Airport, Downtown Hotels Go Head To Head For Meetings

<B> Airport, Downtown Hotels Go Head To Head For Meetings</B>

By Chris Davis

While transient travelers have always been the bread-and-butter of the airport hotel industry, hoteliers are noting increases in meetings held at airport properties. There's enough diversity in the meetings business, they say, for both airport and downtown properties to snare their fair share.

Whether the increase in airport hotel meetings can be attributed to anything more than a still solid lodgings market is up for debate, since the benefits of an airport property meeting--easy access, low transportation costs and often cheaper rates--have not been lost on planners.

"Airport hotels have always met a specific meetings need," said hospitality analyst Robert Mandelbaum at PKF Consulting in New York. "There's a lot of economic advantages to having a meeting at an airport property, as opposed to an urban one. Number one, the airport hotel tends to be priced less than those in the central business district of most cities, and you also incur less transportation cost. And often, depending on the time of the meeting, you can have an early arrival on one day and a late departure on the next day, incurring less room nights."

One drawback--or benefit, depending on your point of view--is that just about all functions of meetings staged at an airport hotel, including the majority of meals and entertainment, are onsite. Since the additional business is all the more to leverage, this won't hurt the bottom line conscious planner. However, the planner concerned with meeting content and attendee retention may find attendees less thrilled with the prospect of a hotel-bound event than with a chance to explore the city.

Planners whose corporations stress a preferred hotel chain still may have to choose between airport or downtown, as several chains have both airport and downtown properties in the same city. As always, the choice of what type of property to use comes down to the planner's budget and desired meeting scope, whether it's a smaller meeting solely to give employees new information or a major event geared towards rewarding employees and/or clients.

But insiders also say a planner's preferred hotel partner may be less amenable to putting meetings into its airport properties. While airport properties often have a built-in customer base of transient travelers, downtown properties rely more heavily on meetings business.

"I am shocked to realize that hotels with airport locations haven't done as much meeting stimulation as I would have expected them to do," said Rolfe Shellenberger, a Palm Desert, Calif.-based senior consultant for Runzheimer International. "I think part of this has to do with the fact that they are brand names that are essentially the same as their downtown hotels, which may be even more dependent on meetings. They don't want to be totally in competition with themselves." Indeed, he said, in the current seller's market, it is in the hotels' best interest to direct meeting business downtown.

"I don't see as much done to promote airport hotel meeting activity as I think is possible because of the convenience afforded by a hotel in an airport location," he said. "Airport hotels get more money out of transient business. In other words, if they can fill a hotel with transient business, the gravy is the meeting business. That's different from downtown, where they depend on meeting business, and the gravy is the transient business."

Hoteliers, though, don't buy the argument. Chain sales executives note that there is no reason for competition between properties because there's plenty of business to go around, and planners know more often than not which type of property best suits their meeting needs.

"The customers really know what they want," said Fred Shea, vice president of sales operations for Hyatt Hotels. "If they're looking for a specific location by an airport hotel, they're going to go there. Different types of meetings will go to different properties. Even though some meetings will go back and forth, it depends mostly on what's going on in that corporation or association."

Some planners have a very specific type of property in mind and are looking for a hotel to fit that need. Planners who have decided to use a property very rarely are going to move to the airports. "If they're saying the things they're trying to accomplish would be better served by getting in and out fast in a hotel that can provide all the facilities, maybe a savings of money--either through room rate or the overall cost of transportation and moving people around--an airport hotel can pick up on their interest in saving money and convince them that an airport is a better location," Shea said.

Susan Hodapp, brand director for Marriott Hotels, Resorts and Suites, agreed. "It's a whole different reason why they select these sites and meeting planners know it," she said. "Downtown offers a whole different infrastructure for meeting planners. Instead of speed and access, the downtown infrastructure is about different cultural things and a meeting that lasts longer. Typically you wouldn't hold a one-day meeting downtown. Downtown meetings are less about speed and access and more about taking a little longer to communicate a message to attendees over time. They build in more of the cultural aspect of the city, so the attendees can do more things at night or during the day. There's more of a social aspect in downtown meetings. All of that is collapsed and condensed at an airport meeting, though. There's probably a social aspect to airport meetings, but the emphasis on it will be lessened," she said.

In addition, while the airport hotel relies heavily on the transient traveler, Hodapp noted that meetings still are a vitally important part of the business mix. "It's of huge importbecause our business traveler is often buying three of the seven days of the week. That leaves four other days to sell," she said.

Hoteliers said they're seeing more corporate meetings than association meetings held at airports, usually with less than 50 attendees and an average duration of two days or less. Shea reported increased growth in the Midwest, particularly at Hyatt's airport properties in Dallas and Chicago, with airport hotels on both coasts still relying heavily on transient travel.

"We still run the gamut of corporate meetings, short-term training meetings, meetings that are trying to go for one overnight, maybe two," Shea said. "They want to get in and out fast and they're going to spend an extensive amount of time in the meetings. They're in the hotel and they don't have a lot of opportunity to get out. Product launches, especially in the pharmaceutical industry, are becoming much more popular at the airport than they used to be."

Indeed, it's the rare meetings buyer who would have a budget flexible enough to schedule a two-day, information-intensive training meeting at a downtown property. While rates at airport hotels certainly vary from property to property and city to city, airport hotels are still less expensive, on average, than most of their downtown or even some suburban counterparts.

With corporations facing an economy that's on much less solid footing than 12 months ago, executives may be looking to rein in some expenses--meetings included--in preparation for the potential economic downturn 1999 or 2000 may bring. "We see a marginal increase in airport hotels in both market penetration and rates," said Jim Knauff, director of meetings and conferences marketing for Crowne Plaza Hotels and Resorts. "That could indicate that more companies--as they begin to feel the pressure on spending, but continue to need to have face to face meetings--will bring people into a hub airport area and select a place that's quick, easy to get to and minimizes transportation costs, allows them to have a first class meeting, turn around and get back to their respective cities."

If, in fact, there is an economic slowdown on the horizon, corporations will have to tighten their economic belts and meetings buyers will likely have to aid in that effort, and that's good news for the airport hotel segment. If corporations cut back on the entertainment aspects of their meetings, buyers may find a meeting at a hub airport hotel of their corporations' preferred airline the best and most economical choice.