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Hotel booking for groups and events.
Key people at Roomblocker.
Roomblocker was founded in 2014 by Dave Yen (Founder/CEO) and Michael Wang (Founder/CTO).
Roomblocker provides a specialized platform designed to streamline the complex process of booking hotel accommodations for groups and events. This service facilitates the entire reservation workflow, from gathering bids from various hotels to managing individual bookings for participants. Its core offering addresses the inefficiencies inherent in traditional group travel planning, offering a consolidated approach to securing blocks of rooms.
The company was founded in 2014 by Dave Yen, Michael Wang, Mike Wang, and Mike Huang. Their collective insight stemmed from the recognized difficulty and fragmented nature of arranging hotel stays for multiple individuals, whether for corporate events or personal celebrations. They aimed to develop a unified solution that would simplify this logistical challenge for organizers and attendees alike.
Roomblocker primarily serves event organizers, wedding planners, and individuals coordinating group travel for various occasions. The company’s vision is to make group hotel booking an effortless experience, enabling seamless connections for people attending significant gatherings. It aims to eliminate friction in securing appropriate lodging, allowing groups to focus on the event itself.
Roomblocker was founded in 2014 by Dave Yen (Founder/CEO) and Michael Wang (Founder/CTO).
Key people at Roomblocker.
Roomblocker is a technology platform that modernizes and simplifies the complex process of booking hotel room blocks for groups and events such as conferences, weddings, and corporate outings. It provides group organizers with a dedicated concierge who manages hotel bids, negotiates rates, and facilitates an online reservation page for guests to book rooms easily. The platform offers a dashboard for organizers to track reservations and automate reminders, improving transparency and efficiency. Roomblocker serves event planners, corporate clients, and personal groups, addressing the traditionally cumbersome and offline group booking process. The company monetizes by taking commissions from hotels rather than charging users, targeting a $137 billion global market where about 25% of hotel bookings are group blocks. Early customers included major companies like Salesforce and Dropbox, indicating strong initial traction and growth potential[1][3].
Roomblocker was founded in 2014 by Dave Yen and Michael Wang, both former Salesforce employees. The idea emerged from recognizing the inefficiencies and outdated practices in group hotel bookings, which often involved manual calls, faxed signatures, and fragmented guest tracking. The founders aimed to digitize and streamline this process by combining concierge service with a user-friendly online platform. Roomblocker participated in Y Combinator’s Summer 2015 batch, gaining early momentum and credibility. The company started with a small team based in San Francisco and quickly attracted enterprise clients and personal event organizers, validating the demand for a modern solution in this space[1][2][3].
Roomblocker rides the broader trend of digitizing and automating traditionally manual and fragmented travel processes, particularly in the group travel segment. While individual hotel bookings have been largely transformed by online travel agencies and platforms, group bookings have lagged behind due to their complexity. The timing is favorable as the global group hotel booking market is large ($137 billion) and increasingly demanding digital solutions for efficiency and transparency. Roomblocker’s model aligns with the growing expectation for seamless, tech-enabled event planning and corporate travel management. By streamlining group bookings, Roomblocker influences both the hospitality industry and event management ecosystems, encouraging hotels to adopt more modern, scalable booking technologies and improving the overall guest experience[1][3][6].
Roomblocker’s future likely involves expanding its technological capabilities, such as integrating guest payment processing and further automating contract and booking workflows. As hybrid and large-scale events continue to grow post-pandemic, demand for efficient group booking solutions will increase. Trends such as mobile-first booking, personalized guest experiences, and data-driven event planning will shape Roomblocker’s evolution. The company’s ability to capture a larger share of the $137 billion market depends on scaling its concierge model and deepening partnerships with hotels. If successful, Roomblocker could become a critical infrastructure player in group travel, influencing how hotels and event organizers collaborate digitally. Its early traction with enterprise clients and weddings positions it well to capitalize on these trends and expand its ecosystem impact[1][3].
