#300: Innovating the Meeting & Events Sales Process | with Mike Waltman

The Modern Hotelier #300: Innovating the Meeting & Events Sales Process | with Mike Waltman === David Millili: Welcome to a special HITEC Modern Hotelier, the most engaged podcast in hospitality. Let everyone know who you are. Michael Waltman: Hi, I'm Michael Waltman with Interactive Sites. All right.

David Millili: So Mike, we've known each other for a long time. We've followed each other's careers and, you know, you founded Interactive Sites before the internet was even really the internet or anybody knew what it was. And, you know, you've been through multiple generations of hospitality technology. Michael Waltman: Yeah.

David Millili: Tell us how you started the company and what really gave you the inspiration. Michael Waltman: I'll give you the short version. So I came from the hotel business, and I worked for a meeting planner for about five years as well. And I was in Phoenix, Arizona, working at The Pointe resorts, and I had met some guys that were in, quote, "technology."

They had showed me some new technology. It was 1993, and it was basically a video of a globe spinning around, and they clicked on the globe, and a video came up for that country. And I said, "Well, this is perfect for the hotel business." And they were looking at me like, "What do you mean?"

And I was like, "Well, if you could do a site inspection of a hotel on a computer, and you can put it on a CD now or CD-ROM or something like..." And they said, "Yeah, we could do that." So I thought about it. I left, came back two weeks later.

I gave them a site map, and I said, "If you click here, you see the rooms. If you click here, you see the restaurant. Can you do that?" And they nailed it.

And we actually did... The first customer was The Phoenician. So the name Interactive Sites was doing interactive site inspection of a hotel on a computer. David Millili: Oh, wow.

Michael Waltman: So it had nothing to do with websites. We didn't even know what the web was yet. So that's how that all began. And then we started doing websites in '97.

We did a lot of the first, doubletree.com, shangri-la.com. So it sort of just took off from there, and we had - very fortunate to start to move through the path of Starwood as well.

So that sort of helped, you know, launch our company. So yeah. David Millili: All right. So I know that ShareIt Online is used by many, probably just about all the leading hotel brands - Michael Waltman: Yeah...

David Millili: management companies and ownership groups. Michael Waltman: Yeah. David Millili: Tell us a little bit more about the product, the problem it solves, and how the platform's been evolving. Michael Waltman: Yeah.

Well, when we started to do websites, we started to realize the groups and meetings were sort of underserved. So we did one of the very first RFPs. It was called Plan It Online, and it was super successful, and the RFPs started coming in, and we had a lot of hotels using that product. And then one day we sort of had an epiphany to say, "Well, why don't we take this product and make it an internal tool for hotels to be able to share leads?"

So it was Plan It Online, so we called it ShareIt Online. And then hotels started - when they would receive a lead and they couldn't accommodate it, they would use this product to send it to another hotel within their portfolio. So now, yeah, we're edging up close to 13,000 hotels now that use that product. We're doing integrations with MeetingBroker and Oracle and all these other guys.

And yeah, it's turned out to be quite the platform. I think we're one of the only guys that really do that. David Millili: Yeah. No, it's an incredible platform.

So groups and meetings business has been around forever and you've spent your entire career immersed in it. Michael Waltman: Yeah. David Millili: You do a lot for hotels around the world, but the one thing that makes Interactive Sites groups and meeting solutions different is? Michael Waltman: You know, one of the things that we hear from the hotel world is leads, a lot of them are unqualified.

And one of the things that we're really trying to focus on, especially now, is to make sure that the leads that you receive through any of our platforms or systems, they're just highly qualified. They're meant for your hotel. I mean, when a salesperson from your own portfolio is sending you a lead, you would hope and think that it would be qualified. But anything else that we're doing, new things that we're coming out with, it's all about trying to really not waste the hotel salespeople's time or the planner's time, if you will, and really have a good match, you know, something that's gonna make sense.

And so that's really been a true focus for us, to say that, you know, let's improve lead quality and make sure that these leads, one, are responded to quickly, the product's easy to use. One of the things that makes it really great is most salespeople that send leads from A to B, they're getting paid 5% of the total booking. So that sort of polices itself and it helps the program proliferate throughout the brand. And I met one person on a plane randomly that said that their wife had made over $300,000 in commissions in one year by sending leads to other hotels on top of her salary.

I know. That... David Millili: I'm gonna find a hotel that uses your platform and get a job - Michael Waltman: I know... get a job there.

