Portfolio company news: MeetingPackage accelerates international growth with 1.5 MEUR investment
Takeoff Partner’s portfolio company MeetingPackage has announced its latest investment round of 1.5 million euros. The investment will boost the Finnish company’s growth and internationalization as MeetingPackage aims to grow its presence in Continental Europe.
From a marketplace to a well-known SaaS provider
Originally known as a marketplace, MeetingPackage has changed its operational focus by introducing multiple new SaaS products for hotels and meeting venues as well as taking onboard demand driven partners. Takeoff Partners has been part of the company’s journey from the start as early investors in the company and as board members giving expert advice, especially on the internationalization process.
Now the focus is on developing the solutions further as MeetingPackage aims to grow in the new markets and provide a wider range of solutions. Joonas Ahola, the CEO and Founder of Meeting Package explains how the new solutions answer a recognized need:
“Even though the customers were requesting the possibility of booking meeting rooms online the hotels and event venues weren’t operationally ready for that yet. We needed to go deeper into the problem and help the hotels in their own sales and operations. Our new products include a booking engine solution that venues can implement to their own website to replace all low converting contact forms and offline enquiry forms. The venues also gain access to global distribution and broader customer base. This was a needed step to reach our mission statement.”
New cooperation allows users to optimize their pricing
Recently, the Finnish company has also taken a huge step in optimizing the sale price of meetings and events by partnering up with a leading revenue management company
IDeaS Revenue Solutions. This cooperation allows IDeaS Smart Space users to optimise the sale price of meetings and events space online through the MeetingPackage Distribution Network as well as through the venue’s own website using the booking engine solution from MeetingPackage.
Dynamic pricing is common in the hotel industry but not seen as much in the venue booking scene. The new integration allows users of both platforms to push minimum revenue pricing and optimum delegate pricing into the MeetingPackage platform. Ahola believes that the cooperation with IDeaS Revenue Solutions benefits all parties and is an important step in the internationalization process as the company aims to get more international hotel chains and venue providers
“Cooperation with IDeaS Smart Space is an important part of modernising the meetings and events industry and delivering the true potential of total revenue management to meetings venues globally. There is a natural synergy between our two platforms, and I am personally excited about how this partnership will change our mutual clients’ businesses by improving the customer experience, saving time and driving greater revenues” Ahola states.
The international brand of MeetingPackage attracts major hotel chains
MeetingPackage is the only solution globally that works multi-lingually, offering more than 12 different language versions of the site. MeetingPackage lists over 250 000 meeting rooms and conference venues all over the world for venue bookers, and offers their unique cloud-based venue management software for hotels and other event venue providers to sell their meeting rooms and event spaces more efficiently online.
The goal of MeetingPackage is to deliver hotels more revenue with less manual actions, and therefore one of its core competences is to allow integrations to existing back-office solutions. This mission is being recognized by major hotel chains, widening MeetingPackage’s venue listings constantly.
MeetingPackage is delighted to announce its new cooperation with the UK’s well-known hotel chain De Vere. De Vere offers top accommodation and is a popular event destination, especially in the London business scene. MeetingPackage hosts its integrated meetings and events booking engine on De Vere’s website to optimize the user experience and to create more revenue for the hotel. The partnership will initially be available across De Vere’s London properties where it will enable more efficient online bookings whilst providing live availability and dynamic pricing of event spaces.
MeetingPackage is in a growing market and has potential for great growth
It is estimated that more than EUR 100 billion is spent each year alone on small meetings of under one hundred delegates. As a multilingual service provider with a large portfolio, MeetingPackage has great potential to succeed in international growth and promote the brand of Finnish SaaS products internationally.
