The online exchange of planning intelligence among meeting professionals currently resides on these sites:
- Meetings Collaborative www.meetingscollaborative.com
Launched in September, this site’s creators want it to be the “Zagat” hotel review stop for planners. Industry veteran Joan Eisenstodt blogs and reviews. Others in the community participate in discussion boards and write about hotel experiences. Plans call for adding reviews on suppliers besides hotels and profiles on cities for meetings, so planners can learn about transportation, dine-arounds, exhibit companies, airlift and other helpful intelligence to aid in destination selection.
- Meetings Intelligence Exchange www.meetingsintelligenceexchange.com
Site-registered meeting professional members read and submit hotel reviews and ratings data after they are accepted for inclusion by site operators. Site staff post reviews after they are deemed share-worthy. Users—who may submit their public or private profile—see hotel reviews and performance ratings data on a dozen or more areas important to meetings, like staff services, guest rooms, recreation, etc. Personal intelligence dashboards allow side-by-side comparison among hotels under consideration, and each new review about a hotel under consideration lands on pertinent dashboards.
- MeetingUniverse.com www.meetinguniverse.com
Provides in-depth hotel service and facility ratings based on 10 or more reviews by registered planners and a hotel management survey. Planners answer 65 to 70 questions about their meetings experience. A review gets accepted only if 50 or more people attended the meeting. Reviews are posted anonymously on the site. If a hotel contests the ratings, site staff contacts the planner to verify the facts. The site also includes performance info on additional vendors for transportation, restaurants, AV, etc.