ith meetings and events organisers facing ever-shortening lead times , venues are having to think laterally to decrease time-consuming interactions that eat away at clients ’ schedules . This trend has seen the rise of instant book solutions , which allow organisers to save valuable time and book a meeting space online .

Christine Wassell , area director for meetings and events UKIWE , Radisson Hotel Group illuminated how the hotel group has implemented its own ‘ Book it easy ’ system , to allow businesses to book meetings and events online , rather than through traditional customer service .

Conference News spoke to Christine about the ‘ Book it Easy ’ implementation , how it works and what the adoption of the

technology will be in the future .

Setting the scene Radisson Hotel Group is an international hotel group , with more than 1,100 hotels in operation and under development in EMEA & APAC .

In the UK , the group ’ s portfolio incorporates more than 55 hotels spread across 24 key cities , with best-in-class facilities for meetings and events .

Christine said : “ From a UK perspective , our bread and butter has always been the smaller event types , purely because I think of the size of hotels that we have between the different brands within the UK .”

In response to the growing demand for small and simple meetings and the need for a more agile and faster booking process , Radisson Hotel Group have developed “ Book it Easy ”, a digital

Radisson Blu Hotel , Edinburgh City Centre

Radisson Blu Hotel , Manchester Airport

platform which allows clients to book meetings and events instantly online in just a few clients .

“ Clients have been asking for a good couple of years now , for booking meetings online . But what stopped us is that we weren ’ t ready with the technology . That tech capability has been the significant change for us , because if you ’ re going to book online , you want it to be instant . You want to easily see in real-time what meeting spaces are available , pay for it and it ’ s done ,” Christine said .

The tool itself does not just show the availability and pricing of each meeting and events space , but also allows you to customize your meeting package with any additional services or amenities required and to take immersive virtual tours and site inspections .

This streamlined booking process is designed to make venue