We chatted with one of our customers Tomas Sabol from The Loft Hotel in Bratislava, about everything related to Meetings & Events sales. How has Covid affected the business, and what changes does The Loft Hotel see in the future.
Can you describe what LOFT Hotel does?
We are a mid-sized boutique hotel in the middle of Bratislava. On top of the obvious accommodation services, we also offer restaurant, Meetings & Events services. And, we even have a small wine shop within the hotel for our customers.
What was the situation before, and what was the problem you were trying to solve?
Initially, we didn't see any problems in our M&E sales, but once we got to know MeetingPackage, we decided to switch from our previous system as MeetingPackage is so easy to use. In the end, it was an easy decision once we saw how to manage Meetings & Events sales with MeetingPackage software.
What is the situation now and how did MeetingPackage help to solve the issue?
It's a main feature for us that our customers can book a meeting room directly from our website. We're not doing that much active marketing, so conversion rate optimization from our website becomes pivotal to turning visitors into customers as efficiently as possible. Clearly, smaller meetings like workshops and board meetings are being booked online, whereas larger events need human engagement from the beginning. But this is only natural from my experience.
What are your expectations for the future?
I read a lot about how M&E business will change after Covid, and clearly, a trend towards hybrid events and easiness of buying services will be one of the biggest topics. We're basically entering a new era after this pandemic. People still prefer to call or email us, but it’s mainly because few know that you can actually buy M&E services online. Of course, this will change as time goes by, but for example, hybrid events are bringing technology closer to customers in general so it will also lower the hurdle to buy meeting room services online. And vice versa of course. The more accustomed users are to tech, the likelihood of booking online increases significantly.