CSTV, the Big West's sponsorship agency, today added Groople as the fourth member of the 2007-08 Big West corporate partner family that also includes Downtown Disney, Easton and Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club.
Groople, the leading online group travel planning and booking site, becomes the Big West's official online group hotel reservation agency as part of the three-year agreement. The partnership will provide several advantages for the Big West including the ability for teams, officials and fans to book discounted rates on hotels, airfare and cars for all tournaments and games.
"This partnership has the potential to change the sports travel industry by leveraging the large volume of travelers to games with secure price-points not available to individual travelers," said Mike Stacy, CEO of Groople. "By providing the Big West with more than the traditional travel services, and offering both online and offline agent support, we can meet the needs of the organization."
The agreement includes a designated web site for the Big West on the Groople site, allowing access to room blocks for tournaments, shootouts, championships as well as fan and official travel links. Groople's purchasing power and long standing relationships with preferred hotel partners give the Big West's constituent groups substantial discounts at a more than 20 percent lower rate.
"Groople has created a "hands-free" way to offer hotel booking services to Big West teams, fans and officials for sports, business and leisure travel," said Rob Halvaks, Senior Associate Commissioner of the Big West. "Teams can realize significant savings in both time and money through this new partnership. The Big West benefits from Groople's ability to negotiate better discount rates with its multi-conference relationships."
In addition to money savings, Groople provides the ability for each conference tournament to have its own web page on Groople's newest social networking feature, GroopVine.
The partnership, in addition to handling hotel room bookings for all Big West championship events, looks to build and strengthen the relationship with alumni, students and each campus community.
About Groople: Groople (www.groople.com) is a combination of the words GROups and peOPLE – GROOPLE…we understand groups and we provide the best planning and booking tools for any group! Headquartered in Centennial, Colorado, Groople was launched in 2004. For more than three years Groople, the leading group travel Website, has worked with thousands of people from a wide variety of groups and has come to understand that planning, searching and booking group travel arrangements should be a fun part of group travel. At Groople, we're working around the clock to negotiate the best rates for hotels and cars and find the best locations to fit your group's needs. We provide booking capability on more than 60,000 hotels located on four continents, twenty-five islands and one mountain top. Through our social networking environment we allow travelers to collaborate and compare travel options before any decisions are made. After reserving a block of rooms, group members are welcome to pay for their rooms individually online or in one payment made by the group leader.
Groople allows groups to shop online with confidence through our low price guarantee. We search far and wide to provide free rooms, upgrades and other special amenities wherever your group qualifies.
Groople…Group Travel Made Easy
About CSTV Networks: CSTV Networks, Inc., now part of the CBS Corporation, is the leading digital and cable programming company dedicated to college sports. Connecting more fans to more college sports than any other company, its many platforms for programming distribution include CSTV: College Sports TV, televising regular-season and championship events for 35 men's and women's college sports; CSTV.com and its network of nearly 250 official athletic sites; CSTV All Access, broadband services providing live audio and video of more than 7,000 events annually; as well as satellite television and radio, in-flight entertainment, wireless networks and more. Further information is available at www.CSTV.com