There are so many motivations to travel
and the John Gore Organization can tap so many of them to drive attendance to events
For those going to a play, it makes complete and total sense to “make it a date night” or “make it a weekend”, where even locals may need or want a hotel room.
But imagine the performers sending their family and friends a “come hear me sing” or “come and see me perform” or “come and watch me dance”.
All of the sudden you’ve opened up a whole new, viral way to promote the show. Each performer can have their own widget, with a photo of them, and post it on social media. We can link the widget directly to your ticketing engine, making it easy to not only plan your trip to the event, but also to buy tickets.
Oh, and did we mention that we give back to your charity of choice for every event in every venue? And you can choose a different local charity for each one, to better serve the communities.
TripProximity is a venture of Solutionz Innovations. We are the smart trip technology leaders and we are committed to helping businesses add value to those that they serve and making the trip process easier for everyone that it touches. Most importantly, we give back with every trip taken, making each one count.
HOW TO NAVIGATE THIS CUSTOM GUIDE
This custom guide to the TripProximity tool is designed for the John Gore Organization executives to evaluate the product and our company for integration into various digital properties and platforms, including Broadway.com, Broadway Across America and Broadway Box. If you want just the 40k ft view of the features/benefits, click HERE.
If you want to take a deeper dive, simply click on the header on the left navigation and then click on each section to learn about the topic covered. When you are finished reading a section, click on it to collapse it and go on to the next item.
We believe that the moment when someone decides to attend an event is the optimal time for them to plan how they will get there.
If an event ends late at night and/or alcohol is served at the venue, even a local resident may choose to get a hotel room. At Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, they calculate that 17% of event goers (whether sports or concerts) need or want a hotel room. This number goes way up for wildly popular performances that sell out, like Hamilton, as people will travel anywhere just to get a chance to see it.
Integration into an events system captures the highest possible intent for travel.
By integrating into the event page, prior to committing to buy the ticket the individual can search in a separate window to see if rooms are available. Or if they are local and don’t need a room, they can simply use the map and driving directions.
Marketing messages used in email or social media campaigns for an event, such as Make it a Weekend or Make it a Date Night, can increase the likelihood of a hotel stay.
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[/boc_accordion][boc_accordion_section with_bgr=”yes” border=”yes”][boc_accordion title=”To add Smart Trip Planning to your Event Landing Pages”]BEST PRACTICE: We typically experience 4.6% conversion on placement of the hotel booking tool above the fold. This could be done by putting the widget to the right of the event information where you currently have the Google Map. The tool is container responsive and would fit into the right rail column.
NEXT BEST: If you place the tool below the fold and use the map view, based on our experience to date with event sites, you can expect approximately 2.6% conversion.
We recommend adding a variable header, such as Make it a Weekend (if the event is on Thurs, Fri or Sat) or “Make it a Date Night” or simply “Do you need or want a hotel room?”
The instructions for installing this tool can be found in the Event Widget section.
[/boc_accordion][boc_accordion title=”To plan travel to any event venue”]For your landing pages for venues, the Smart Trip tool can be added to any of those landing pages to allow anyone traveling to an event at that venue to find a hotel nearby. This can be useful when someone already has a ticket to an event, but still needs to find a hotel nearby.
The instructions to load the dynamic venue widget to your venue landing pages can be found in the VENUE WIDGET section below.
[/boc_accordion][boc_accordion title=”To be installed on your corporate website as a VISIT US page”]The John Gore Organization can add the Smart Trip tool to your corporate website as a VISIT US page, for not only your NYC area headquarters, but for every one of your locations. This will allow anyone that is traveling to your offices, whether driving or flying to get driving directions and book a hotel nearby.
The instructions for adding this static widget to your corporate site can be found in the VENUE WIDGET section below.
[/boc_accordion][boc_accordion title=”If its a good idea, why wouldn’t we do it ourselves”]Providing these systems is our core business and it is a full time effort to stay on top of it. We have a team of 12 today that are dedicated to client management and development, as well as assisting you with marketing and merchandising our capabilities.
Standard travel booking systems are not engineered to automatically find hotels nearby venues and events. They operate on a city center and airport centric back end.
TripProximity was engineered around events and venues and was built to be dynamically integrated in the same day as the decision is made. We provide not only technology, but we provide ongoing marketing support from your Account Director and we do a minimum of three major product releases a year, with weekly sprints to add incremental capabilities.
The online systems’ affiliate networks are the red-headed stepchildren of the parent companies and their tech resources are about the same as what is available with Solutionz Innovations. They also do not have the resources necessary to act as your proactive marketing partner. Their systems require programming to their API and integration can take weeks and even months to go live. Even minor changes to images and logos or navigation on the booking system requires a programming sprint which is generally a 3 week cycle. They do not have self-service portals that allow you to fully maintain your own environments.
We are always seeking to make travel to a place or an event smarter and easier. That is our commitment to you.[/boc_accordion][/boc_accordion_section][/boc_tab][boc_tab title=”Key Features” icon=”icon icon-new”][boc_accordion_section with_bgr=”yes” border=”yes”][boc_accordion title=”The Smart Trip Tool Components” is_open=”yes”]The Smart Trip Tool includes the following features.
