San Francisco Tools Up To Join Corporate Market Race

<B> San Francisco Tools Up To Join Corporate Market Race</B>

By Judy Jacobs

Several of San Francisco's most distinguished hotels are undergoing major renovations, with upgrades that will enhance the hotels' sense of history and bring them up to date technologically as they compete for a greater share of the corporate travel market.

The Fairmont, located atop Nob Hill, began an $80 million project in March that will restore the property to its original 1907 design and elegance when completed by the end of next year. All 596 guest rooms are being reconstructed and the lobby and meeting rooms completely renovated. The hotel's famous Venetian Room has been restored and now is used as a function room in the evenings and meeting room during the day.

"The hotel has repositioned itself to focus on the corporate market in the past few years, and this project addresses that market in particular; 70 percent of the hotel's business is corporate travelers," said David Wiener, the Fairmont's director of sales and marketing. With the Venetian Room and the lobby level meeting rooms complete, the Fairmont has improved what it has to offer the meetings market. Its 55,000 square feet of meeting space can handle meetings of 10 to 350 rooms, Wiener said.

Another property in an historic building, the Ritz-Carlton San Francisco, completed a $7 million renovation last summer that upgraded the ballroom and changed the soft goods in the guest rooms. In addition, the project added a high-speed Internet port and two-line speaker phones with dataports and voicemail to each guest room. "We're seeing more business travelers, and they need ease and convenience," said Amy Koojoolian, the Ritz-Carlton's manager of business travel. "When they travel, they need to feel like they're in their office--that they're walking into a room where they have all the conveniences of their offices."

Meanwhile, the Westin St. Francis opened a $2.1 million, 4,600-sq.-ft. spa and fitness center late last month as part of an ongoing $60 million renovation of the historic property. "Planners are asking for a spa," said David Ranker, the hotel's area director of sales and marketing. "Many incentive groups set up spa days. We've been using a couple of renovated rooms, but now we have a full spa and fitness center on the first floor lobby level."

Fifty-two percent of the St. Francis' total market mix is group business, and 20 percent of that group business is incentives. Meetings also are growing at the hotel. "We are seeing meetings requiring more and more meeting space, as opposed to those using breakout rooms and exhibition space," he added. "We're also seeing a lot of short-term bookings for corporate meetings. People will call and want a meeting in 30 days or less. The tech issue also is creating a lot of last-minute business. It could be a Bank of America meeting, but it will have to do with changes in their software."

Not far from the St. Francis, the Clift Hotel also is planning an upgrade. Ian Schrager, who took over management of the property in December 1996 and purchased the Clift in June, will spend $25 million to renovate the historic hotel. The project is expected to begin early next year.

Another hotel in the neighborhood, the 254-room Canterbury Hotel, completed a five-year $7 million renovation that recreated the ambience of a 1920s English antique-filled manor, bringing it back to the days when the hotel first opened in 1928. The hotel not only has gone through a transformation in its building environment but also in the type of guests it serves.

"When I came to the hotel in 1994, there was no corporate business at all. That is changing, however, and now between 22 and 25 percent of the hotel's business is corporate," said Mark Battat, the Canterbury's vice president of sales and marketing. The hotel in early September opened the first of what it calls "business plus" rooms. Each of the initial 16 business plus rooms has an oversized desk and a two-line phone with dataport. The Canterbury also plans to add a fitness center and business center next year.