West Coast

Outdoor adventure gets down to business.

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 special 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 offers 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.”

And 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.”

Destination Q&A: San Jose

As director of sales for Team San Jose of the San Jose CVB, Kelli Donahoe, CMP, knows her way around the town etched into pop culture lore by Dionne Warwick. In fact, the 20-year hospitality veteran’s goal is for groups to bring their meetings back to California’s third-largest city again and again.

What makes San Jose work well for meetings?

It’s our business model. We feel we have the secret ingredient: one point of contact for all of a planner’s event needs. Our event services managers can handle everything from spec menus and permits to technically complicated AV arrangements.

They serve as one point of contact after you sign the contract. There are other people involved behind the scenes, of course. But the idea is for a planner to get right to their event person, put the request in, and they will deliver it right to you.

That said, what destinations do you consider as your main competition for group business?

The main ones would be Long Beach, San Francisco certainly, Sacramento and then of course Anaheim, Santa Clara and every now and then Palm Springs. We also get a lot of groups that consider Reno.

Downtown rooms are also key for groups. How many committable rooms can planners expect to find in San Jose?

Around 1,800 on peak nights.

Access is crucial to attendees for any meeting. What are the best ways to get in and out of San Jose?

We do position ourselves as very accessible because we are located in a tri-city area: San Jose, San Francisco and Oakland, each with their own airports. We have a newly renovated airport here and among our major carriers are Southwest and American, so we’re both accessible and affordable.

Some people have a pre-conceived notion of your area — that it’s an all-tech, no-play kind of lifestyle. What surprises people about San Jose?

People are also surprised at how affluent and beautiful it is here, and how much there is to see and do. When I first came to San Jose I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect outside of the hospitality world, but I quickly found out there are all kinds of hidden gems here. There’s the Winchester Mystery House and shopping at Santana Row in San Jose.

Nearby, you can visit the Santa Cruz boardwalk; go to Monterey for Cannery Row and the aquarium; visit San Francisco and Napa Valley and the wine country; and enjoy the amusement parks in Santa Clara. A lot of groups also do a California Mission tour because we have several in the area.

Attendees love to escape from the meeting room and see a destination if they’ve got time. How important is it to your team for attendees to get out and really experience your city?

It’s very important because some people have never come this far west and we want them to come back. If they are here attending a meeting for the first time 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, the museums, etc. We’re the 10th largest city in the country and yet we have a small town feel.

Talk about the value of holding a meeting in San Jose and some of the added value that the CVB offers.

When you work with Team San Jose and hold your meeting in our facility, the sales people have the ability to negotiate that rental. We do our own food and beverage so you can negotiate that. We also do everything we can to meet every budget line item of the customer.

Wouldn’t most CVBs make the same claim?

Team San Jose, though, can help ensure that you meet your budget directly because it’s the management company of the convention center. Labor services are also under our control, so we have an in-house provider when we’re putting labor quotes together and we can negotiate with the customer from the start so that we’re meeting their needs then and not having to do damage control later.

On the Horizon

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. 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.

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.

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 up 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 their own 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, $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).

Los Angeles is awash in hotel projects, with renovations underway or just completed at such 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. 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 the 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.

West Coast Special Places