Company's Technology to Streamline Site Selection for Government Groups and Meetings Lodging Bookings

NEW YORK and MCLEAN, VA – Cvent, the world's largest provider of online event management, meeting site selection and web survey solutions, today announced it was selected by FedRooms®, the official government-wide, General Services Administration (GSA)-managed hotel program for federal and military travelers, as the sole technology provider for FedRooms® Groups and Meetings. FedRooms Groups and Meetings is a free venue site selection and electronic Request for Proposal (eRFP) solution that simplifies the government meeting and event planning process for tens of thousands of government planners by enabling fast and convenient venue comparison and selection in compliance with government lodging policies.

"Estimates indicate that of the approximately $15 billion in federal travel spending for FY2010, $5 billion will be spent on lodging, and of this, a significant portion will be spent on group hotel lodging specifically," said Anil Punyapu, Cvent's Vice President of Enterprise Sales. "We recognized the time- and cost-saving benefits of streamlining the group booking process in all industries when we developed our venue sourcing software, and we are excited to partner with FedRooms to help government and military meeting planners quickly and easily find the best venues for their groups' unique specifications."

FedRooms Groups & Meetings is an extension of the FedRooms program, which since 2004 has provided government travelers negotiated hotel rates — guaranteed to be at or below government per diem — at quality, FEMA-certified hotels. Government meeting planners can visit FedRooms.gov to submit meeting requirements for groups of 10 or more. Using Cvent's sourcing technology, these requirements are sent to FedRooms-participating properties in an eRFP. In return, the government meeting planner receives from FedRooms comprehensive, side-by-side comparison reports of the venue responses for use in making site selection decisions.

"The process of identifying and communicating with all potential hoteliers in a given city can be time consuming and tedious, especially for the many individuals for whom meeting planning is not part of their actual job description," said Tracy Shook, Director of FedRooms. "This offering takes the weight off the client's shoulders, because FedRooms and Cvent handle all the legwork involved in identifying the hotels in a given city that can fulfill their meeting needs."