Storms a boon for hotels?
In the event business, the show must go on ”“ no ifs, ands or buts.
But when you combine last winter”™s historically heavy snowfall with the freak October nor”™easter, it may leave meeting planners shivering from more than just the cold.
After all, social events are about as important to Westchester venues as occupancy rates.
“If they cancel, they usually rebook,” said Rich Friedman, general manager of the Doubletree Hotel in Tarrytown, who had an optimistic forecast for the icy months ahead. “It”™s usually not a problem. We”™re not going to screw somebody” because of the unpredictability of the weather.
The Doubletree, which just packed in 700 people at the Westchester County Association”™s annual leadership dinner and APEX Awards, had two weddings booked the October weekend when swirling snows assaulted the tristate.
“We didn”™t cancel anything,” Friedman said. “Obviously, attendance was down, but one wedding party had a police escort from the ceremony to the hotel. And we wound up filling the hotel with people who didn”™t have power.”
The No. 1 rule in hospitality ”“ be it bone chilling or burning hot outside ”“ is that guests should always be accommodated at high standards.
“I wouldn”™t say it”™s treated any differently than summer,” Anthony Amendola, director of sales and marketing, said of planning for the winter event season at the Tarrytown House Estate and Conference Center. “It”™s never come into play from a planning perspective.”
Amendola called 2009 a “low point” in terms of number of event bookings but said “there seems to be more of an uptick in this market.”
The Doubletree booked several big events this week alone, Friedman said.
“This year compared to last year is up,” he said. “As far as the holidays, we may be a hair behind, but in the north everything is last minute so I”™m pretty confident.”
The first quarter of the year in the hotel is always a bit of an ebb and flow in bookings, but residential power outages can actually be good for business.
“We could actually use a good snowstorm every few months,” Friedman said, and laughed.