[/boc_accordion][boc_accordion title=”I’m Staying”]
Hotel Booking Nearby the Venue or Event
This element of the Smart Trip tool gives the event attendee the ability to book a hotel in a single click, since the widget is pre-populated with the event venue info and the event date. Hotel bookings are guaranteed to be the lowest published rate online. Solutionz provides a 110% best rate promise and will refund 110% of the difference for someone who finds a hotel room available cheaper on another site.
[/boc_accordion][boc_accordion title=”Address lookup”]If the user wishes to travel to a different destination, they can type in their destination using the pencil.
[/boc_accordion][boc_accordion title=”I’m Driving”]
Driving Directions and Optional Car Rental
In the US, 89% of all travel is by car. Driving directions are useful to all event attendees that are not personally familiar with the event venue. This tab also provides smart car rental.
[/boc_accordion][boc_accordion title=”Smarter Driving Directions”]TripProximity now handles multi-day trip planning by allowing the user to define the number of hours per day that they would like to drive. This then calculates the actual driving time, versus the driving straight through method that Google, Mapquest and others use.
[/boc_accordion][boc_accordion title=”Smarter Car Rental”]TripProximity now allows the user to specify whether they want to drive or fly to their destination, which changes where you would pick up your car rental.
You can add an additional revenue stream by asking for a car rental company to sponsor this capability. We can default to that car rental company. The user may override the default at transaction time and see all car rentals, or we could link directly to the car company’s system.
[/boc_accordion][boc_accordion title=”I’m Flying”]
Optionally offer Air Tickets
TripProximity provides the ability to buy airline tickets worldwide.
[/boc_accordion][boc_accordion title=”Social Sharing”]Once the Smart Trip Tool is displayed, the user can choose to share the widget with friends/family. The widget can be linked back to the ticket purchase page.
This feature can be disabled.
[/boc_accordion][/boc_accordion_section][/boc_tab][boc_tab title=”The Economics” icon=”icon icon-money”][boc_accordion title=”Royalty and Giving”]
Royalties
We earn revenues from travel bookings made on our client systems. The highest revenues come from hotels, then car rental. Air tickets produce a nominal fee. We are paid post-checkout, generally within 30 days for completed bookings.
In 4Q18 we are adding another booking source to augment our longstanding relationship with Priceline Partner Network and Booking.com. That will add not only 200 new inventory sources for lodging (including non-standard apartments, home rentals), cruise and attractions, but also the ability to serve very deeply discounted products to closed user groups behind a login (e.g. your eCLUB subscribers).
Solutionz will share 10% of our revenues with the John Gore Organization for any activities on any of your online brands and even through rooms booked when someone calls your ticketing call center. Should the monthly bookings exceed 250, we will move you to our highest earning threshold of 20%.
Giving Back
We will donate a minimum of 10% of our revenues to your charity of choice annually, giving the funds in your name.
If you want to operate the smart trip planning program out of your Foundation as TravelingToGive, we will donate 25% to your Foundation.[/boc_accordion][boc_accordion title=”Terms”]
We believe that we need to earn your business every day and we are committed to your satisfaction.
You will have an Account Director that will navigate our organization to respond promptly to any issues or concerns.
Solutionz does not require a long term contractual commitment. We do ask our enterprise clients for one year, with mutual agreement on renewal.[/boc_accordion][boc_accordion title=”Traveler Support”]We guarantee that we will have the lowest published rates on hotel rooms. We stand behind that promise with a 110% best rate guarantee, and we will refund 110% of the difference if someone finds the same hotel, same room type for the same dates/duration after booking on your site(s).
We provide 24/7/365 support in 40+ languages for the customer and an Account Director will be assigned to you for escalation of any issues with the smart trip tool or any of your campaigns.[/boc_accordion][boc_accordion title=”Referrals”]We recognize that you have very strong partnerships in place with the philanthropic organizations that you serve and the various organizations that you partner with. We have a very strong offering for both of those categories. For ticketing providers, we can add the travel offer as a “do you want fries with that” at the end of the buying path. For 501c3s we have various fund raising tools, including our “anywhere” tool that can be used to raise donations while they sleep.
We have a formal referral program and the underlying technology to track referrals from the John Gore Organization. If you make referrals to Solutionz, we want to thank you in a material way.
We have started you at Level 2, which immediately allows you to earn royalties and donations. Any referrals that you make while you are at Level 2 will be counted toward reaching Level 3.
Once you achieve Level 3 with us (250 booking threshhold), any referrals that you have done will accrue to your account and we will pay you as a channel partner on those deals at a fixed 10% of their first year’s revenues.
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Our CEO, Chicke Fitzgerald will be in New York City on Wednesday 10/24 in the afternoon, all day on Thursday the 25th and in the morning on Friday the 26th. Please let us know if any of those times will work.
Charlie Mest, VP Sales . charlie@solutionz.com
