Founder Story: Nikhil Sethi on how Workgrounds is modernizing group travel booking
Nikhil Sethi's new startup Workgrounds
Nikhil Sethi experienced the challenges of corporate group travel booking while running his adtech startup Adaptly, both before and after it was acquired by Accenture. This made him realize that whether a company was 200- or 800,000-people strong, they all faced the same problem. Whereas booking travel for one person is easy to do online, booking five or more hotel rooms for team gatherings or conferences requires an overwhelming amount of manual coordination and time - a lot of phone calls and emails to discover group rates and coordinate details - even though the corporate travel space is a market that is over $75 billion in the US alone.
So Nikhil and his Adaptly co-founder Garrett Ullom teamed up again to build Workgrounds, to using the best of the new wave of AI technology to streamline hotel room block management for companies of all sizes. Here’s our interview of Nikhil on how Workgrounds is transforming corporate travel.
The Problem: Why Booking Multiple Hotel Rooms Is Still Complicated
For team off-sites, customer meetings, and conferences, booking several rooms is a slow, manual process involving calls and emails with hotel sales teams. Even major companies like Google and Apple deal with this inefficient approach, often losing valuable time and resources in the process. Booking group blocks can often lead to 30-40% savings - but sourcing all the options can’t be done online today. Often, team leaders or admins (if they have them) will handle this work.
Workgrounds: A Smarter Solution for Hotel Room Blocks
Workgrounds simplifies the process by allowing companies to receive automated proposals from multiple hotels, regardless of the room quantity needed. From startups with 100 employees to multinationals, the platform eliminates the hassle of room block booking, providing a faster and more cost-effective solution.
The Rise of Distributed Teams and New Travel Solutions
Remote and hybrid work models have increased the need for team gatherings, making efficient travel arrangements essential. Having experienced this need firsthand, at Adaptly (~200 employees) and then at Accenture (~800k employees), Nikhil & Garrett knew it was a widespread problem. Workgrounds provides a seamless experience, booking rooms as easily as you would a single room online, with proposals from nearby hotels instantly available.
Utilizing AI Agents in the Background
Although Workgrounds relies heavily on AI agents, none of its end users need to change anything about their own existing workflows to learn how to use the technology. People making the bookings go to the user-friendly Workgrounds.com website and input their preferences the way they would a typical travel booking website. And on the hotels’ end, there is no need for a complex technology integration; sales associates are working with inbound leads the same way they typically would.
Meanwhile, in the background, Workgrounds employs AI agents to help with the manual coordination and communication required to source pricing from multiple hotels and stay in constant contact. It’s an elegant way to utilize AI agents seamlessly.
Expanding Beyond Corporate Travel
While tech companies are frequent users, the demand for room blocks spans many industries and use cases. Associations, government groups, sports teams, and wedding parties can all all benefit from the platform’s efficiency. Workgrounds is a solution for any group needing multiple rooms.
Built for Growth
After a successful pilot, Workgrounds officially launched this past summer and has seen rapid growth each quarter. They’re solving a major pain point in corporate travel, saving organizations time and costs on room block management.
Anyone dealing with group travel, employee experience, or event planning for groups from 100 to 5,000 people can reach out to Nikhil (Nikhil at workgrounds dot com) to get started.
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