Philadelphia Bulks Up Biz Travel Hospitality Options
<B>Philadelphia Bulks Up Biz Travel Hospitality Options</B>
By Frank Rosci
Several big-name new hotels recently opened in Philadelphia, giving the city's meeting, conference and convention business a boost, and business travelers more options during a time when business travel to the city had increased.
"In general, business travel rose moderately last year, given the influence of a strong national economic climate," said Tom Muldoon, president of the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Based on early returns of a recent study, room nights increased about 5 percent--728,000 versus 693,000--in 2000 compared with 1999, said Mickey Rowley, executive director of the Greater Philadelphia Hotel Association. Meeting business should continue to increase, Muldoon said.
Last summer's Republican National Convention, which helped to showcase hotels and the city's overall infrastructure to many corporate groups, is expected to result in significantly more meeting business for the city.
While the new hotels were much needed, simply opening them didn't necessarily translate into greater numbers of business travelers.
"For one thing, no major corporations have moved to Philadelphia," Muldoon said. "For another, the city has always suffered being so close to New York and Washington, because business travelers don't have to stay over being just a short train ride away from those cities. Now, with more to hold them, we have become more of an in-place."
Philadelphia's major new hotels, all located downtown, or Center City as the area is commonly called, are hosting their share of business travelers and looking for more. Among the new hotels is the 330-room Ritz-Carlton, with 20,000 square feet of meeting and prefunction space, and guest rooms that feature "Smart Desks," dual line phones, modem access and direct high-speed dataport Internet access.
"Business travelers consistently account for 50 percent of total room nights at the hotel and more than 50 percent of our repeat business," said Kelly Wood, director of sales and marketing at the Ritz, which opened June 29, 2000. "It was a little slow in the beginning, but relying on our reputation as a full-service business hotel, bookings are very strong. We have always catered to business travelers, with staff acting very nearly like an office assistant would," Wood said.
Regarding the new hotels that have opened in the city, Wood said that all of the new rooms have reduced the number of business travelers there are to go around, which makes it appear that there are even fewer business travelers in town.
"Philadelphia doesn't attract as many business travelers as New York or Boston, but we at the Ritz certainly see our share and now that there are some high-tech firms popping up here, we should see even more," Wood said.
The 300-room Sofitel, the four-star luxury brand of the French Accor Group, also recently opened downtown. In addition to 12 meeting rooms, the hotel's guest rooms are outfitted with high-speed Internet access, Web TV and other amenities in demand by technology-dependent travelers.
Sofitel general manager Scott Wiseman said the hotel, which opened 10 months ago, is the city's only international hotel, and it will attempt to develop its international business market. "While nothing is more important than your own backyard or local business, international business travel has growth potential for Philadelphia. The city, for example, is seeing more direct flights on larger planes between Europe and Philadelphia International Airport, which means a certain percentage of European travelers are coming here on business," Wiseman said.
A new hotel "attracting growing numbers of business travelers," according to a spokesperson, is the 585-room Loews Philadelphia, with 40,000 square feet of meeting and function space, and guest-room touches that include a cordless telephone, a fax/printer/copier and high-speed Internet access. The hotel, located directly across the street from the Pennsylvania Convention Center, opened in April 2000.
At the 500-room Philadelphia Downtown Courtyard Hotel, which opened in November 2000, general manager Chris Hosmer said that while guests from meetings and conventions are a big part of the hotel's business, individual business travel remains on the smallish side.
"Business travel is somewhat limited because there just aren't large numbers of companies here and there aren't many new ones locating here," Hosmer said. "To overcome that, the city needs to aggressively go after new businesses, but that's difficult because of high business taxes that aren't very attractive. In some ways Philadelphia is its own worst enemy because it's so easy to do business here and so easy to leave the city the same day on the train and by plane," Hosmer added.
The 280-room Hilton Garden Inn Philadelphia Center City opened near the convention center in May.
"Corporate travelers, up to 30 percent of whom stay through the Hilton Honors reward program, are 50 percent of our total guests. Besides being in town to visit established banking institutions, and insurance and pharmaceutical firms, they also are here to call on small start-up companies and high-tech ventures," said Gregg Marzano, director of sales and marketing. "While business travel isn't the lion's share of the city's lodging business, it is growing."
The Hilton Garden Inn's guest rooms offer high-speed Internet access and two telephones equipped with two lines, dataports and voicemail. There also is a business center and 2,600 square feet of meeting space, with room dividers for five separate groups and a capacity of up to 200 attendees.
Travelers also are staying in new hotels within minutes of the Philadelphia airport, including the 152-room Hampton Inn and 109-room Fairfield Inn.
Other new hotels in the city include the 350-room Hyatt at Penn's Landing, which opened in November 2000, and 270-room Hampton Inn, which opened downtown in December 2000.