January 2003

Rita Pierson is so sold on an Internet-based booking engine, she only uses Passkey- enabled convention and visitors bureaus — even if they’re out-of-state from her destination. “So far, I’ve found a bureau that’s been willing to handle my housing in another city,” says Pierson, Manager, Regional Meetings and Travel for the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) in Alexandria, VA. “That allows me to have consistent services for my show.”

Before Quincy, MA-based Passkey enabled more than 50 U.S. cities to process group reservations online, managing housing for her two annual conventions wasn’t really managing. “It was suffering through,” says Pierson. “I was at the mercy of each bureau and their methodology, their timeline, their schedules, their forms of reporting.”

APTA’s annual conference and exhibition draws up to 6,000 attendees and exhibitors booked in four to nine hotels. A Passkey user since 1997, Pierson rattles off the reasons Passkey is her primary CVB selection criterion: 24/7 accessibility, consistent user interface, real-time pick-up reports, online inventory management, closer cut-off dates, flexible cancellation clauses, and automatic data transfer to hotels, among others.

“Being able to track the booking patterns of various groups helps me know what to anticipate in the future or identify trends,” Pierson says. Knowing more members are booking outside the block to get cheaper rates, she books smaller blocks at fewer hotels. 

Despite attrition over the past two years, she’s unable to adjust blocks contracted for five to six years out. Inventory control helps avoid penalties. “What Passkey allows me to do is close off the hotel once they’ve met the minimum requirements,” says Pierson. “On multiple properties, I can shift traffic to a hotel that isn’t picking up as well.”

If a hotel projects a 20 percent wash-rate, which is typical of associations, Pierson produces reports that prove that, historically, APTA’s reservations rise in the last four weeks. “We’ve traditionally had a low wash-rate ratio,” she says. “With Passkey, we’ve been able to make that lower, averaging -4.8 percent across five hotels.”

One way is to require a one-night deposit and impose an immediate cancellation penalty. Passkey enables Pierson to set different policies for exhibitors, professional members and students. “I can help groups of people with their specific needs, yet still protect the association from any potential loss,” she says.

Pierson solicited help with housing for PT 2002, held June 5–8 in Cincinnati, from the Northern Kentucky CVB, across the Ohio River. Attendees and exhibitors booked rooms via phone, fax or Internet; received automatic confirmations; then changed rooms, dates or hotels and added roommates or cancelled reservations online. About 45 percent of members reserved rooms online. Hotels paid the CVB’s per-head reservation fee, which ranges from $12 to $18. 

Although using Passkey doesn’t produce direct cost savings for APTA, time savings for Pierson and improved customer service for members are immeasurable. “Rather than referring them to other people, I can get online, get into their reservation and make a change myself if someone has a problem,” she says. “To me, it’s invaluable.”

Cathy Chatfield-Taylor covers meeting technology as a freelance writer/editor. E-mail cathy@cc-tunlimited.com.