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Turning Simple Meetings Strategic

Simple meetings are the quiet giant of corporate travel and meetings. From team check-ins and training sessions to partner workshops and client roundtables, these events happen daily — across cities, departments, and time zones. And while they rarely make headlines or require a full-scale RFP, they collectively represent a major source of spend, risk, and opportunity.

Yet in many organizations, simple meetings remain unmanaged. Employees book hotels and meeting spaces ad hoc, outside approved tools, with no oversight into cost, sustainability, or duty of care. They pay for these meetings on varied platforms, card products built for travel or procurement, direct invoices, and more. The result is leakage, lost savings, compliance exposure, and a fragmented experience that runs counter to corporate goals.

The time has come to treat simple meetings not as exceptions, but as a strategic asset. With the right tools — and the right mindset — companies can bring structure, intelligence, and control to this overlooked category. And with HRS Connect, doing so no longer requires complex processes or enterprise-level procurement overhead.

Why Simple Meetings Deserve a Big Strategy

‍According to internal data across HRS’s global enterprise clients, simple meetings:

• Account for over 70%-80% of all meeting activity by volume.
• Are booked by non-travelers or administrative staff in 85% of cases.
• Frequently involve the same hotel properties used for transient travel.
• Are rarely reported in centralized spend or sustainability data.

This gap presents both a problem and an opportunity. Unmanaged, these meetings create compliance and reporting risks. But managed strategically, they unlock:

• Consolidated hotel spend for better risk mitigation opportunities.
• Real-time sustainability tracking across hotel and meeting use.
• Improved policy alignment without creating user friction.
• Enhanced traveler and attendee experience through better support.

In short: simple meetings are where improved leverage, efficiency through automation and real visibility begin.

The Mistake: Applying Big-Meeting Tools to Simple-Meeting Needs

‍Most enterprise meeting tools function as marketplaces for meetings and events, rather than platforms designed to streamline simple corporate meetings. They involve lengthy RFPs, multi-supplier coordination, and high administrative effort. Trying to apply these systems to simple meetings is like using a freight truck to deliver a pizza. It doesn’t work. The process is too slow, the UI too complex, and the ROI too low.

What simple meetings need is a lightweight, intelligent layer that:

• Surfaces pre-approved hotels and meeting spaces.
• Applies policy automatically (max spend, lead time, cancellation terms).
• Allows easy booking by admins or occasional users.
• Feeds spend and sustainability data into the broader program.
• Ensures seamless, touchless payment with full invoice accuracy.

This is exactly what HRS Connect for Meetings is designed to do.

Embedding Simple Meetings into the Travel Ecosystem

‍Instead of treating meetings as a standalone process, leading companies embed them into the overall travel and meetings ecosystem — aligning the experience for both travelers and attendees. This allows them to:

• Use existing hotel partners for both lodging and meeting room spend.
• Capture total value during sourcing events and RFPs.
• Track CO₂ emissions across all hotel usage — not just overnight stays.
• Ensure safety and duty of care for meeting attendees.

The booking experience also becomes unified. With HRS Connect, simple meetings can be requested through the same interface employees use for hotels — with policy guardrails and supplier controls baked in. This encourages adoption, reduces leakage, and brings spend into view — without burdening users with extra systems or steps.

The Role of AI: Making the Simple Even Smarter

‍With HRS Copilot, companies can go further by applying AI to meetings management. This includes:

• Recommending meeting venues based on team location data and CO₂ optimization.
• Suggesting bundled hotel + meeting packages to reduce total cost.
• Forecasting small meeting trends by department or function.
• Flagging non-compliant or inefficient bookings in real time.

By applying intelligence to simple meetings, organizations unlock new layers of efficiency — and insights that can shape broader policy and supplier decisions.

Success Story: Turning Simple Meetings into Strategic Value

‍A global pharmaceutical client using HRS Connect was able to:

• Bring 78% of small meeting volume into managed channels within six months.
• Consolidate bookings into existing preferred hotel partners, reducing supplier sprawl.
• Save an average of €84 per meeting through automated policy enforcement and bundled booking.
• Feed meeting CO₂ data into their corporate ESG dashboard for Scope 3 emissions tracking.
• Unlock end-to-end savings across contract, invoice, and payment processes — including automated VAT reclaim.

None of this required new systems, training, or major process changes. It simply required the right layer of technology — and a shift in mindset.

HRS Perspective: Redefining Meetings Management for Meetings & Travel Strategies

‍At HRS, we believe simple meetings are where modern meetings management begins. By embedding automation, policy, and reporting into everyday booking flows, companies can:

• Gain control over previously invisible spend.
• Optimize supplier relationships with a holistic sourcing view — and finally solve the most painful part of the M&E space: payment.
• Elevate duty of care and sustainability for all attendees — not just travelers.

HRS CONNECT makes it easy. Lightweight workflows. Smart controls. Integrated data. And a seamless experience for end users.

The companies that rethink simple meetings now will be better prepared for tomorrow’s challenges — with a more intelligent, agile, and resilient travel and meetings program overall.

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