Breaking News: Lanyon Acquires Passkey and Their Group Reservation Technology

Lanyon Acquires Passkey, Extending Leadership in Global Meetings, Events, and Travel Technology

Lanyon furthers its commitment to simplify the lives of event planners and drive greater revenue for hotels with the addition of Passkey, the industry’s most advanced group reservation technology

IRVING, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Lanyon, a leader in meetings, events, and travel technology, today announced it has acquired Passkey, an industry leading group reservation technology provider. With the acquisition, Lanyon now offers a comprehensive suite of cloud-based software for meetings, events and travel, as well as the only unified group reservation and corporate transient technology platform for hotels. The acquisition strengthens Lanyon’s position as a leading provider of next generation tools that enable event marketers, meeting planners, travel buyers, and hotels to drive efficiencies, and grow their business.

“Passkey’s technology provides ease and efficiency for customers, allowing our sales teams to focus on servicing and exceeding our clients’ expectations. We are pleased that Lanyon and Passkey have combined and look forward to the even greater benefits and efficiencies this new partnership will bring to Hyatt, and to the industry.”

“This acquisition propels us several steps forward in providing a unified technology platform for managing all aspects of Meetings and Events, while enabling hotels to drive more revenue from corporate travel, and now group bookings,” said David Bonnette, Chief Executive Officer of Lanyon. “A range of industry research* indicates that approximately $100B per year in hotel revenue is associated with group business and room blocks. Much of this business is managed via manual tasks so there is a clear need for technology that automates these processes. As the hospitality industry’s leading group reservation technology provider, Passkey is a natural complement to our solutions that increase revenue for hotels while making Meeting and Event planners’ lives easier.”

Passkey’s GroupMAX™ technology is the most widely deployed group reservation and optimization technology in the hospitality industry. With GroupMAX, guests can book their hotel rooms online in event-specific booking websites while enjoying multiple stay and upgrade options. The technology eliminates many of the manual tasks that Meeting and Event planners must complete when managing group room bookings, freeing them to focus on delivering an exceptional experience for attendees. For hotels and Convention and Visitors’ Bureaus, the technology provides the ability to generate more group demand and greater revenues per group while capturing savings, improving group profits, and elevating customer service, and loyalty.

“Our goal at Hyatt is to deliver authentic hospitality, outstanding service, and an exceptional guest experience,” said Steve Enselein, Vice President of Catering and Convention Services, Americas Sales, Hyatt Hotels and Resorts. “Passkey’s technology provides ease and efficiency for customers, allowing our sales teams to focus on servicing and exceeding our clients’ expectations. We are pleased that Lanyon and Passkey have combined and look forward to the even greater benefits and efficiencies this new partnership will bring to Hyatt, and to the industry.”

About Passkey

Passkey is the travel industry’s leading hotel booking technology for meetings and events. The Company’s cloud-based platform, GroupMAX™, is used by thousands of hotels, destinations and meeting planners worldwide to manage the hotel accommodation process for events of every size. At the heart of GroupMAX is the ability for group guests to book their hotel rooms online in event-specific booking websites while enjoying multiple stay and upgrade options. With offices in the US, the UK and Singapore, the Passkey global network now includes over 90% of major US and UK Convention and Visitors Bureaus, as well as a wide range of hotels, casinos, resorts, meeting planners, corporations and meeting management companies. Pacific Crest Securities was the exclusive financial advisor to Passkey in this transaction.

Lanyon

Lanyon is the leading provider of cloud-based software for the Meetings and Events industry, and Transient Hotel Programs. Leveraging more than 40 years of industry experience, the Company enables thousands of associations, Small to Mid-sized Businesses and enterprise organizations around the world to drive efficiency, engagement and growth from their meetings, events and travel investments. Clients include 70% of the Fortune 500, 80% of the Business Travel News Corporate Travel 100, and more than 100,000 hospitality suppliers. For more information, visit Lanyon, today.

Note: All trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

Connect with us:
Twitter @Lanyon
Lanyon on YouTube http://bit.ly/1fevY3S
ACTIVE Network™ Business Solutions on YouTube http://bit.ly/1k3fnic
Event Management Blog http://blog.regonline.com
Strategic Meetings Management Blog http://www.activeevents.com/learn

*Sources:

• PhocusWright, “Groups and Meetings: Market Opportunity Redefined,” January 2007
• PriceWaterhouseCoopers, “Hospitality and Leisure: Hospitality Directions US,” August 2010
• Global Hotel Perspectives, “Overview of the Global Hotel Industry”
• The American Hotel & Lodging Association: http://www.ahla.com/information/

Contacts

Lanyon
Media contact U.S.:
Jason Ferrara, Senior Vice President of Global Marketing
Office +1 (469) 619.0994
Mobile +1 (773) 315.3400
jason.ferrara@lanyon.com
or
Media contact EMEA:
Roland Tanner, Managing Director of EMEA
Office +44 1844.211644
Mobile +44 7703.653496
roland.tanner@lanyon.com