Explore venues and hotels

Explore is where planners look for places before asking them for offers. You search for event venues or for hotels to hold rooms at, compare them on a list or a map, and shortlist the good ones into a sourcing workspace. The places come from Google, and hotel and room prices come from live rate searches. Nothing is sent to a property until you send the RFP from the workspace.

Search for venues or hotels#

1. 1
   On the hub, press Browse venues and rooms to open Explore. You need Sourcing (RFP) on your account.
2. 2
   Choose what you want at the top of the search. Choose Venues for meeting and event space, or Room block hotels for guest rooms.
3. 3
   Pick the kind of place in the strip under the search bar.

   • For venues, tick one or more kinds, such as Hotel with event space, Convention / exhibition centre or Banquet / ballroom. If you tick none, Explore looks for hotels with event space.
   • For hotels, tick the Hotel banding you want (Luxury and Upper upscale are ticked to start) and the type of stay (Hotel is ticked to start, with Private Resort, Serviced Apartment, Extended Stay and Other as choices). At least one of each always stays ticked.
4. 4
   Fill in Where, Dates and Guests. Start typing a city in Where and choose it from the suggestions. Press Select date range to open the calendar. A search needs all three, because they are also what the RFP will ask for.
5. 5
   If you want, type words into Anything specific to look for them in the listings.
6. 6
   Check the Currency at the top right. Hotel rates, and the rates shown for venues that also have rooms, appear in it.
7. 7
   Press Search venues or Search stays. The button reads Searching… while it works, and only one search runs at a time.

app.thehapr.com/hub/explore

1. 1Search for venues.
2. 2Search for room block hotels.
3. 3Where the event is.
4. 4The dates.
5. 5Run the search.
6. 6Venue types, such as hotels with event space.

On a phone the search is a full-screen step. The fields are Where are you going?, Event dates, Number of attendees and Currency, with Type of venue, Hotel rating and Type of accommodation for the kind of place. The button reads Search.

If a field is empty when you press the button, it is ringed in red and a red line says what is missing. The button is never greyed out.

Narrow and sort the results#

Results come back as cards, 20 to a page, with a count such as the number of venues in your city. On a phone, press the filter icon to open Filters.

• Venues can be filtered by Venue type, with a count beside each type, and by Distance from the centre. Press Show all to see every type.
• Hotels can be filtered by Hotel banding, Accommodation type, Nightly rate and Distance from the centre. Move the two handles on Nightly rate to set the lowest and highest rate. Until prices come back it shows None yet.
• Press Clear all to remove every filter. A note under the filters says how many results are filtered out.
• A property that has no star class, rate or location is never filtered out by that control.
• Type in Search by name… to find one property in the list.
• Press Sort to order by Recommended, Distance, Rating, Nightly rate or Most reviewed. Recommended weighs how close, how well rated and how fairly priced each property is.

Filtering never runs a new search, so it costs nothing. If you change Where, Dates or Guests after a search, Explore asks you to press Search again rather than running one for you.

See the results on a map#

Press View on map in the results bar. A window opens, named after your city, with a pin for every result that has a location. Press a pin to see that property's address, stars, distance from the centre, nightly rate and guest rating. The map shows everything that passes your filters, not only the current page.

Open a property#

Press a card to open its overview. On a computer you can also press View contact on the card, and on a phone press View details.

• The card and the overview show the name, address, how far it is from the centre, its type, stars and guest rating.
• Hotels show the price per night. A venue that also has rooms shows a nightly rate marked as rooms on site. Other venues show Google's price level, such as two dollar signs of four, or say This property does not have accommodation or No published rate for this property.
• Press Open in Google Maps to see it on a map. The phone number and website, when the listing has them, are in Contact & Directory.

Build a shortlist#

Your shortlist belongs to a sourcing workspace. Explore saves it to the workspace as you add and remove properties.

