West Coast Draw

By Marc Boisclair

No other region brings as much diversity to a planner’s portfolio as the four states that make up the country’s western corridor. For starters, there’s a smorgasbord of striking landscapes in which the West Coast’s destinations are laid out, from the snow-capped Cascade Mountains and rugged coastlines of Washington and Oregon to the balmy beaches and arid desert of Southern California. Nevada comes with its own charms as well, be they the 24/7 glamour and excitement of the Las Vegas Strip or the quiet beauty found in a sunset reception along pristine Lake Tahoe.

The West Coast also has great access, good value and plenty of variety in dozens of major meeting destinations. “We have a good batch of quality hotels, ranging from the finest boutique properties to those moderately priced hotels ideal for the SMERF market,” says Michael C. Smith, VP of convention sales for Travel Portland. “We’ve also got some great shopping and dining opportunities here, and are fortunate not to have a food and beverage or sales tax.”

Don’t hesitate to take along the family for a West Coast meeting, as these destinations pride themselves on offering well-rounded activities for attendees of all ages. “People want to get away and do family things and we’re perfect for that,” says Margie Sitton, senior VP of sales and services for the San Diego CVB. “We’re warm and sunny much of the time and have a lot of outdoor activities year-round, whether it’s boating or biking, showing your children arts and culture at Balboa Park, or having breakfast with Shamu at Sea World.”

Indeed, that sunny outlook, be it courtesy of Mother Nature or the local hospitality industry, makes a West Coast’s destination an incentive for attendees to show up and enjoy themselves. When the Evangelical Free Church of America held its annual Rebound event, a youth worker and spouse retreat, at San Diego’s Town & Country Resort and Convention Center in Mission Valley last November, attendance hit an all-time high. “We found that our younger leaders prefer a destination location for their meetings,” says event planner Laurie Seay. “San Diego’s a destination location and that insures us good attendance.”

Seay also discovered how accommodating West Coast vendors are, especially when the meeting’s on the line. “Town & Country was really willing to work with us to meet our food and beverage budget and go the extra mile to accommodate us,” she says. “We had an evening meal outdoors, which was really nice. There’s golf across the street and a mall nearby, plus the trolley line that goes to Old Town and downtown, so our attendees didn’t have to rent cars in order to enjoy the whole San Diego experience.”

Kelli Donahoe, CMP, understands that sentiment entirely. “It’s very important because some people have never come this far west and we want them to come back,” says Donahoe, director of sales for Team San Jose of the San Jose CVB. “We’re the 10th largest city in the country and yet we have a small town feel. If they are here for the first time attending or as a spouse, we want them to get out and have the San Jose experience. That’s the quality of downtown, the culture, the restaurants and the museums.”

NEWS FROM THE NORTHWEST
Despite the challenging economy, the West Coast’s hospitality industry is hardly sitting on its hands, with a flurry of meetings-related projects either ongoing or underway. The buzz in Seattle centers around several new and renovated properties, beginning with the new 25-story, 420-room tower at the Sheraton Seattle Hotel, making it the city’s largest meeting property with 1,258 guestrooms and 75,000 square feet of flexible function space. Also of note is downtown’s new $175 million, 346-room Hyatt at Olive 8; the 147-room Four Seasons Hotel at the Pike Place Market; the 120-room Doubletree Arctic Club Hotel; and a 160-room Hyatt Place Hotel.

Seattle’s major meeting spot, the Washington State Convention & Trade Center, proves its worth as a first-tier facility, with 61 meeting rooms and some 205,000 square feet of exhibit space in the heart of downtown. The Tulalip Resort Casino, 40 minutes north of Seattle, has added a 370-room hotel, while the city of Bellevue will welcome the 100-room Bellevue Park Hotel sometime in 2012. Seattle also opened major light-rail lines from downtown to Tukwila and Sea-Tac Airport this past year.

Spokane, a city of about 200,000 that hugs the Spokane River, offers an array of sharp meeting facilities led by the Silver LEED-certified Spokane Convention Center, where the Group Health Exhibit Hall features over 100,000 square feet of exhibit space.

Portland, Oregon’s largest city, brings several fresh and renovated properties to the meetings market. The 256-room Courtyard by Marriott Portland City Center, with 6,000 square feet of meeting space, opened last May, on the heels of downtown’s new 331-room Nines Hotel. McMenamins Hotels, Pubs & Breweries expects to debut its new 50-room boutique hotel and spa later this year, while downtown’s renovated 140-room Hotel Fifty opened last summer. Portland’s MAX light rail system also expanded last year with the opening of its new Green Line. And the Rose City recently launched an official Twisitor Center, a cyber-styled sibling to traditional walk-in visitor info centers, where Twitter technology is used to connect attendees and other travelers to folks who can respond quickly and in real time to Portland questions.

