Conference venue search and booking platform HotelGG raised US$20 million in its B Series financing round from incumbent investors - Matrix Partners China, Chengwei Capital and SIG Susquehanna China VC & PE. Its founder Xingman Tang said the platform broke even since June this year and now has over 12,000 monthly transactions turning over RMB300 million per month.
HotelGG founder Xingman Tang
He thinks China’s multi-million dollar MICE market is highly diverse and segmented with completely different user needs, so HotelGG adopts different operational service models to suit clients from different industries and has now divided into three separate tiers of services.
1. SaaS conference booking system for high frequency corporate clients
The SaaS corporate procurement system introduced late last year provides full-process event management to increase efficiency for industry suppliers and buyer groups. Over 80 Fortune 500 companies are using the system, and the booking volume through the system has increased over 15%. The users of the system tend to hold a number of small-scale meetings a year, pharmaceutical companies are typical examples. HotelGG's two-way app with embedded query and pricing modules helps connect high-frequency corporate buyers directly with over 40,000 hotel sales points.
2. The “Uber” of venue finder services for SMEs
SMEs can post their conference specifications on the HotelGG platform to get tenders from hotel sales. HotelGG doesn’t participate in the transaction and does not take a cut, as SMEs typically want a fast economical solution and dislike middleman taking cuts and commissions.
3.VIP corporate client service
A VIP service introduced in the end of 2013 has so far drawn over 6,000 corporate clients. It incorporates a specialized pricing system that hotel sales departments can use to automatically create a detailed price comparison report inclusive of such details as venue highlights and price quotations for buyers to make selection decisions. Exclusive customer service under the VIP service will follow up till the client has confirmed venue.
Ctrip- HotelGG joint product “Mini-meeting with room”
The “Mini-meeting with room” package inclusive of meeting venue and accommodation, jointly developed by HotelGG and Ctrip’s MICE operations team and introduced in July 2015, provides a dynamic real-time room inventory system that enables partner hotels to adjust pricing and time periods for room type or venue according to profit management principles. Corporate clients can use the system to do a quick product and price search and make booking directly. It eliminates the need to go back and forth between the parties in the sales process. (Translation by David)
