Group Travel Scoop - Groople.com

Book Up to 50 Rooms!

I love my job and today is a great example of why. Groople recently launched the travel industry's first set of technologies that allow our customers to shop for and book up to 50 rooms in a single transaction at any Days Inns, Ramada Inn, Super 8, Wingate, Baymont Inns & Suites, Hawthorn Suites, Microtel Inns and Suites, Howard Johnson, Travelodge, Amerihost Inn and Knights Inn. Together these brands represent 6,500 hotel properties across the country.  This is like going from dial up to a broad band internet connection when it comes to ease and speed for our customers and delivers much needed automation which allow these brands to greatly reduce their costs.

 

Developing industry leading technology is never fast or easy but between our technology group and the technology team at Wyndham Hotels (the parent company of the hotel brands listed above) together they have created a much better customer experience. Thank you to both teams. And we're not stopping. No matter what kind of economic head winds we face, our team is galvanized around delivering for our customers and hotel partners.

 

Mike

 

 

 

 

 

Student Group Travel

Groople had the great pleasure of booking serveral student groups in Washington DC for the innaugration of President Obama last week. What a great opportunity for these kids to experience such a historic event in a city where there is so much to see and learn.  Sparking an early curiosity and engagement with the world is one reason student group travel is a worthy endeavor. Here are some others:

·        It helps both teachers and students. There are few things that keep the attention of both students and teachers like the anticipation of a big event—like, say, a trip to Boston or a day trip to the next town over. Teachers can use a trip as the basis for numerous pre-visit lessons about civics, history, art or just about anything. Once students are at their destination, they’ll have a greater appreciation of everything they’ve read about and discussed, and after they return they’ll have a depth of understanding that only comes with direct experience.

·        It establishes community. Sports, theater and other extracurricular activities are wonderful ways for kids to bond, but student group travel enables even adults to form tighter friendships, since these types of trips always require parent chaperones. Experiencing a new place and spending a few full days together is bound to build a tighter community.

·        It can change a life. Maybe a student trip to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is just the impetus a kid needs to become an art major in college; perhaps a career in public service will be the result of a student trip to Washington, DC.

Reflecting on the Holidays

I know it’s a cliché, but I really love the holidays. My wife and I have three children under the age of six so Christmas is just a great time for them. Seeing the expressions as they tear through gifts is priceless. To the MasteCard marketing team, there’s an idea for your next holiday campaign. I’m sure you don’t get many of those.

Another reason I love the holidays are the passionate conversations our extended family can get into around the dinner table. With a mix of staunch conservatives and liberals, our table sometimes resembles a Matt Lauer interview with Ann Coulter. Lots of talking but no one is paying attention to what the other person is saying. However, during dessert one night the conversation turned to past Christmases and gifts everyone had received. With a few exceptions, it was really hard for us to remember what we received last year. Then the conversation turned to memorable vacations in our past. My wife and brother-in-law vividly described their annual motor home trips across the country…down to the most random of details. My sister-in-law told us about her great trips to northern Michigan growing up and into adulthood. What struck me through this entire conversation was how passionate everyone was in telling their stories and the expressions on everyone’s faces in recalling great memories of places they’ve been and the people they were with. They all looked like our kids when they were opening their presents.

It may come across totally self-serving, being that I’m in the travel business, but maybe one of the upsides of this economic downturn is that we shift our spending from our closets and garages to seeing new places and experiencing new things with the people who are closest to us. As adults, this is what we will remember most.

Mike

Groople CEO Mike Stacy on Groople in the WSJ

On Wednesday of last week our company had the great honor to be featured in The Mossberg Solution by Katherine Boehret alongside Tripit (if anyone from TripIt happens to be reading this, I think you guys have a great product). I just love it when a blogger or a noted journalist like Katherine takes the time to write about our company and gives us feedback. Fortunately, Katherine found a lot she and her friends liked about Groopvine which was great to read. At the same time, she pointed out some areas where we need to improve. This reminds me of taking our seven month old daughter to the doctor for her set of preventive shots. I knew they were going to really sting but in the end she’s going to be much healthier. (I think I felt more pain than she did.)  It’s never easy to read about someone finding fault with your product but, just like my daughter's shots, it’s a great way to get in better shape. So when you use Groopvine, please take a few extra minutes to share your thoughts on what’s working for you and more importantly, your ideas on how we can improve. Rest assured that your comments are taken very seriously by our team.  A significant amount of the new functionality that we’ll be adding over the next several months has come from ideas that our customers have shared with us.