Interview with Isabelle Kunze - University of Cologne
For years, Isabelle has been guiding students who are preparing to become secondary school teachers. Alongside her research in geography education, she organizes international exchange seminars where students connect theory to real classroom practice.
For a recent exchange, she travelled to Tilburg with a group of teaching students to collaborate with Fontys Hogescholen. The programme included joint seminars and classroom visits, where students observed how geography is taught in Dutch secondary schools.
Because the group travelled from Germany, an overnight stay was necessary. They stayed one night at ibis Tilburg. A short stay, but one that had to be carefully organised. Isabelle was accountable to both her students and the university. Every detail had to be right: from room allocations to invoicing.
Isabelle initially contacted the hotel by email with the basic details of the group. At that point, she had never worked with Groupz before. The hotel responded with a quotation and introduced her to the platform in the same message. She received a link to create an account. “I created my account and immediately saw the offer in the platform. Everything was already there. I could simply click ‘confirm’. There was no need to manually re-enter details or compare attachments. The proposal, pricing and booking conditions were clearly structured inside one central environment.” From that moment on, she managed the entire booking within Groupz.
Organizing an international academic exchange comes with pressure. Especially when you are responsible for both students and the university. “When you have the responsibility to organize an exchange, you can get nervous. You just want to make sure everything is arranged properly.”
What helped reduce that pressure was the clear, step-by-step structure of the platform. After confirming the booking, Isabelle downloaded the invoice for the university administration, entered all participant details and arranged the room allocation using the drag & drop functionality. Each step followed logically from the previous one, creating a natural flow in the process. “The platform is structured very obviously. The step-by-step structure is very helpful. You know where to start and what you have to do next. Groupz really thought about a lot of details, like dietary requirements and different arrival times.”
Because everything was clearly organised in one place, she barely needed additional communication with the hotel.
For Isabelle, the biggest advantage was control. “When responsibilities are divided, misunderstandings happen easily. That’s just not possible with Groupz, because everything is centralised. You have control over everything. You can check everything. And you know that the hotel sees the same information as you in the portal.” That shared visibility created trust.
The chat function provided direct contact when needed. She used it once for a practical question and received a quick response. But what stood out most was that the platform itself prevented confusion. “The big advantage is that you minimize the risk of misunderstandings.”
For Isabelle, the real impact of working with Groupz wasn’t just about structure or efficiency. It was about how it made her feel in her role as organiser. “It definitely saved time. But more importantly, it gave me certainty. When you have the responsibility to organize an exchange abroad, you can get nervous. You want to be sure everything is correct: for your students and for your university. With Groupz, I’m calmer because I know I have control. I can check everything myself, I see exactly what the hotel sees, and all the information is in one place. That gives me confidence that the booking is properly arranged.”
That confidence mattered. When coordinating an international group, calmness is not a bonus. It is essential. Her level of confidence that everything was arranged correctly? “Highly.”
Isabelle speaks highly of Groupz. She would definitely recommend Groupz to others organising a group booking. “I would recommend Groupz for group bookings without a doubt! For me, Groupz is a platform in which you have control of your whole booking, so you can easily arrange everything while staying in contact with helpful hotel staff.”
And that control creates confidence. That clarity reduces stress. And that’s exactly how Isabelle experienced working with Groupz.