Meeting News - December 15, 2008 - (Page 10)

Hotels & Resorts Dolce Offers Cash-Strapped Planners a Lifeline Retaining its usual position of leading the industry, Dolce Hotels and Resorts has come out with a service designed to help budgetchallenged meeting planners. Under the Montvale, NJ-based conference center firm’s new “Rebuild Your Meeting” program, meeting planners in the U.S. and Canada needing to replan a program—regardless of where they’re booked, or even if they don’t have something booked with Dolce— can get free help from Dolce’s sales offices, at (866) 940-4979. The sales team representative will guarantee to connect them within four hours to a local Dolce director of sales and marketing to provide CMP-certified, objective advice on making the most of their new event parameters. The sales leaders will offer an approximately one-hour consultation, with tips such as how to create team-building events on a limited budget, how to provide quality food and beverage offerings on a tight budget, or how to change the meeting’s location to reduce travel. Company chairman and managing director Andy Dolce rolled out the program to send a message By Rayna Katz rayna.katz@nielsen.com that meetings still make sense in these troubled times. “Dolce respects the difficulty of the meetings industry’s economic climate, and we wanted to offer our expertise as a way for meeting planners to fulfill their groups’ needs and reinforce the fact that meetings can still be held off-site while companies fulfill their objectives responsibly,” he said. The company has 23 properties across the U.S., Canada, and Europe. A New Boutique Flag Announces A 2009 Debut A new boutique hotel brand launching in 2009—with four properties opening throughout the year—promises to create a welcoming environment and unique experiences that will give guests a strong sense of the destination. Avia Hotels, expected to have newly built properties only, will kick off in January with Avia Savannah. Hotels in Napa and Long Beach will follow next summer, and another will open in the Woodlands, TX, next fall. The brand standard calls for 70 to 160 Guests of Avia The Woodlands will be welcomed in this lobby. guest rooms (each being 350 to 500 sf) and at least 2,200 to 2,500 sf of meeting space per property. Avia promises to be more userfriendly than other boutique brands, and focused on the area around its properties’ doors. “Our guests should immediately feel as if they’ve been welcomed to the community, ” said B. Anthony Isaac, president of LodgeWorks, the hotel development and management company operating the brand.“At Avia, we are not the destination. We make the destination come alive.” It will do that by giving guests information that goes beyond a concierge’s tips. For guests staying in Savannah, for example, LodgeWorks has posted on its website a video of Bobby Deen, a local restaurateur (and son of Food Network doyenne Paula Deen), talking about his favorite things to see, do, and eat in town. The hotels will differ in design, but they all will feature the Avia Kitchen, specializing in small dishes that showcase local culinary traditions; a refreshment bar with Dean & DeLuca products; and the Wine Bar, offering small production wines from California and the Northwest and microbrewed beers. Each property will have one large indoor meeting space, and different areas of each hotel, such as an atrium in Long Beach and a dining room and terrace in Savannah, will be available for events. More hotels will open between 2010 and 2012, Isaac said, but he declined to name markets. He did say why a hotelier would launch a brand during an economic crisis. “We’re in a long-term business,” he said. “Meetings and travel aren’t going away.” Starwood Takes to the Nines in the Northwest Starwood Hotels & Resorts has boosted its presence in the Pacific Northwest. The hotel company has opened the Nines, a Luxury Collection property, in Portland. A highly eco-friendly hotel, the 331-room Nines features 14,000 sf of green meeting space—including a 7,200-sf ballroom—an extensive art collection, and a signature restaurant. In addition, property officials expect the hotel to earn LEED Silver certification. To achieve the designation, conservation-focused plumbing, including low-flow faucets, have been put in place in order to save 400,000 gallons of water each year. All products used in daily housekeeping are Green Seal, and the hotel retains 50 percent of its energy from renewable sources. In support of the local art community, the Nines has partnered with art consultant Paige Powell, a longtime confidant of Andy Warhol, who commissioned Portland artists to create bold artworks for the hotel. The Nines also features original artwork exhibits and original pieces in each guest room. The Nines has a steakhouse, and a library with a custom pool table and floor-to-ceiling books. r 10 MeetingNews December 15, 2008 www.meetingnews.com http://www.meetingnews.com

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Meeting News - December 15, 2008 Gloom Looms for Rooms Sixth Homeland Defense and Security Symposium's Career Summit... Perspectives What’s Up @ MeetingNews.com Chef Talk People Making News Hotels & Resorts %20%20%20%20%20Dolce Offers to Rebuild Meetings in Public Crisis CVBs %20%20%20%20%20Charlotte's Tim Newman Cultivates a Green Team International %20%20%20%20%20Downturn Deals Sands a Bad Hand in Macau Transportation & Services MN Exclusive Research Green Beat Insider Reports %20%20%20%20%20Affordable Las Vegas %20%20%20%20%20Galveston Destination Insider %20%20%20%20%20Phoenix Incentive Reports %20%20%20%20%20Europe %20%20%20%20%20Ski Destinations Meeting News Planners' Choice Awards Advertisers Index Live from the Forum

Meeting News - December 15, 2008

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