At a time when digital transformation is reshaping the meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) sector, Spalba has emerged as a pioneering event-tech platform that combines hyper-realistic digital twins, 3D event visualisation, and venue marketplace capabilities to streamline the venue selection process.  Vishal Puri, Co-founder of Spalba, is on a mission to transform how hotels sell event spaces and how planners discover, evaluate, and book venues.With more than 12,000 venues listed, over 3,350 event spaces digitised, and thousands of planners and corporates actively using the platform, Spalba is helping hotels shorten sales cycles, generate qualified leads, and improve conversion rates. In this interview with Travel Daily Media, Puri discusses the evolution of venue discovery, the growing adoption of virtual site inspections, the platform's competitive advantages, and his vision for building the digital infrastructure that will power the future of the events industry.

Travel Daily Media (TDM): Spalba serves both venues and event planners. Which side of the marketplace is currently the bigger growth priority, and how do you balance supply (venues) with demand (planners)?

Vishal Puri (VP): Supply builds the foundation. Without a rich, digitised inventory of quality venues, there is nothing meaningful to offer planners, and the marketplace does not function. So, in our early years, we invested heavily on the supply side: digitising properties, onboarding hotel partners, and building the inventory depth that would give planners a reason to use Spalba in the first place.

Today, with 12,000+ venues listed and 3,350+ event spaces fully digitised, that foundation is strong. The current growth priority is deepening the demand side: more planners, more corporates, more agencies actively sourcing on the platform. We already have 7,000+ users from agencies and corporates using Spalba, and the opportunity is to continue building that buyer-side depth.

I would push back slightly on the word "balance," though. The two sides do not compete for our attention; they compound each other. Every high-quality digitised property raises the value of the platform for planners. Every converted enquiry validates the investment for the hotel. Our 85% subscription renewal rate tells us venues are staying because they see real ROI. And demand growing organically tells us planners return because the experience is better than the alternative. The goal is to keep that flywheel moving.

TDM: What measurable impact have hotels seen in terms of lead conversion, banquet revenue, or sales cycle reduction after adopting Spalba's Digital Twin and event visualisation tools?

VP: The most consistent feedback from hotel partners centres on two things: faster decisions and better-qualified conversations.

When a planner can virtually walk a venue, see a hyperrealistic layout of their event setup in the actual space, and shortlist with confidence, the traditional back-and-forth of the discovery phase compresses significantly. We have seen sales cycles cut by up to 60% for properties that actively use our Digital Twin and Auto Layout Wizard. For a hotel's banquet and events sales team, that is a meaningful commercial outcome.

On the enquiry side, hotels on Spalba have collectively seen 14,790+ event enquiries generated through the platform, with hoteliers reporting a 35% enquiry-to-conversion rate. And because every RFP that comes through Spalba is zero commission, the economics of that conversion are structurally better than traditional channel sales.

The metric I find most telling, though, is our more than 90% renewal rate. This number simply reflects the value hotel partners are getting from the platform. Nine out of ten properties choose to renew. That tells us what we need to know.

TDM: Luxury hotels often rely heavily on physical site inspections. What has been the biggest challenge in driving the adoption of virtual venue discovery among hotel sales teams and event planners?

VP: The challenge has always been behavioural, not technological. Our job was to make venue owners believe that hyperealistic walkthroughs attract more physical visitors, and eventually, more business.

For hotel sales teams, the instinct is to get the planner on property. Walk them through the ballroom. Show them the terrace. That belief is understandable because it has worked for decades. What we had to help them see is that a digital twin does not replace the site visit; it earns it. When a planner has already virtually walked the space, seen a hyperrealistic mock-up of their event, and shortlisted the property with confidence, the site visit becomes a confirmation rather than a discovery call. That is a fundamentally stronger position for a sales team to be in.

The most resistant segment has been established luxury properties with legacy sales infrastructure: large banquet teams, senior GMs with well-established workflows, and a long history of face-to-face relationship selling. But even there, the shift is underway. Younger revenue managers, properties competing for international MICE business, and hotels that have seen a competitor digitise and gain visibility are all accelerating adoption. The conversion is happening. It moves at the pace of institutional change, but the direction is clear.

