CivicActions needed to find accommodations and a venue for a 100-person company offsite that was coming up in two months - and in the busy period post-Labor Day.
Using Workgrounds, they successfully requested and received offers from 70 hotels across 6 different cities, ultimately finding the ideal property for their 100-person company gathering. This hotel met all their needs and fit within their budget. This was all achieved with just one hour of effort over the course of seven days using Workgrounds software.
- Purpose of trip: Company gathering
- Guests: 100
- Company setup: Fully remote
- Employees: 100-1000
- Location: US-based remote
CivicActions is a profitable, 20-year old company delivering technology and design solutions for government.
They had several requirements:
- Consider 6 potential destinations: DC, Denver, Seattle, Austin, Chicago, and San Diego.
- Evaluate multiple properties within each city to gauge costs, across two tiers (3-star & 4-star equivalents). Each property needed to be close to downtown for easy access to activities and dining options.
- Specific dates: The hotel had to have 100 rooms available for five nights during the last week of September. Ideally, all guests would stay at the same property or at least close to each other.
- The venue needed to provide a workspace for 3 working days, along with breakout rooms for smaller sessions.
- Staying within budget was crucial, and they wanted to negotiate the best possible rates.
Throughout the process, they also needed to:
- Estimate the total cost of flights, rooms, and workspace easily.
- Collaborate efficiently within the leadership team to consider all options.
- Communicate booking details seamlessly to all 100 guests.
- Manage and coordinate return flights for all attendees.
The solution
CivicActions considered their options:
1. Doing it themselves
Researching, contacting and negotiating with 70 hotels individually is prohibitively time-consuming, and they had less than 2 months until the event itself. Their options were to put 50-100 hours of work into this; or more likely, to contact far fewer hotels, likely resulting in compromises on either the ideal choice or the budget.
2. Hiring an agency
Hiring and onboarding an agency or TMC would have taken too much time, and they didn't feel confident they would get the breadth and variety needed to match their requirements.
Ultimately, they chose Workgrounds for the following reasons:
- A product-first approach that offers speed, ease of experience, and scalability.
- A product designed for booking as a group, ensuring the best deals by using group discounts.
- The ability to book stays, workspaces and flights all in one place.
- Custom support at their fingertips to resolve any questions.
CivicActions sent 70 RFPs to hotels across 6 cities by filling out just one short form. Within 3 days, they received 52 offers.
They invited each decision-maker to their trip in Workgrounds as an organizer, allowing everyone to follow along as offers came in. Once the majority of proposals were received, they shortlisted their top choices as a team and then negotiated the rates further with Workgrounds.
With just over an hour of total effort, in five days they secured a group rate they were thrilled with and booked rooms for 100 guests directly through Workgrounds.
Impact and results
- Total RFPs sent: 70
- Total responses received: 52
- Full proposals received: 17
- Full matches (ie 100% requirements met): 6
By city:
- Denver: 15
- Seattle: 11
- DC: 8
- San Diego: 9
- Chicago: 9
- Austin: 11
Time spent: 1 hour across the entire team
Estimated time if done manually: Over 60 hours
What’s next
CivicActions will now use Workgrounds to manage their booked room block and workspaces, handling tasks like room assignments and additions all through the software, without needing to interact directly with the hotel. They will also use the platform to invite their team to view trip details and book flights.
CivicActions used the Workgrounds software to find the best possible deal for their urgent 100-person hotel stay, and finalizing the booking within 5 days.
They secured group booking offers from 70 hotels across six cities for a 100-room booking, with very little manual effort.
The process was massively streamlined, saving significant time and allowing for better comparisons and negotiations.
Workgrounds provided an all-in-one solution for booking stays, workspaces, flights, and more, making it easier to manage and communicate with the team.
To see if your company can benefit from Workgrounds in a similar way, book a short demo call with our CEO here.
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