I know. I was pretty impressed by that actually. It was amazing though. David Millili: Wow.

So everyone seems to be talking about AI here at HITEC. Saw your press release on Seller Ready. Actually got to see a little sneak peek of that. Michael Waltman: Yeah.

David Millili: So tell us more about that. How it came about, how does it work, and what do you think it means for hotels, sales teams moving forward? Michael Waltman: Yeah. It's sort of in that same vein of quality, right?

To qualify leads. Maybe, I don't know, seven or eight months ago we started talking to some of our clients, and again, we were talking about leads and whatnot. And, you know, AI's obviously everywhere and everyone's talking about it. So we don't really talk about that as much.

But as far as the solution is concerned, we definitely are using a little bit of AI. So what happens is a salesperson gets an RFP for a group. So what they can do is they can scan that RFP in our solution, and it will come back and tell them, based on the hotel that they work at, the season ADR for the meeting group events. It's state sensitive.

It'll tell them about this group, why it's a good fit for their property, winning strategies, how to win the business based on what we know about your hotel and this group. So basically, especially now, a lot of hotels have to hire inexperienced salespeople. So something like this really can help a salesperson guide their way through talking to a customer and how to win this business. And then on the other side, if it's not a good piece of business, it'll tell you why it's not a good piece of business.

Maybe the rate's too low and it's high season. Maybe it's too many rooms, you don't have that many rooms, or the meeting space is intensive and not enough rooms, whatever the case may be. So the hotels have to make that decision. This basically just centralizes and aggregates that information into one report and allows a salesperson to make a better decision about the group.

David Millili: And for me, what I thought was great, because as I've been telling people, I feel like last year was the year of talk around AI. Michael Waltman: Yeah. David Millili: And yeah, there's been AI in some revenue management platforms. There's been the voice, you know, picking up the phone has been there.

But your platform was one of the first, Seller Ready was really one of the first platforms where I saw the AI at work in the platform. Michael Waltman: Yeah. It's just a good use case, right? AI can be used in so many ways, but I think for the industry that we're in and the groups and meetings market, to be able to really look at the application of AI, it's a great use case for salespeople.

And how do we leverage finding this information and bringing it back and putting that all in one spot? I mean, you've heard of lead scoring and those kinds of things. This is maybe just a little bit more enriched than that, especially by giving strategies, pricing strategies, risks to consider. It just gives you a more complete picture of what this group is and what it could be and what it means to your property.

David Millili: Yeah. So I have a question for you. I got asked it. You've been coming to HITEC like me forever.

Michael Waltman: 1997. David Millili: You got me beat. Michael Waltman: Yeah... David Millili: I basically was asked what did I think about this year?

Was there just a takeaway for me? Was there anything kind of after being here since almost 30 years, was there something you take away that was a little different this year? Michael Waltman: You know, the energy's always so great at HITEC. I mean, you really feel, you remember why you're in this business.

All the great relationships you've created, and we have a lot of relationships with different vendors. And, you know, that's one of the things that I always love about HITEC. That's just a given, that you're gonna see some great people. But I don't know, San Antonio's beautiful.

It's a great place to have it. And again, the industry's still thriving. It's still exciting. I mean, if you look around this showroom, it's unbelievable.

Just everything that's going on. And there's great evolution in our industry with technology, and it used to be considered so far behind all the time, and everybody used to say that. But now it just looks great. It's a good feeling in here, and I think it's a very...

You know how small this community is with hospitality, and you just get these relationships that last forever and it's just a great place to be. I love it. David Millili: Yeah. It's like you and I.

We probably live 35 minutes away from each other, but we see each other at HITEC, and are so busy we never get to see each other. Michael Waltman: Oh, that is absolutely true. David Millili: Anyway, so that's funny. So that does it for another episode of The Modern Hotelier.

Mike, this is where you get to let people know how they can get in touch with you and how they can find out about all your great products. Michael Waltman: Yeah, you can go to isites.com or sharedonline.com for the groups and meetings.

But yeah, if you can go to that URL and get in touch with us, we'll be happy to work with you, and we'll go from there. David Millili: All right. Well, that does it for the special HITEC Modern Hotelier, the most engaged podcast in hospitality. If you're watching or listening, we appreciate you, and thanks for joining us.

Thanks, Mike. Michael Waltman: Thank you. David Millili: Take care.