New, rehabbed hotels are delivering more meetings

From smart-growth advocates to economic development officials, groups and individuals from across Rhode Island watched with great anticipation as the long-vacant Masonic Temple was transformed into the new Renaissance Providence Hotel.
And among the interested parties was the Providence Warwick Convention and Visitors Bureau, whose leaders believe that the hotel, along with other ongoing projects in the state’s capital, will have an extremely positive impact on their business.
Neil Schriever, vice president of sales at the bureau, says that the recently opened Renaissance, the re-branding of the Holiday Inn as the Hilton Providence and the soon-to-open addition to The Westin Providence are having a real impact on the number and size of conventions and meetings that can be attracted to the city.
While meetings and conventions are often booked as long as several years before they take place, the openings are helping the bureau show planners that the city has the capacity and range of products to fulfill their needs.
Before the opening of the Renaissance, Providence had 1,726 hotel rooms. With the new hotel and the Westin, which is expected to open its hotel component in August, the number will jump to 2,200 by summer’s end. Other hotel projects planned in the city could push that number to 2,500.
The Westin expansion, in particular, is expected to help with meeting and convention bookings, the bureau told Providence Business News last year. Currently, with 364 rooms, the hotel cannot meet the demands of larger groups. But when the expansion opens next month, the Westin will have 565 rooms, and that will allow the facility to compete for meetings previously outside of its range.
Already, the bureau is seeing the impact of the projects and is expecting to see more.
According to Kristen Adamo, vice president of marketing and communications, the bureau tracked 11 meetings in 2006 that used the R.I. Convention Center and resulted in more than 500 hotel rooms on peak nights. To date, 2007 has produced 12 definite bookings. In 2008, the bureau expects 14 meetings, while 2009 already has 12 large meetings booked.
“We expect the number of bookings in 2007-2009 to increase, given that we are currently under consideration for about 20 other meetings or conventions , with plans to seek out more business in the coming year,” Adamo said in an e-mail to PBN.
With the new hotel rooms, Schriever said, the bureau was able to bring a meeting in June that saw 1,400 hotel rooms used on its peak night.
In September, more than 2,000 people will descend on Providence for a joint meeting of the Academy of Molecular Imaging and the Society of Molecular Imaging. Another meeting, of the Estuarine Research Federation, will bring 1,600 people to Providence in November.
Also expected to help with meeting and convention booking is the renovation of the Dunkin’ Donuts Center. Schriever said that the upgrades, slated to be completed at the beginning of 2008, already have allowed Providence to secure the opening rounds for the 2009 NCAA College Basketball tournament.
The renovations also allowed the bureau to book the 2008 U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships, Schriever said. The event chose the city after it held a regional event in Providence earlier this year. The experience with that event and the renovations planned for the now-state owned Dunkin’ Donuts Center gave the bureau an advantage in booking the championship.
“A lot of meetings professionals are reluctant [to book a city] until they can actually see,” Shriever said. •

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