Named by The New York Times as one of the “Top 45 Places to Go” in the world, Chattanooga boasts not only a picturesque location nestled in the valley below three mountains along the Tennessee River, but an event-conducive infrastructure.
The Chattanooga Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB), managers of much of the area’s convention business, has deployed Passkey’s GroupMAX online hotel booking technology in order to attract more conventions to the area, gain a competitive edge and deliver top service levels to convention attendees and meeting planners.
Chattanooga has one of the nation’s top ten green convention centers, with a free electric shuttle connecting the Chattanooga Convention Center to 2,250 hotel rooms downtown with an additional 10,000 rooms within 15 minutes. The city also features a revitalized riverfront, world-class attractions for off-site venues or leisure time and most recently, it has been dubbed the “Gig City” due to its blazing-fast, 1 Gigabit per second fiber optic network.
So, it was natural for the Chattanooga CVB to leverage the industry’s leading hotel booking technology to help promote all the destinations it has to offer while providing optimum room block management to meeting organizers and superb service to event attendees.
“Two of our major objectives are providing a high level of service to attendees and planners, and strengthening the value we bring to the local economy,” said Bob Doak, president and CEO, Chattanooga CVB. “It’s clear that the GroupMAX toolset is going to be essential to our achievement of these goals.”
GroupMAX simplifies the entire event housing process for both meeting planners and attendees. Of great importance is the planners’ ability to gain insight into their event’s progress with live web and mobile dashboards. This technology empowers them to make timely and informed decisions and maximize both their financial return on investment as well as the overall success of their convention.
As for attendees, they are able to book their hotel rooms via a fully customized website and can easily upgrade their reservations or book other services via the website. Not only is this convenient for attendees, but it provides local hotels and businesses significant economic value.
“Chattanooga’s unique infrastructure lends itself to successful events,” said Greg Pesik, president and CEO, Passkey. “On top of improving the CVB’s offering to its current planners, leveraging GroupMAX will attract more group business to the area, significantly impacting the local economy.”
