Is the faltering economy impacting the meetings business at hotels? Or, are hotels just a couple of hours from Manhattan now seen as wise destinations, supplanting Myrtle Beach now that its belt-tightening time?
In Kingston, the Holiday Inn, which is the city”™s primary venue for large meetings and events, has been experiencing a definite downturn in meetings bookings, according to director of sales Debra Harris. “People are cutting back,” she said. “It”™s across the board. Our corporate business as well as not-for-profits are cutting back.”
Harris said the trend started about six months ago. She attributed the cutback partly to the fact that businesses are leaving the area ”“ the most recent being Empire Merchants North, the liquor distributor that is relocating to Greene County. “The economy is part of it,” said Harris, “With no corporate growth and the loss of some corporations in this area, it”™s down and we feel it.”
She said that the hotel is further being pinched by soaring food and fuel costs. “The hotel is more expensive to run.” Harris said the last big downturn resulted from 9/11. It took the Holiday Inn two years to recover back to where it had been. “It would be great to hear new companies are coming to town,” she said.
At the Hotel Sierra Fishkill, the picture is much brighter. Director of sales Judy D”™Alessandro said so far 17 meetings have been booked for February, which is more than for the same month a year ago. She said the first quarter is always relatively soft, and this one seems no different than in past years.
D”™Alessandro said 70 percent of the hotel”™s business is connected with IBM or its affiliates. “IBM is the barometer,” she said. “I think 2008 is looking like a good year.”
About half of the meetings business is linked to overnight groups.
D”™Alessandro said it”™s difficult for her to gauge the long-term trend because the hotel opened less than two years ago. It has 2,100 square feet of meeting space, which can be divided into three sections by air walls. She said the hotel has an exclusive contract with a catering company and the audio-visual equipment is on site, so clients only have to deal with a single contact to plan their events at the hotel.
Up in Poughkeepsie, The Grandview, which has also been open less than two years, doesn”™t do “a tremendous amount of business meetings,” according to General Manager Brent Caster. But he said he hadn”™t seen any reduction from the previous year. “We”™re seeing the bookings duplicate last year,” he said. “Because we”™re new, there”™s still a buzz.”
He said there”™s more breakout meeting space at the nearby Grand Hotel, which has the same owner and is undergoing a major renovation, with a redesign of the lobby, new carpets, draperies, furniture, and the addition of a fifth meeting room. The Grandview has hosted numerous meetings for Health Quest ”“ an advantage is its proximity to Vassar Brothers Medical Center, which is one of the hospitals in the Health Quest network ”“ and a federal credit union, according to Caster.
