coordination tools through the itinerary builder and manager for staff to assist group attendees.
- Drives Incremental Revenue: Increase revenue through activities and extended stays (bleisure) by showcasing all hotel activities and excursions to group attendees.
“Club Med has a long history of hospitality innovation, as the successful co-development and launch of this technology attests,” said Vikki Knudsen, Senior Director Sales Strategy – Meetings & Events, Club Med. “Group attendees are not as proactively managed by hotels as leisure/transient guests, despite being a significant part of the hotel’s customer base. They often have to research the hotel themselves because someone else booked it on their behalf. They also are typically not included in pre-arrival communications that share property information, booking links, or a hotel app link. Until now, itinerary-building opportunities, especially those considering event schedules and other activities, simply did not exist.
“Now that the Group Itinerary Builder has been successfully implemented and tested at Club Med Cancún, we can begin rolling it out to additional properties in our portfolio,” she said. “We are incredibly excited to start focusing on revenue generation by incorporating third-party excursion bookings and exploring ways to drive incremental room nights with group guests. What we’ve accomplished here at Club Med with our entire meeting and events industry is very exciting. We are on the cusp of a paradigm shift in group attendee management, which will lead to more satisfied customers and significant financial gains for the hotel group segment.”