CAL-NEV IN ACTION
Lake Tahoe, straddling the border of California and Nevada, is in the midst of a hospitality boom, led by the new $300 million Ritz-Carlton Highlands (170 guestrooms, a 17,000-sq.-ft. spa and 25,000 square feet of indoor/outdoor function space) within the lake area’s Northstar development. Northern Nevada’s Reno-Sparks area continues its own growth spurt with major expansions at the Peppermill Resort Spa Casino ($400 million) and Grand Sierra Resort and Casino ($90 million), and a $50 million makeover at the Atlantis Casino Resort Spa. A 127-room Hyatt Place has opened at Reno-Tahoe International Airport while a 149-room Hyatt Summerfield Suites is expected to open in Reno later this year. Aces Ballpark, home of the Reno Aces Triple A baseball team, debuted in 2009 and is the anchor of an $81 million ballpark district that’s expected to bring new retail, business and entertainment options to downtown Reno.

In San Jose, Northern California’s largest city, the 353-room Hilton San Jose has finished an $11 million renovation of its guestrooms, meeting spaces and social areas. The Dolce Hayes Mansion San Jose, Hotel Valencia Santana Row and Doubletree Hotel San Jose are also completing major renovations. Several hotels in San Francisco have been purchased, redone and re-flagged in the past year, including the JW Marriott Hotel San Francisco (formerly the Pan Pacific), Hotel Abri (formerly the Monticello Inn), Cova Hotel (from Air Travel), Hotel Frank (from The Maxwell), The Good Hotel (once the Britton and Flamingo hotels), the Larkspur Hotel Union Square (from the Cartwright), the Parc 55 Hotel (no longer a Renaissance and sporting a $32 million redo) and the San Francisco Marriott Union Square (formerly the Hotel 480). Renovations among the city’s familiar names include the Four Seasons ($7 million), Handerly ($10 million), Hyatt Regency San Francisco, Kensington Park ($2 million), Omni ($6 million) and San Francisco Marriott Marquis ($22 million).

Bakersfield is the center point for California’s 37 million population, meaning that almost 90 percent of in-state attendees are within a four-hour drive of this city of 340,000 people. The Rabobank Arena, Theater & Convention Center remains the major meeting place in town, with 70,000 square feet of flexible meeting space and 13 breakout rooms.

In January, the Los Angeles Times reported that hotel foreclosures in California more than quadrupled last year, hotel revenues took their steepest decline in more than two decades and the occupancy rate in Los Angeles now hovers at 65 percent. Even with that grim news, renovations are underway or just completed at such Los Angeles favorites as the Hilton Checkers, Sheraton Los Angeles, Wilshire Grand and Comfort Inn City Center. More makeovers include the Hollywood Roosevelt, Beverly Garland Holiday Inn, Beverly Hilton, Sheraton Universal and Beverly Wilshire/Four Seasons. A shiny, new joint JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton is the newest hotel entry into downtown, opening February 15, 2010. The $970-million skyscraper, adjacent to the Los Angeles Convention Center and the L.A. Live entertainment center, has 75,000 square feet of meeting space.

A hospitality highlight in Long Beach is a new 176-room Residence Inn and 138-room AVIA Long Beach. In Orange County, the Disney Grand Californian Hotel & Spa has finished a major addition and renovation, with 203 new guestrooms bringing the hotel’s total to 948. The landmark Disneyland Hotel, meanwhile, is upgrading its 990 guestrooms and hotel exterior. The Hyatt Regency Orange County should finish a $25 million overall redo by spring of this year.

There’s much ado among the Palm Springs Desert Resorts, with a new 128-unit Homewood Suites by Hilton and $15 million in renovations to the Hyatt Regency Suites Palm Springs. Desert renovation projects nearing completion include the Renaissance Palm Springs (formerly the Wyndham), the Acqua Resort & Spa, Indio Super 8 Motel and the Palm Springs Spanish Inn & Condos.

San Diego’s biggest new hotel is 1,190-room Hilton San Diego Bayfront, with 100,000 square feet of meeting space adjacent to the San Diego Convention Center. The 240-room Residence Inn San Diego Downtown/Gaslamp Quarter opened last fall, while the Paradise Point Resort & Spa is wrapping up a $20 million renovation by the end of February.

So many new properties and great values make heading west a great idea for meeting planners. And the fresh fare at restaurants across the West Coast, as well as the popular green practices of the area’s tourism industry and the seemingly year-round abundance of surf and sun are just an added bonus.