London: Navan expands AI tools for meetings and tourism
Navan has rolled out an advanced events capability inside its Meetings and Events platform, integrating BoomPop's AI venue sourcing to centralise how teams plan, book and pay for tourism-focused business events.
For hotels, venues and event pros, this pulls venue discovery, group travel and spend control into one system-fewer emails, fewer spreadsheets, faster decisions.
AI venue sourcing that shortens the path to "booked"
Business events fuel hotel occupancy, transportation demand and regional venues across the UK. With BoomPop's AI inside Navan, planners can identify destinations, check live availability and manage proposals without bouncing across tools.
- Search a curated marketplace of event-ready spaces with filters that match group size, dates and budget
- Digitally manage RFPs and compare proposals side by side
- Coordinate room blocks alongside venue selection to reduce leakage
This shift replaces long email threads and manual trackers with structured workflows, encouraging more organisations to place meetings across diverse destinations.
One itinerary for travel, rooms and the agenda
Attendees see flights, rail, car hire and hotel room blocks in a single view. Organisers publish custom event pages, RSVPs and schedules so updates flow to the right people, on time.
For large meetings and incentive trips, this means less friction from booking to check-out-and a better on-site experience that supports stronger tourism spend.
Financial visibility that holds up under scrutiny
Navan now combines real-time travel and expense data with venue contracts and invoices, giving finance a clean line of sight on total event cost.
- Pre-commit and actuals in one dashboard for faster approvals
- Policy, caps and exceptions tracked at the event level
- Post-event reporting to validate ROI and inform the next RFP
Clear cost control supports responsible growth in business tourism, a priority echoed by UK policy statements and industry programmes from VisitBritain Business Events and government strategy papers such as the Tourism Recovery Plan.
Risk and contract support built for what-ifs
The platform adds structured guidance for attrition, cancellation and force majeure terms. Standardised templates and expert support help teams protect budgets while maintaining strong partner relationships.
For venues and DMCs, this reduces back-and-forth and sets expectations early-fewer surprises later.
Closing the digital gap in group events
Navan reports facilitating nearly 85,000 events through its self-serve group travel solution, with a large share in 2025. Until now, venue sourcing and room blocks were the missing pieces.
Integrating BoomPop's AI fills that gap and creates a single ecosystem for destination discovery, travel logistics and finance-key factors as cities compete for high-value business events.
What this means for hotels, venues and organisers
- Hotels: Publish group-ready inventory with clear min/maxs, cut-off dates and concessions. Sync rates and availability to reduce manual updates and lost leads.
- Venues: Package AV, F&B and space into proposal templates with transparent pricing tiers. Make holds, options and deadlines visible in the portal.
- Organisers: Standardise RFP criteria, approval thresholds and payment terms. Centralise comms so suppliers see one source of truth.
Metrics to track from day one
- RFP-to-booking conversion rate and average time to contract
- Room block pick-up, attrition exposure and cost per attendee
- Lead times by destination and vendor response SLAs
- Variance between forecast and actual spend
How to operationalise this update
- Map your event types (SKOs, incentives, conferences) to standard workflows inside the platform
- Pre-build template budgets with guardrails for air, rail, rooms and venue costs
- Create a preferred venue list by destination with backup options and concessions
- Set reporting cadences: weekly pick-up, risk flags, and post-event ROI
- Train sales and finance on the same playbook to speed approvals
For teams building AI fluency in hospitality and events, explore practical guides and training under AI for Hospitality & Events.
The takeaway: centralised venue sourcing plus unified travel and finance gets events confirmed faster, keeps budgets honest and improves the guest experience-good for organisers, better for destinations.
Your membership also unlocks:
