The challenge
A 12-property mid-tier hotel chain spread across Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities ran central reservations from a 9-seat call centre in Hyderabad. IDS Next held the live inventory but the agents alt-tabbed between five screens. Group RFPs from corporates and travel agents took 2-3 days to quote because someone had to ring each property GM. By the time quotes went out, the group had already booked elsewhere.
How we deployed
- Built a CRS bot reading IDS Next inventory live across all 12 properties on web, WhatsApp and inbound voice.
- Wired Booking.com and MMT extranets into the same availability layer to prevent oversell.
- Built a group-RFP intake form that pulled rate cards, property capacity and blackout dates automatically.
- AI agent generated a draft proposal with room blocks, banquet inclusions and payment terms in under 4 hours.
- Routed the draft to a regional sales manager for one-click send via Twilio + email.
What changed
- 71% of central reservations now automated end-to-end without agent touch.
- Group-RFP turnaround compressed from 2-3 days to under 4 hours.
- Conversion on quoted group enquiries lifted 29% on speed alone.
- Call-centre seats reduced from 9 to 5 — redeployed to high-value MICE accounts.
- Property GMs reclaimed roughly 4 hours per week previously spent on rate-quote calls.
"Group sales used to be lost on speed. We were quoting on Wednesday for a Friday event. Now we quote in 4 hours and the conversion math fixed itself."
— VP Revenue · 12-property hotel chain