<FONT SIZE="+3"><B>St. Louis: Enough Rooms?</B>
By Glenn Carter
Observers agree that St. Louis is experiencing strong growth in meetings lift, although whether a new convention hotel would raise the city's status as a conference destination has come into question. Consider the following:
In the past three years, St. Louis has added hundreds of thousands of square feet of meeting space by expanding America's Center, which includes the only certified conference center-the Executive Conference Center-within a convention center, and a 70,000-seat arena, Trans World Dome, that doubles as a sports and exhibition/meeting venue.
In that same time, the city has maintained a hotel room count of about 20,000 rooms.
Last summer, St. Louis Convention and Visitors Commission CEO Robert Bedell told <I>BTN</I> that delayed plans for a downtown convention hotel were pushing away meetings business (<I>BTN</I>, Aug. 5).
"The new meeting facilities put us in another league, but we don't have enough hotel rooms to support being in that league," said an executive at a major downtown hotel. "Consequently, all the new facilities have not had the impact that they were supposed to have."
But that opinion is in the minority among other hoteliers, city officials and a local travel manager.
Judy Elliott, manager of meeting and travel services for St. Louis-based Ralston Purina Co., said she rarely has a problem finding hotel rooms, but added, "we're probably a little bit different from other companies in that we have a designated hotel in the city." On the rare occasion when the hotel is full, she said, "we just have to shift our location and be flexible."
Elliott, whose staff arranges 250 meet
ings a year-75 to 80 percent of them local-said she does occasionally run into problems with meeting space, not sleeping rooms, when there is a citywide meeting in town and space is gone at the convention center. She favors meeting space in the Executive Conference Center, which the city calls the only conference center within a convention center certified by the International Association of Conference Centers.
Like most corporate planners, Elliott said she never holds a meeting large enough to warrant use of the Trans World Dome, which is designed for large meetings and exhibitions.
Hoteliers, while recognizing that a convention hotel might attract a few more large conferences, are upbeat about the city's situation.
"The additional convention space has allowed this city to step it up a notch in regard to the kind of groups we can now go after," said Paul Verciglio, general manager of the Hyatt Regency St. Louis.
As far as a need for more room space, Verciglio said, "cities often get into a quandary about adding new hotel rooms to attract large conventions, but these large conventions are few and far between. When you deal in the realm that most cities deal in, the majority of meetings are far smaller than a Republican or Democratic convention. You don't build a church for Easter Sunday."
Tim Sullivan, director of marketing for the 600-room Marriott Pavilion, agrees. "It would be nice to have another convention hotel, but we have a very strong hotel product for a good percentage of the national meetings."
He also noted that all the major convention hotels in town have invested substantially to upgrade their properties.
Sullivan attributed two consecutive record years at the Marriott to the growth of conventions. The Trans World Dome has drawn large religious conferences and major sales meetings organized by Amway and financial services firm Primerica, which is meeting this month. "St. Louis is a great value because rates are growing, but nowhere near the levels you might find in the primary markets," he said.
Still, the city hasn't given up on building another convention hotel. Greg Deininger, vice president of sales and marketing for the St. Louis CVC, said the city "is looking into a convention hotel project on one of two key sites."
This search has not held the city back, said Deininger. "Business has tripled since 1992, and that is attributable to the convention center expansion," he pointed out.
While acknowledging that there has "not been significant growth in hotel capacity since the late 1980s in terms of large convention hotels," Deininger said its 2.7 million total square feet of meeting space allows the city to have simultaneous or overlapping conventions.
For now, St. Louis offers 5,100 rooms downtown, and when sizable conventions arrive, "all four of our hotel pockets come into play-downtown, midtown (including Clayton), airport and Westport," Deininger said.
All these areas are within easy driving distance of the airport and of one another. This year, meeting business accounted for 450,000 nights, Deininger said.