"venuedirectory.com generates Barceló UK in excess of £4million of genuine, qualified enquiries in just 18 months."
It's a bold statement - read on to find out more......
Barceló UK had initially thought of venuedirectory.com as “just another third party web site”. But when Sales Director, Carol Whitney, sent hard facts, statistics and campaign proposals – Barceló UK decided to investigate further and invited them in.
They were upfront with venuedirectory.com about the challenge –
‘How can you demonstrate tangible performance for Barceló’s portfolio of twenty one 4-star hotels with 220 meeting rooms for up to 600 delegates?”
'venuedirectory.com have an acute awareness and empathy with this industry. They know what they are talking about, the challenges we face and understand how venues work internally.'
Bronwen Moore - Meetings and Events Support Manager - Barceló UK
Carol had won the opportunity to substantiate how venuedirectory.com had become market leaders within just two years and why they were unique to the industry in what they offered as an overall package. Barceló saw the fully interactive data website in action as Carol demonstrated how venuedirectory.com can present a meeting and event planner with full colour imagery, comprehensive information and full contact details of shortlisted venues, matching simple or in depth criteria pre-selected by the meeting and event planner.
A major advantage Carol could explain about venuedirectory.com was the company’s creation of software called GRATIS, an innovation under the direction and expertise of Managing Director, Michael Begley. GRATIS draws its live data from the pages of venuedirectory.com, and as such creates its own “unique” system that produces time saving and incalculable benefits for venue finding agencies AND venues from one “virtual” location.
Venue finding agencies, of which there are currently over 200 consultants within 20 agencies, are licensed to use GRATIS to search for venues using data held on venuedirectory.com - which as market leader hosts in excess of 8,150 (and growing day by day) venue listings in the UK with even more venues overseas. The wow factor for GRATIS agents is that they can use the system to venue search and generate full colour enquiry proposals at the tap of a key THEN once a booking has been generated, the GRATIS agent can track that booking from concept through to completion, right down to how much room 22 spent in the coffee bar at 9.45am and then report on the results.
In addition, venuedirectory.com allows venues who promote their properties on the web pages to pull financial reports from the tracking data captured for their venue by GRATIS agents. By logging in, a venue may view any given period of time and see exactly how many enquiries have been generated, track the booking journey from enquiry to confirmation and clearly ascertain their return on investment.
Barceló UK had one simple objective which was to generate a clear return on investment and increase profit and awareness. There followed a strategic and meticulously planned campaign conceived and implemented between Carol Whitney and Bronwen Moore, Meetings and Events Support Manager, Barceló UK.
The initial and current campaigns involved setting clear key performance indicators (KPI’s) featuring brand awareness as well as financial rewards. “venuedirectory.com have an acute awareness and empathy with this industry. They know what they are talking about, the challenges we face and understand how venues work internally” says Bronwen. She went on to say, “We meet on a quarterly basis, review, plan and instigate ideas, amendments to our pages, imagery etc. We’ll consider options for bespoke newsletters and schedule specific periods when Barceló UK are featured on venuedirectory.com’s landing page, and discuss other promotional opportunities and ideas which all help to raise our profile and ultimately sales enquiries”.
venuedirectory.com is free and open to use, meaning anyone looking for a meeting or event venue can do so without having to go through a time consuming registration process. Venues receive individual enquiries as well as those from venue finding agents through GRATIS, which together Bronwen says “has been fantastic”.
venuedirectory.com is live and interactive, meaning any changes appear immediately and re-optimise that venue to the top of their venue searches. Barceló UK recognise being able to update news, venue information and incentives rapidly as a great asset and has opted to manage their own updates.
Bronwen really values the service she gets from venuedirectory.com, referring to the company’s technical dynamism and proactive approach to stay at the top. She says, “venuedirectory.com is always developing enhancements to the site and ideas to help us stay ahead of the game. I think their customer service is second to none - there is always a friendly, helpful person at the end of the phone”. She went on to say, “Our relationship with venuedirectory.com is fantastic. What they offer and produce financially for us is outstanding!”
The results Barceló UK have experienced with venuedirectory.com are in Bronwen’s words “Impressive and clearly brilliant value.”