HotelPlanner.com has been simplifying the chore of arranging group travel for over ten years. The site specializes in providing online services to the global group hotel sales market. So if you have been tasked with the chore of putting your group’s trip together, this is a company that is ready to help.

Hotel owners naturally salivate over the prospect of a group booking of conventioneers, visiting athletes, and school trips, and the company has focused on connecting hotels with groups who are planning a trip, and who are interested in the discounts that can be had based on the size of their group.

The company has developed online technology that ensures group clients that they will receive the lowest rates available by allowing you to receive quotes online directly from the hotel group sales managers. This is a unique innovation that brings the hotels closer to these customers, permitting remarkable discount savings not always available by other means.

Any and every type of group may take advantage of their site, including weddings, family reunions, sports teams, business meetings and conferences, religious and church events, conventions, holiday parties, school trips, military events, tours, and birthday parties. They have experience with the specific needs of essentially any type of group.

They also offer their own set of giveaways, on top of what the hotels will offer. HotelPlanner offers up to $1,000 each week in free hotel rooms through their website, and up to $500 in rooms through their mobile and Facebook portals, with additional giveaways via their iPhone and Android applications.

Some major players who are consumers of group travel have taken notice. The firm is now the official hotel provider for the San Diego Chargers whenever they go charging around the country, as well as of the Washington Redskins, the St. Louis Rams, the entire PGA tour, and many more well known names in sports. Their services are also valued and used by over 500 universities.

The firm’s sponsorship campaign is entitled, “Book Like the Pros, Book with HotelPlanner.com,” and that is indeed the capability that they offer to non-professional group travel arrangers.

Featured Services

The company offers a seamless group booking experience designed to provide you with a hotel that matches your requirements, and at the lowest group rate available. Clients who use their website are put directly in touch with the hotels they are looking at, in order to secure the best prices and most favorable group booking policies.

You can also negotiate with the hotels yourself through the simple technique of declining their bids. The hotel manager are fully aware that, since you are contacting them through HotelPlanner, you will be receiving competing offers, and this puts the competitive spirit in your corner as the hotels try to blindly outbid each other for your business.

The site’s software supports a “rooming list builder” that keeps track of the rooms you have decided to book for you, and you can even earn a rebate for your group’s booked hotel rooms in some cases, such as in connection with fund raising drives and campaigns. The system completely removes the need to call around to different hotels, and instead brings the hotels together in one online space for your consideration.

In addition, using the site will put you in touch with scores of hotels simultaneously, and you will receive individual attention from those hotels who wish to solicit your business. The site also supports the provision of information on deposit requirements, cancellation policies, and other policies and practices of the hotels that you are considering.

The company has even put together a page that lists major upcoming events that will be held in different cities nationwide. They do this not to invite you to join, but to give you a head’s up about which cities may be jam-packed and when, so that you can book elsewhere if you have the flexibility to do so. That is really going the extra mile to ensure that your group enjoys itself when they get done traveling all the miles to their own destination.

Prices

HotelPlanner doesn’t charge you anything, of course. They take a commission from the hotels for each booking made through their site. In terms of savings, however, as you peruse the hotel listings on their site, you will see green-colored percentage by each listing, indicating your group savings. The discounts can in some cases rise to half or more of the room charge for rooms that are being booked individually. You may never want to travel alone, or with just your family, again!

Criticism

We’ve looked for complaints, and found very few, although the occasional hotel owner who bid lower than he intended to grab a group booking through the site might feel some momentary irritation. But overall, everyone comes out on top from using the site, since it makes group booking that much easier, and it lets groups that are planning a trip enjoy the stronger bargaining power that they should enjoy based on the size of the business they are offering.

Customer Service

One key element of the company’s customer service is the “Lowest Group Rate Guarantee” that they offer, stating that they’ll meet or beat any price on your groups travel needs, provided that you book ten rooms or more per night at a hotel of equal or greater quality. The firm indicates that they are able to do this because their group rates are price-checked to ensure their clients are always getting the best group rates.

If you book through the company’s site, and you don’t receive a hotel’s lowest group rate, they will pay for your travel coordinator’s room free. (They will also probably give that particular hotel a stern talking-to). They do mention that the offer applies only to rate quotes made through the online group travel system or offline quotes made by any hotel manager who works with them. It sounds like they have enough clout to keep those managers from trying to sneak in anything other than their lowest rate.

The site’s software will support a search of up to eight city destinations at the same time, just in case you are still in the planning stages and haven’t settled on a destination yet. You can even use the site to book a series of cities if you are planning a tour. We assume this function will appeal rock bands. The site also supports transactions conducted in a wide range of foreign languages, including French, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Turkish, and many others.

For more usual travelers, the site lets you input special needs, such as the desire for a hotel close to downtown, or for a swimming pool, and this will assist the hotels at the other end in determining whether they are the best fit for your group.

Final Thoughts

Whether you are a high school group planning a school trip, or a major league sports team planning to win an away game, HotelPlanner has produced a site that offers traveling groups significant convenience, and significant leverage and bargaining power, in selecting a hotel and in securing the best rates possible in doing so. With all the functions involved in booking group travel combined in one site, relationships and listings for hundreds of thousands of hotels, and powerful search capabilities, this website is highly useful for booking your next many-member trip. HotelPlanner plans to make your trip planning simpler.