Building Competitive Advantage: How TrueTour™ Became a Must Have to Marriott Chicago O’Hare’s Sales

Chicago Marriott O’Hare, is the seventh Marriott built, back in 1967, and offers a unique blend of history and modern amenities, conveniently located near O’Hare International Airport and downtown Chicago. It has 470 rooms, an outdoor pool, and 40,000 square feet of meeting space renovated in 2020. Their clientele is mainly corporate and association-focused, with leisure business peaking during weekends, especially in summer, thanks to their outdoor pool. They also attract guests from downtown who seek easy access to their location, conveniently serviced by the Chicago Transit Authority and the Blue Line to O’Hare.

Situation

Colette Kukla, the Director of Sales and Marketing, is a seasoned user of Visiting Media’s platform, having implemented it now on the third property she’s managed in the last few years. TrueTour is a must-have for her since it facilitates direct communication between their sales team and clients, allowing them to visualize and experience hotel spaces before visiting. The tool especially benefits remote and hybrid workers, providing real-time, interactive views rather than outdated photos. They add their immersive tour link into Cvent, email signatures, and on their brand.com website since these channels play a significant role in driving that type of business, alongside repeated guests.

They’ve also introduced CGI to showcase room setups, helping planners and brides envision their events confidently and with detailed diagrams to ensure everything fits as promised, addressing common concerns in event planning.

Chicago Marriott O’Hare was the first property managed and owned by Columbia Sussex using TrueTour. With the success of her property, Colette was able to present the tool to the management group, which led them to implement it in other properties of their portfolio.

Process

She mentions that all three implementations she’s been through exceeded her expectations. Despite her team having never used a platform like this in all three properties, Visiting Media’s Sales and Customer Success teams were incredibly supportive, guiding her employees through training and assisting. The only challenge during implementation was finding quiet time to shoot since they serve many airport guests and operations run continuously 24/7.

Solution and Results

For Colette, working with Visiting Media is a no-brainer because it brings competitiveness to the business. Besides, TrueTour works pretty conveniently with Marriott Sales Companion, allowing updates to documents and banquet menus in real-time on the link. This ensures that information remains current and easily accessible without requiring complete rewrites. This capability helps keep their offerings fresh and relevant.

This, to me, is a no-brainer to be competitive and securing business. I think this technology is almost expected by the clients. And when we do it through Marriott Sales Companion, we just add the link and whenever I have to make updates to any type of document, I just do it in real time and the link gets updated, eliminating the need to re-send any document.

Besides the benefits applied to her team directly, planners and end-users also get benefits from the tool. By using interactive formats rather than traditional documents, clients can easily share and present ideas to stakeholders, fostering a better understanding of the space and layout for events, and ultimately increasing comfort for those less experienced in meeting planning. That said, she noticed that businesses are closing faster once clients are presented with their TrueTour link.

I know our conversion rate has increased, and the time it takes for us to close the business when we share it with our clients is quicker. Once we do a virtual call with someone and walk them through the space, the buy-in starts to happen much quicker.

A Big Win

She recalls a recent deal where TrueTour offered comfort and efficiency to a client when a delicate moment in their personal life occurred during  the organization’s critical decision process time frame, leading to a successful closure of the deal. “We’ve got a large group coming in 2026 that was choosing between Chicago and St. Louis, both Marriott products. And the gentleman wasn’t able to travel. He had an illness which then turned into, unfortunately, death in the family. So, his travel was curtailed. Having the TrueTour and being able to walk him through it gave him comfort, and we closed it.”

Summary

Chicago Marriott O’Hare has successfully leveraged Visiting Media’s TrueTour platform to enhance client engagement and streamline the event planning process. Integrating innovative technology that allows potential clients to visualize the hotel spaces interactively not only improves communication but also fosters a more efficient decision-making process.

Marriott Chicago O’Hare Quicklook

• Management & Ownership Group: Columbia Sussex
• Brand: Marriott International
• Segment: Premium – Full Service
• Space: 470 rooms | 40,000 sq. ft. meeting space
• TrueTour Facts: third hotel that Colette was able to implement the tool. She noticed a drastic impact on sale cycle and conversion rates attributed to the use of TrueTour