Red Lion Hotels Taps Worktopia to Reach Small Meetings Market

By: Red Lion Hotel Corporation | 0 Shares 108 Reads

Worktopia Provides Expanded Access via the Web, Corporate Booking Tools, and GDS Platforms

SPOKANE, Wash., Oct. 26 // PRNewswire-FirstCall // -- Red Lion Hotels Corporation (NYSE: RLH) has made its inventory of small meeting rooms available for real-time booking through a new marketing agreement with Worktopia, Inc., the leading real-time booking engine for small and simple meetings. Meeting arrangers can now search, compare and book meeting space and group guest rooms in Red Lion Hotels in real time at www.worktopia.com. Private label versions of this service are also integrated into major corporate booking tool and travel management company private label versions. This expanded corporate audience of meeting planners will help Red Lion increase sales of small groups and meetings (those for fewer than 100 attendees) at a time when corporate customers are looking for mid-market, local venues for conducting smaller, off-site meetings.

Worktopia's Universal Meeting Solution(TM) (UMS) makes it the first company to provide a completely automated process for meeting planners to search, compare and book space for small meetings online. The industry-leading technology behind UMS also allows planners to arrange for catering, A/V equipment and group guest rooms, all in a single online session. In addition, UMS provides planners with attendee management capabilities, powered by SignUp4, as well as detailed meeting activity reports and online meeting attendee enrollment tools.

"Worktopia's focus on smaller meetings plays well to the market characteristics of many of our hotels and provides us enhanced visibility and access to this important segment," said Mark D. Mahoney, VP Sales, Red Lion Hotels. "What's more, by relying on Worktopia's online marketing and booking solutions to support our small meetings business, our own sales people can focus their efforts on larger, longer-lead meetings opportunities," added Mahoney.

"We are delighted to add many of Red Lion's hotels to our growing portfolio of properties. This new agreement offers real benefits to our corporate customers, adding new properties to the range of small-meetings options available to them on demand. At the same time, it is set to deliver incremental revenue and recurring customer relationships to Red Lion's small meetings and group business," said John Arenas, Chief Executive Officer of Worktopia.

About Red Lion Hotels Corporation

Red Lion Hotels Corporation is a hospitality and leisure company primarily engaged in the ownership, operation and franchising of upscale and midscale hotels under its Red Lion® brand. As of June 30, 2009, the RLH hotel network was comprised of 46 hotels located in nine states and one Canadian province, with 8,803 rooms and 436,355 square feet of meeting space. The company also owns and operates an entertainment and event ticket distribution business. For more information, please visit the company's website at www.redlion.com.

About Worktopia®

Worktopia, Inc. offers integrated solutions that allow meeting planners to search, compare and book simple meetings and group accommodations online in hotels, conference centers, business centers and airport lounges in 65 countries. The Worktopia meetings booking engine can be found at http://www.worktopia.com, in private label versions, and in TMC corporate booking tools and GDS agency desktops. Worktopia also delivers attendee management services in partnership with SignUp4.com.

SOURCE Red Lion Hotels Corporation

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