Marriott Launches Online Meeting and Event Booking

If you’ve ever tried to book a meeting or event at a Marriott hotel, you know that the process can be lengthy and frustrating. It requires lots of back and forth that can take several days before you can finalize your booking — if you’re lucky.

Now, Marriott is partnering with Groups360, an online event management portal to make the booking process seamless and give real-time rates and inventory for hotels in the U.S. and Canada.

Here’s what you need to know!

Out With the Old

Booking a meeting or an event at a hotel has typically been a very lengthy and cumbersome process.

First, you would visit Marriott’s meeting website, find the properties you want, input your criteria for your event, and then send a “request for proposal” (RFP) to those hotels.

Then came the agonizing part. After submitting an RFP, you had to wait for each hotel to get back to you regarding the specifics. This could take several days — or even weeks — as you waited for each hotel to respond to you and begin the contract negotiation period.

In With the New

Marriott has partnered with Groups360 to take the event and meeting booking business fully online. Instead of manually requesting availability and pricing, customers will soon be able to visit the Marriott website to instantly book more than 1,500 hotels in the U.S. and Canada. The new features allow you to:

• See real-time availability
• Book a room block at the best possible rate
• Instantly reserve meeting space
• Put in a deposit or hold your booking online

Hot Tip: To celebrate the launch of the new platform, Marriott is giving away 1 million Bonvoy points if you book your next event at this website. Enter by August 17, 2023, at 11:59 p.m. ET for a chance to win!

“Our industry-leading integration with Groups360 will also allow all Marriott hotels globally to receive and respond to RFPs quickly and efficiently through a two-way response process,” said Drew Pinto, Global Officer, Global Sales, Distribution, and Revenue Management at Marriott International, in a statement. “This will be a win-win for both planners and hotels.”

Final Thoughts

This upgrade with Groups360 will allow meeting planners and event organizers to book meeting spaces much more easily — and gone are the days of sending emails or waiting for replies. Now that everything is at your fingertips, you can secure your event spaces with Marriott as soon as you’re ready to book.