Professional Business Development

With PBD Express, Knowland’s highly-trained sales specialists act as an extension of a property’s sales team. The PBD specialist seeks out solid group business leads, pursues those leads, sends out the necessary documents, details the event and seals the deal. PBD Express was created after Knowland received feedback from hoteliers at express and limited service properties who felt they could not take full advantage of the products due to their limited meeting space.

Insight Express

PBD Express also includes Insight Express, an intuitive search engine and mapping tool designed for select service properties. Insight Express connects hotel sales managers with the world’s largest database of groups with event booking needs so the sales team can find the perfect groups for their property. Search results are displayed on a map and clients can view the top groups selected for their property. Each search result contains detailed group profiles: their name, address, number of events held, distance from the property and much more.

Insight Express includes intuitive Advanced Search options. The tool allows you to narrow your results nearly a dozen ways. Search for groups based on market, industry segment, estimated number of attendees and more.

Insight Express also includes two unique search features, Express Search and Overflow Search. Express Search allows hoteliers to explore our database to find groups that have held events at express and limited service properties, such as board meetings, training events, catering only events and reoccurring events. The group overview includes tabs for the number of events held, how many square feet were used and the date of the last event. The Overflow Search option is to find groups that hold large-scale events so express and limited service properties can pursue their overflow business. The Overflow Search tab also includes the group overview with the number of events held, how many square feet were used and the date of the last event.

In addition, Insight Express gives hotel sales teams the option of having a Knowland research professional find out a group’s Local Negotiated Rate (LNR) so you can counter-offer and undercut the competition to get more business for your property.

Target Net

The complete business development package also includes Target Net, Knowland’s cutting edge sales and catering tool. Target Net operates from the cloud, is completely browser-based and does not require costly installations and maintenance as other outdated software systems do. The tool puts sales teams in touch with Knowland’s massive group database and once the business is booked, they can organize events from meeting space to menus. Target Net contains a user-friendly BEO interface, which allows essential event information to be disseminated throughout the property quickly.

PBD Express will help select service hotels boost group sales and execute meetings with ease!