1. 1
   Press the heart on a property, or press Add to Shortlist in its overview.
2. 2
   If you have not chosen a workspace yet, a small box asks which one to add the property to. Choose a workspace from the list, or press Create workspace.
3. 3
   To create one, fill in Workspace name / Event name, What kind of event, Event dates and Venue city & country, then press Continue. Your search fills in what it can, and the property goes straight onto the new workspace.
4. 4
   You can also choose a workspace first. In My workspace at the right, press Select a workspace, or Create new workspace. When you have more than ten workspaces a search box appears. Workspaces shared with you show Shared by and the person's name.
5. 5
   A message says Added with the property's name, and View takes you to the shortlist. My workspace shows where and when the workspace is, how many venues and hotels you have shortlisted, and each property by name.
6. 6
   To take a property off, press the heart again or the cross beside its name. A message offers Undo for a few seconds.

On a phone, the bar at the bottom has the workspace button and Shortlisted, which opens the list.

You can shortlist up to five venues and five hotels in each city. If you reach the limit, Explore says so and suggests taking one off to swap or searching somewhere else.

Reveal and add contacts#

To invite a property, you need someone to send the invitation to.

1. 1
   Open the property's overview and look at Contact & Directory. Opening it is free and tells you how many contacts are available.
2. 2
   Press Reveal contacts. The line under the button says what it will use, such as one of your reveals, or HAPR credits once your reveals are used up. Contacts are listed with their role, such as Sales, Reservations or General Manager, plus email and phone.
3. 3
   Or press Add Key Contact and fill in Full Name and Business Email. You can add Phone (optional) and a Role, then press Save Key Contact.

A key contact is saved for your workspace team and is marked Key Contact. It leads the list. Press the bin beside it to delete it.

Adding a property to a shortlist looks up its contacts for you, so a shortlisted property usually has contacts already.

Continue in your workspace#

Press Go to workspace in My workspace, or the workspace button on a phone, to carry on. Explore never sends anything. From the workspace you describe what you need and send the RFP. See Venue sourcing and Room block sourcing. For the workspace itself, see Sourcing workspaces.

Good to know#

• A search that finds at least one property uses one search from your plan's allowance. A search that finds nothing, or fails, is not counted. Once the allowance is used up, searches use HAPR credits instead, and a line under the search button says how many. When you are close to the limit, the same line shows how many searches are left.
• Running the same search again within three days, by anyone in your organisation, is free. The results bar says Same search as earlier, not charged. There are up to 20 free repeats a day.
• Revealing a property's contacts is counted once for your whole organisation. After that your team sees them for free, and a lookup that finds nobody is free.
• Your last results and shortlist are kept in this browser tab. Going to another page and coming back does not repeat the search.
• Only workspaces for venues and room block hotels can take a shortlist. Rate programmes are not listed.
• A property that has already been invited stays on the list when you try to take it off. Withdraw it from the workspace instead.
• See Quotas and credits for how your allowance and credits work.

If something looks wrong#

• Your account does not include Sourcing (RFP). Contact your administrator to enable it. Ask an administrator to turn Sourcing on for you. See Roles and access.
• Pick the currency to price in. Choose a Currency at the top right and search again.
• Those dates have already started, so hotels cannot be priced for them. Pick dates from today onward. Change the Dates.
• The hotel search timed out before answering. Nothing was charged twice - try again. Press Search stays again.
• The venue search could not be made just now. Nothing was charged - try again. Wait a moment and press Search venues again.
• Too many place lookups just now. Please wait a moment and try again. You searched very quickly. Wait a moment and try again.
• Contact lookup is unavailable just now. Please try again later. Add a key contact yourself, or try the lookup later.
• Your shortlist could not be saved to the workspace. It is still here in this tab. Check your connection and add the property again.
• A search with no results says No venues found or No places to stay found. Try different dates, a nearby city or fewer filters. On a phone, press Edit search.
• When your allowance and credits are used up, a message tells you to upgrade or buy HAPR credits. See Quotas and credits.