Instant booking has become an increasingly popular topic in the Meetings & Events industry in recent years, with varying opinions on its feasibility. However, with the pandemic and the skyrocketing prices of traditional booking methods, this trend has gained significant momentum.
At Youna, we launched an R&D program in 2019 and introduced our solution to the market in 2022. Today, Youna allows you to book in 1 Minute and in 1 place meeting rooms, accommodation, teambuildings and extra services. In less than a year, we have listed over 2,000 services in 20 destinations and have witnessed a significant increase in bookings on our platform in recent months.
Fortunately, we are not alone in our efforts to digitize the online offerings in this segment. In 2019, Accor, Hilton, IHG, and Marriott invested 50 million euros to accelerate this transformation. Hilton, Marriott, and Radisson have also launched their own solutions for online booking of work meetings. In addition, Blackstone, an investor in the industry, recently acquired Cvent for $4.6 billion - a key player in the digitization of the industry.
It appears that online distribution of work meetings and simple events is quickly becoming the norm.
The next step: interconnecting information systems
The interconnection of enterprise information systems has become a standard practice in the modern business world. Companies use this method to facilitate communication between their different information systems. By enabling different applications and systems to share data and information in real-time, this interconnection can help streamline business operations and improve efficiency.
At Youna, we have developed a Single Sign-On (SSO) system and our own Application Programming Interface (API), which allows us to connect in real-time to different information systems of our clients and partners. This interconnection enables us to obtain real-time prices and availability for meeting rooms or hotel rooms from our Mews PMS partner, among other things.
Thanks to our SSO service, our users can now access Youna without a password and securely. In addition to simplifying communication between different systems, interconnecting information systems can also help companies improve their efficiency and profitability. By allowing different systems to communicate with each other, we can reduce our clients' and partners' operational costs by 30%.
However, interconnecting information systems can also pose risks to data security. Therefore, companies must ensure that adequate security measures are in place to protect confidential data and systems from attacks. They must also ensure compliance with data protection regulations, such as GDPR in Europe.
At Youna, data protection and privacy are topics that we treat with great care. All our data is hosted in Europe in multiple centers with 24/7 security personnel. We also monitor our network to detect any potential threats. Regarding data confidentiality, we have implemented strict protocols and require employees with access to data to sign a confidentiality agreement and provide us with a criminal record extract.
In conclusion, interconnecting information systems is crucial to transforming the MICE industry if we want to improve the efficiency and profitability of all stakeholders. However, companies must ensure that they use secure and privacy-respecting interconnection methods to protect confidential data and comply with current regulations.
