Poughkeepsie hotel thrives in trying times

st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; mso-ascii- mso-ascii-theme- mso-fareast- mso-fareast-theme- mso-hansi- mso-hansi-theme- mso-bidi- mso-bidi-theme-} There was a time when the term grand did not necessarily go with Poughkeepsie. But these days the river city is undergoing something of a renaissance and the Poughkeepsie Grand hotel and conference center is literally in the middle of it.

“We are an event hotel,” said Joseph A. Bonura Sr., who co-owns the independent hotel with Angelo DiBrizzi. “We specialize in social events, meetings, seminars, weddings.” They have owned the facility since 1991, but in 1994 bought out Sheraton and have operated the Poughkeepsie Grand as an independent hotel ever since. And with business booming, the hotel recently completed extensive renovations.

“The renovation has really paid off here,” General Manager Maureen Kangas said. “I hear nothing but oohs and ahhs from customers, it”™s very new and very modern and very attractive.”

But the renovation only enhanced the advantages the Poughkeepsie Grand was utilizing in carving out a profitable business niche in the center of the city. The 10-story, 200-room facility is immediately adjacent to the Poughkeepsie Civic Center and has an attached parking garage.

While such a parking garage might seem like a small item, Kangas chuckles as she recounts how grateful guests can be after using it. “I guarantee you on a rainy, icy or even a hot day, its nice to park in the garage and walk off the elevator into the hotel.”

The Grand is a full-service conference and convention center with 15,000 square feet of meeting space and additional breakout rooms and meal and snack services. There is free wireless Internet throughout the hotel, a business center and a full on-site audio-visual support team. The hotel works closely with the management of the Civic Center ensuring that events of any size can be accommodated between hotel and arena.Â Â Â Â

“Whatever the client wants, we can provide for them,” Kangas said.

Flexibility is a key component to the hotel”™s success, she said. “Monday through Thursday, we have meetings, breakfast, luncheon meetings, dinner meetings. And not-for-profit groups come and have their fundraising here. We host IBM here several times a year. And every weekend we are sold out doing weddings and other social events.”

A new customer base is emerging. “We”™re getting a lot more bus tours than ever in the past,” Kangas said. “They arrive late in the day and we do dinners and of course they stay overnight and the next day have breakfast. We have shuttled bus tours to the CIA (Culinary Institute of America), the Vanderbilt Mansion, the FDR estate.”

In addition to tourists and wedding guests, she said, the business climate of Poughkeepsie is a plus to the hotel”™s business. “Poughkeepsie is going through something of a renaissance, with all these corporate businesses off Market Street,” Kangas said of the hotel locale, near the Mid-Hudson Bridge. “It”™s easy for people to get here and we”™re right in the hub of it.”

She said that the hotel is within walking distance of the Hudson River waterfront, which is undergoing upgrades, including a number of new restaurants that are already operating and even more that are in the planning stages.Â

Bonura said that perhaps being an independent operation instead of part of a hotel franchise has made it easier to prosper by providing flexibility in matters ranging from menus to dÃ©cor, to special needs for customers. “It”™s an advantage being an independent because we can dictate the policies we want.”Â

Bonura said that the loss of a national 800 number affiliated with a name-brand hotel chain was not so important to the Poughkeepsie Grand, since that resource was not providing a lot of business anyway. The hotel is not located on a major travel thoroughfare, and so reaches out for business beyond business travelers and motor tourists.

“We know our niche. We are the largest meeting place around, we have the two hundred rooms and the Civic Center, its our specialty and we have quite a good reputation and following for that,” Bonura said.

But he said the real success derives from happy guests. “We care about people and we take care of people. We do whatever we have to do to provide service to the company. We give them what they need.”