Also, a hyperealistic walkthrough is as effective as a physical site visit in many aspects. Visitors can measure the dimensions of the space effectively and quickly in a hyperealistic mockup as compared to a physical visit. And today, the industry acknowledges it.

TDM: Beyond 3D walkthroughs, what do you believe is Spalba's strongest differentiator against venue marketplaces and event planning platforms in India and globally?

VP: The digital twin is the entry point. The real differentiator is the full capability stack that surrounds it, which provides a venue with high-intent leads, a booking management system, event mockup builders, and a dedicated support team.

Most venue marketplaces are, at their core, enhanced directories: better photography, a search filter, maybe a virtual tour. What we have built is different in nature, not just in quality. The Auto Layout Wizard allows hotel sales teams to generate a 3D event mock-up for a client before any site visit has occurred. That is not a browsing tool; that is a closing tool. The Recce Tool gives planners dimensional accuracy, structural measurements, and floor plan access without requiring a physical visit. Wayfindr creates navigational infrastructure for planners managing multi-zone or multi-room event setups. Highlight Tours give planners curated guided walkthroughs tailored to the specific type of event they are planning.

Together, these tools do not just help people browse a venue. They help planners decide, and they help hotel sales teams close. That is a fundamentally different value proposition than a listings platform, and it is one that no comparable platform in India or globally has replicated. The reason is that building this stack requires deep domain knowledge of how venue sales actually work, not just how to digitise a space.

TDM: Do you see Spalba evolving primarily as a venue marketplace, an event operating system for planners, or a revenue-enablement platform for hospitality brands?

VP: All three, but in the right sequence. The marketplace is the foundation and will remain so. Without it, none of the subsequent layers has context or reaches. What we are building toward, from the hospitality side, is something closer to a revenue-enablement infrastructure for the events vertical of any property. For a hotel, Spalba already functions as a sales channel, a presentation tool, and a lead generation engine simultaneously. As that capability stack deepens, it begins to resemble a complete revenue enablement layer for banquet and events sales.

For planners, the direction is toward a unified operating environment: source the venue, visualise the event, connect with vendors, manage the enquiry, all within one ecosystem. We have activated a vendor discovery layer, and that vertical is growing.

These are not competing trajectories. They are the same platform seen from different sides of the marketplace. The long-term ambition is to be the infrastructure the events industry runs on, not just a marketplace you visit when you need a venue, but a system you work within.

TDM: If Spalba executes its vision successfully over the next three years, what will fundamentally change about how hotels sell event spaces and how planners source venues?

VP: Three things will look structurally different. The sales conversation will move upstream. Today, the first meaningful exchange between a hotel and a client often happens during or after a site visit. In three years, that conversation will begin much earlier in the buyer journey, after a client has virtually walked the space, seen a 3D event layout, and already shortlisted the property. The site visit becomes a confirmation, not an introduction. Hotel sales teams that understand this shift will be significantly more productive.

Venue selection will become more data-informed. Right now, most planners call multiple properties, take site visits, and make a gut call. As digital walkthroughs, layout tools, and platform data become standard, the process will be more confident and considerably faster. Decisions that take weeks will take minutes.

The role of a hotel's digital presence will be fundamentally redefined. A property's Spalba profile will function as its most active sales asset, working 24/7 across time zones to generate qualified interest. This concept is still relatively new for most properties. In three years, it will be a baseline expectation. The properties that moved early will have a structural advantage in visibility, pipeline, and conversion.

TDM: Can you share case studies and examples of successful hotel and event planning companies you have worked with over the last year?

VP: Some of India's most recognisable hospitality groups are subscribed to Spalba today, with properties under Marriott, The Leela, Hyatt, Hilton, Oberoi, and IHCL actively using the platform to drive enquiries and manage their event sales pipeline.

The outcomes across our subscribed base are consistent. Properties actively using the Digital Twin and Auto Layout Wizard are seeing sales cycles compressed by up to 60%. Collectively, hotels on the platform have seen 5,000+ event enquiries generated, and the 85% renewal rate across 450+ subscribed properties reflects sustained, demonstrable ROI.

On the demand side, 7,000+ agencies and corporates are sourcing on Spalba, spanning corporate conferences, MICE events, brand activations, and large-format social gatherings.