M. SILVER ASSOCIATES, INC. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AFFINIA HOTELS OFFERS GROUP MEETING SPACE BOOKINGS VIA WORKTOPIA – Allowing Meeting Planners to Search, Compare and Book Meeting Space On-Line – Boston (July 23rd 2007) – Worktopia, the global leader in on-demand meeting space procurement services, announced today at NBTA that Affinia Hotels, the leaders in creating lifestyle hotels, will offer planners live meeting room pricing and availability on-line through Worktopia’s instant meeting space booking services. Simultaneously planners will be able to access and book Affinia meeting rooms through Affinia’s own web site; Affinia.com. “We are pleased to partner with Affinia in offering meeting planners two unique ways to search and book meetings at Affinia Hotels; Worktopia.com and Affinia.com for up to 100 participants” said Brian McCabe, Executive Vice President of Worktopia. “By offering this service Affinia can better serve corporate meeting planners who only have hours, not days, or weeks to arrange meetings. Procurement for corporate meetings is migrating on line and we are proud to be the first to offer a comprehensive, real time solution.” Putting the latest in online technology to work, Worktopia offers planners real-time access to over 10,000 meeting rooms in 2,000 locations through its proprietary automated booking engine. In this arranges Worktopia have also built a ‘white label” for Affinia whereby the meeting booking system is available on Affinia .com. There is no special training or certification requirement to use Worktopia, and the service is free to end-users and site visitors. In addition to the automated service, the Worktopia call center support team facilitates transaction fulfilment and provides quality assurance for the customer experience. We are delighted to be the first hotel company in New York that allows meeting planners to book meeting rooms on our own website without completing an RFP. We believe this arrange will allow us to better serve our corporate meeting planners and still capitalize on the business generated by Worktopia.com” said Alex Zesch, Director of Interactive Marketing and Development. “Our new relationship with Worktopia will help Affinia to grow its small meetings market,” Zesch adds “The move is part of the Affinia’s commitment to developing better sytems for meeting planners to gain access to meeting rooms.” About Worktopia, Inc. Worktopia has enabled the online marketplace for meeting space in hotels and conference centers. Worktopia’s live meeting space booking engine takes the RFP out of meeting procurement for meetings up to 100 participants providing efficient marketing of hotel meeting space and time savings for planners. The Worktopia engine is available at www.worktopia.com and as a white label for leading GDS and travel distribution partners. The service allows meeting planners to search for properties that match their specific requirements, review live, comparable proposals, check availability of meeting space, catering and equipment and then buy on line. With over 2,000 properties in 150 US Cities, Worktopia, is the only service that brings meeting planners and all major hotel brands together, on line in real time. About Affinia Hotels DHG’s Affinia Hotels (www.affinia.com) brand is a distinctive collection of hotels offering an array of options to suit particular lifestyle and travel preferences in prime locations throughout Manhattan, and includes the Affinia 50, Affinia Dumont, Affinia Gardens, and Affinia Manhattan. Each Affinia property has a special focus such as fitness, tranquility, or location. |
