Antoine Giraud, Chief Commercial Officer.
The development strategy of the startup has come into focus over the past few months after an announcement of a new round of funding last September. Accompanying the injection of 3 million euros was the launch of Groupcorner Pro services dedicated to agencies and travel professionals.
PARIS – Groupcorner, European leader in group accommodation bookings, is experiencing steady growth and will offer white label partnerships to travel professionals. A new phase in development begins for the startup assisting travel industry professionals in the management of their group accommodation bookings.
Launched in June 2013, Groupcorner stands out as the leader in group accommodation bookings, with more than 23,000 accommodation partners throughout Europe. Based in Burgundy (France), the startup is revolutionizing the travel sector with its innovative solution for letting users select the best group accommodation offers quickly and easily. Groupcorner's technology allows users to save considerable time and effort searching for accommodation and provides hotel properties with a significant source of revenue while simplifying group booking management.
The development strategy of the startup has come into focus over the past few months after an announcement of a new round of funding last September. Accompanying the injection of 3 million euros was the launch of Groupcorner Pro services dedicated to agencies and travel professionals. The success of the program to assist agencies with the time-consuming task of group accommodation bookings has led Groupcorner to expand the strategy to partnerships for turn-key online group booking solutions. More than 300 agencies have already joined Groupcorner Pro.
A new path to growth for travel professionals
Aware of the difficulties of managing group requests (bookings of 10 participants or more), Groupcorner proposes its technology in the form of white label partnerships to travel industry players such as airlines, coach companies, trains, travel agencies and tourist offices. The solution brings the following benefits to travel professionals:
- Offer Groupcorner services as a white label solution on the partner's own website (desktop/mobile) to offer group accommodation solutions for their clients seeking group reservations.
- Take advantage of Groupcorner.com's expertise (over 20 000 group accommodation requests in 2018)
- Obtain extra sources of revenue with a share of commissions generated by sales volume.
- Propose a personalized website to match the partner's colors for improved client experience.
- Present a wide range of destinations and properties adapted to meet the different needs of groups, thanks to an intelligent algorithm that defines the detailed needs of each group.
- Get access to an extranet to manage all requests and display real time reports for total transparency between – Groupcorner and partners sharing invoices, commission amounts, etc.
Readily adopted by several major travel professionals confronted by limitations and obstacles to group reservations, Groupcorner's solution has helped them upgrade their offer and services to this market segment while obtaining a conversion rate of 25% (1 user out of 4 confirms the booking request). The results are clear : more requests and increased revenue.
A partnership expert joins Groupcorner
Encouraged by its many successful partnerships, Groupcorner decided to strengthen the business team and announced the nomination of Antoine Giraud as Chief Commercial Officer.
Expert in travel sector partnerships, Antoine began his career in 2001 as Director of Operations at Venere.com, where he worked to develop the startup until it was purchased by Expedia in 2008. Then, he joined the English startup LateRooms.com in 2009, first as General Manager Italy, then as European Development Director and finally as Sales Director. At Laterooms.com, he worked closely with over a thousand partner sites while developing a new brand and new partnerships with the largest websites and travel agencies in the UK and Europe.
"In today's travel industry everyone does group bookings without really doing them well. A professional and quick approach to group bookings is a key component and Groupcorner is the only solution that brings both technology and human expertise. My ambition is to facilitate the implementation of this solution to travel professionals everywhere in Europe" Antoine Giraud, Chief Commercial Officer.
"We are delighted that Antoine Giraud has joined our team and will participate in the deployment of all Groupcorner's solutions. He has true expertise creating partnerships in the travel industry. The results of the last few months have shown that travel professionals' needs for managing group accommodation, often time-consuming yet essential for sales revenue, are crucial" Antoine De Corson, co-founder and CEO at Groupcorner.
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She holds a Bachelor's degree in Communication & Mass Media from Panteion University of Political & Social Studies of Athens and she has been editor and editor-in-chief in various economic magazines and newspapers.
