The Modern Hotelier #171: Improving the Process for Hotel Meetings & Events Sales | with Tania Sidokpohou
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Steve Carran: We are coming to you from the HITEC Trade Show. We are at the MeetingPackage booth, joined by Tania Sidokpohou, the partnerships director at MeetingPackage. Thank you for joining us Tania. How are you doing today? 
Tania Sidokpohou: Thank you for having me. Excited. 
Steve Carran: Yeah. So Tania, can you give us a little bit about your background, how you got to meeting package and your hospitality background?
Tania Sidokpohou: Sure. And first of all, thank you for the great pronunciation and I appreciate it. Thank you. So essentially I have a pretty different background. I started in digital marketing a long time ago, country manager for a couple companies in latam in Europe as well. And I had the chance to join APO as their e-commerce manager for, uh, Africa and Indian Ocean.
And that gave me a real passion for hospitality, but hospitality tech. I then joined cloud beds, uh, PMS, uh, company in the partnership department as well. And six months ago I was fascinated by the meeting and event space and, uh, got the opportunity to sync with meeting package. And here I am. 
Steve Carran: It's very cool. So meeting package is building a pretty robust partner ecosystem. Can you explain the difference between your distribution and technology partners and how each role plays a different part in your strategy? 
Tania Sidokpohou: Sure. So we truly see partnerships as essential. We don't aim to actually build the whole infrastructure or the for whole full stack.
What we aim to do is connect the right pieces. For example, for our technology providers, that means that they help us sit comfortably within the existing workflow of a hotel. And for our distribution partners, they own the the planner demand. What we do is we add more venue venues that are truly bookable to the, to the platforms without adding any complexity to it.
So in essence, they bring the demand and we bring ready to book. Uh, and operationally synced supply. 
David M.: Wow, that's great. So one of the things that we're here at HITEC there's all these different vendors. Integration is always one of the key factors. How do you ensure that that process is simple for your partners?
Tania Sidokpohou: Sure. So I think that's the goal for any tech company. It's the challenge. But what we truly aiming to do with that building of that ecosystem is making the process fast and scalable, right? So, uh, the sandbox. Uh, easy document, uh, documentation, uh, dedicated integration team, but also options according to, uh, partners maturity.
So whether that's a full API booking capabilities or a simple RFP automation workflow, we adapt what's. True about meeting package is that we have a 99.9% uptime, uh, 15 minutes, uh, updates on availability. The idea is for us to make it easy for launch, but also for scalability. 
Steve Carran: Great. So a lot of hotels are already using, uh, sales and co catering models like Event Temple Opera and various others. What does the added value hotels see when they integrate meeting package with those sales and catering models? 
Tania Sidokpohou: Oh, definitely. So essentially everything is complimentary. We know that hotels are already using their sales and caterings and PMS systems, and the idea is not to replace it, right? It's to, um, enhance it essentially, even though those hotels are using those, uh, cells and catering systems such as.
Some of our partners triple seats, uh, Evan Tempo and et cetera, or opera, they still need a digital front door. They still need a business pipeline, and that's where we come in, right? We make that process easy so that hotels are visible and, uh, easily distributed across different channels without changing their existing workflows.
David M.: So what kind of new partnerships are you excited about exploring here at HITEC and how can people get involved? 
Tania Sidokpohou: So it's always up to me, everything right. However, um, payments is an amazing vertical that we are starting to explore. Actually, we will be launching meeting package pay in 2026 to streamline, uh, transactions.
Then you also have TMCs, right? And travel tech companies, uh, like GroupWise, with whom we're currently working as well. And finally, regional players, marketplaces, Latin Asia, middle East. Any platform, marketplace platforms that wants to have access instantly to 11,000 venues with one API. 
Steve Carran: Very nice. And you talk about digitizing the meeting and events booking journey. How do your partnerships help unlock the goals across both the supply and demand side? 
Tania Sidokpohou: So from the supply side, um, a hotel essentially gets, uh, centralized RFP inboxes for both bedrooms and meeting rooms. They also get AI automated proposals, and, uh, they finally, they also get instant, uh, booking capabilities, all of their in, in their integrated systems, right on the demand side. If you're a TMC or a partner like C event, it's actually your planner can go from search to confirm under three minutes. 
David M.: Okay? And so when we look at distribution, you've got partnerships with platforms like CNT, venue Directory, event, Inc. How does that help hotels and their venue customers with more win more business?
Tania Sidokpohou: Sure. So we're truly grateful to be able to partner with such industry grades, essentially planners trust platforms like cnt. Um, and what we actually do is we aggregate to the user experience that C event offers. By making sure to streamline availability, bookings rates, cancellations into one system, right?
We also know that hotels are using multiple platforms and those integrations permit. That meeting package adds, um, its live inventory, making it easier for hotel to not have to manage, uh, multiple extra nets. Uh, apologies to reduce errors. And to prevent overbooking. And then when you're a chain, we actually manage all properties under one group, CRS, uh, and this enables consistently routing.
Steve Carran: That's great. So the meeting and event space has been a little slow to digitize. Why is now the right time for collaboration and how is meeting package leading the charge? 
Tania Sidokpohou: So now yesterday, right? Imagine if a corporate travel manager or event planner was able to book a meeting space as easy as they book a bedroom or a flight, right?
That's the idea and that's the, the expectation from a meeting package perspective, we have both sides, right? Um, through RFP automation to instant capability, uh, instant booking capabilities, right? And the syncing of all of those information. So pretty much what we're trying to do is to structure this move, uh, with the help of our partners, to enable our properties, to streamline their processes and make business more relevant, uh, for them.
David M.: Great. Yeah. So take us through a little bit more. What's the value for your partners, and when we talked about CNT Triple C, why do they choose to work with meeting package? 
Tania Sidokpohou: No, definitely. So we're again, very lucky to be able to work with. Partners such as Triple Seat, cnt, uh, muse, uh, opera among others. I can't name drop all of them, but I wanna say thank you.
I have the values that they already have, their existing workflows, we don't wanna disrupt the idea is to enhance efficiency and scalability, right? The advantage for a distribution partner is that they're able to offer different booking capabilities. But they're also able to have access to ready to book supply, right?
From a technology partner perspective, they are able to push their own system, but increase demand and reach easily without a big operational. Lift. 
David M.: Well, thank you for joining us. Let people know how they can get in touch with you and find out more about meeting package?
Tania Sidokpohou: Definitely meetingpackage.com and my personal email taniasidokpohou@meetingpackage.com and looking forward to chatting with you. 
Steve Carran: Thank you.