CookUnity used Marco Instant Offsites to plan a 4-night company-wide gathering for 80 employees at the Moxy Brooklyn Williamsburg, saving weeks of planning time and staying on budget.
“Marco handled the full negotiation with the hotel. We compared 9 properties side-by-side, picked the Moxy, and had a signed contract in 10 days. I knew exactly what we were paying from day one, no surprises.”
CookUnity is the first chef-direct subscription service, a chef-to-food-lover marketplace connecting award-winning chefs with consumers nationwide. Founded in 2015 and headquartered in Brooklyn, NY, CookUnity has grown to 800+ employees, 100+ chefs, and delivers millions of restaurant-quality meals annually.
CookUnity needed a Brooklyn venue for an 80-person team retreat - four nights, easy access for NYC-based employees, with a vibe that matched their culture. They submitted a proposal through Marco and received quotes from 9 shortlisted properties within days.
CookUnity had run four leadership offsites with Marco before. Smaller trips - easier logistics, more flexibility. This was different.
Their annual planning week required 80 employees in the same place for four nights. That's 320 room-nights in Brooklyn - an expensive and supply-constrained hotel market - at a time when demand from other corporate groups was high.
The People Experience team at CookUnity is lean. Malena wasn't going to spend weeks trading emails with a dozen hotel sales managers, reconciling quote formats, and decoding attrition clauses. They needed a fast, organized process that delivered real competitive pricing - without the operational overhead.
And the timeline wasn't flexible. The planning week had a fixed date. There was no room to drag the sourcing process out.
Marco negotiated group rates across all venues, with the Moxy Brooklyn Williamsburg coming in at $329/night versus the $431 rack rate - a 24% discount before additional concessions like waived resort fees, complimentary room upgrades, and 20% attrition flexibility.
CookUnity submitted their event details through Marco. Within days, Marco had sourced, contacted, and gathered group rate proposals from 9 Brooklyn properties - all formatted consistently and presented side-by-side on a single comparison page.
For each property, CookUnity could see:
No email chains. No chasing hotel reps. No reformatting quotes into a spreadsheet. Everything needed to make a confident decision was in one place.
The Moxy Brooklyn Williamsburg stood out - not just on price, but on the full package Marco negotiated:
From the moment CookUnity submitted their event details to the day they signed the contract: 10 days.
Waived Resort Fees. Marco negotiated rates from $431/night down to $329/night at the Moxy - 24% off rack rate, plus waived $30/night resort fees. Real savings on every room-night.
$329/Night (24% Off Rack). 9 Brooklyn properties sourced, quoted, and compared side-by-side. CookUnity picked the right venue in days, not weeks.
24% Off Rack Rate. 320 room-nights across 4 nights, on budget from day one with clear pricing and no hidden fees.
On-Budget Execution. From Nobu Miami Beach to ARIA Las Vegas to Moxy Brooklyn, Marco knows CookUnity's preferences and delivers every time.
10/10 Would Recommend. Malena rated her experience a 10/10 and has continued booking with Marco for every offsite since.
5 Events and Counting. 5 events booked through Marco, from intimate leadership trips to their biggest company planning week - with more on the way.
The team was incredible — extremely personable, professional, and organized. I appreciate their passion and areas of genius around creating a fully realized experience for our organization.
Working with Lucy was a game changer. She kept us on track, had great fresh ideas, and handled all of the really detailed work, even coordinating with vendors in Spanish over WhatsApp to make sure eve…
