Agiito has partnered with API developer, TravelTime, to provide venue options ranked by travel time in Meetingspro, its venue-finding booking tool.
It means Agiito’s meeting bookers will avoid the need to guess travel times or calculate them via third party websites.
Until now, TravelTime has specialised in the property and recruitment sectors and is now entering the business travel and meetings industry in partnership with Agiito.
“Venue-finding tools typically use straight-line distance to define the proximity of venues, a metric which assumes we travel in straight lines, which of course we don’t,” said Charlie Davies, CEO TravelTime.
“The reality is we must navigate the transport network around us, meaning the actual distances are often much further than displayed in venue listings. We were finding that bookers could book a venue they believed to be a short distance away based on a radius search, when the real travel time actually takes twice as long as they were expecting.”
The technology will streamline the venue selection process for bookers and also improve attendee punctuality, as it enables bookers to communicate travel times before the event takes place.
Furthermore, understanding the walking time will actively encourage attendees to walk to venues, which is a more cost-effective and sustainable alternative to using taxis or public transport.
“Currently, booking tools in the industry base the distance stated in venue searches on a straight-line measurement. By making the search results more relevant and accurate, we can offer our customers a more convenient, reliable and personalised experience when booking meetings,” said Carl Law, Chief Technology Officer, Agiito.
“We are proud to lead the way in the industry once again and take our technology in the right direction to be more booker and delegate centric. This will mark the first of what I hope to be an innovative partnership with TravelTime, as we work together to expand this functionality further and across other online booking tools”.
