About Meeting Encore
Meeting Encore and Fuel Sports juggle over 1,000 global events every year. That’s a lot of RFPs, a lot of emails, and—before Hopskip—a lot of Excel-induced headaches. By switching to Hopskip’s platform, they turned their sourcing process from a game of inbox whack-a-mole into something that actually, you know, works. Hotels respond faster, proposals look better, and the team finally has time to breathe.
The Problem: The “Before Times” (AKA: The Excel Era)
Picture this: You’re managing over 1,000 events annually across the globe. Your toolkit? Excel templates and a prayer that hotels will respond to your emails with all the information you need. Spoiler alert: they won’t.
Meeting Encore and Fuel Sports were living this reality. They’d send out RFPs via email, cross their fingers, and inevitably spend days chasing down missing details. “Wait, did you include the AV pricing?” “Can you send those meeting room dimensions again?” It was like playing telephone, but with higher stakes and fewer laughs.
The proposals that eventually made it to clients weren’t exactly show-stoppers either. Without a standardized format, the team spent hours manually formatting everything to look presentable. Meanwhile, clients were left squinting at walls of text, trying to compare hotels without a decoder ring.
The verdict? This wasn’t sustainable. Meeting Encore needed to work smarter, not harder—and definitely not Excel-er.
The Solution: Enter Hopskip
Hopskip swooped in like the organized friend who color-codes their calendar and actually enjoys it. Suddenly, Meeting Encore had a centralized platform where RFPs were standardized, hotels were easy to source, and everything lived in one beautiful, accessible place.
The RFP game got an upgrade. With structured templates, hotels knew exactly what information to provide upfront. No more “Oops, forgot to mention the resort fee” moments. No more follow-up email chains longer than a CVS receipt.
Communication went from snail mail to speed dating. Hopskip’s built-in chat feature became the team’s secret weapon. Need a quick answer from a hotel? Ping them directly in the platform. Response times dropped from “eventually” to “actually fast”—we’re talking 50% faster.
Proposals went from “meh” to “wow.” The comparison reporting tool transformed client presentations from bland spreadsheets into visually appealing documents complete with hotel photos and side-by-side comparisons. Clients could actually see their options without needing an aspirin. The team could generate these reports in a fraction of the time, leaving more bandwidth for the fun stuff (like, you know, actually planning events).
Plus, Hopskip kept everything organized—RFPs, contracts, notes, communication history—all in one spot. No more “Wait, where did I save that?” panic moments at 4:45 PM on a Friday.
The Results: Why They’re Never Going Back
Within months of making the switch, Meeting Encore’s sourcing process went from chaotic to chef’s kiss:
- 50% faster hotel response times – Clients make decisions quicker, the team moves faster, everyone wins.
- 30% time savings per RFP – That’s 30% more time for coffee, strategy, or literally anything that isn’t chasing down incomplete hotel responses.
- Clients who actually compliment the proposals – “Fresh new look” and “easy to review” aren’t phrases you typically hear about RFP documents, but here we are.
Beyond the numbers, the real win was peace of mind. The team could handle their massive event volume without sacrificing quality or their sanity. Client relationships got stronger. Presentations got sharper. And everyone could finally stop pretending Excel was designed for this.
“Our clients are loving the ‘new look’ of our proposals with hotel photos and information laid out in an easy-to-review format. Our team is enjoying the organization Hopskip provides in keeping RFPs, contracting, and communications all in one place that is easy to access and review.”
Grace McCullough
Client Ambassador, Meeting Encore Ltd.
The takeaway? Sometimes the best business decision is admitting your current process is held together by duct tape and good intentions—and finding a tool that actually solves the problem. For Meeting Encore, that tool was Hopskip. For their Excel templates? It was time for retirement.
Ready to Ditch the Chaos?
See what Hopskip can do for your event sourcing process. Start for free today or book a demo and discover why teams like Meeting Encore are never going back to Excel.
