January 10th 2008
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Burlington Free Press - Sunday's Business Section
Burlington's waterfront facilities working together to generate business
By Dan McLean
Free Press Staff Writer
December 9, 2007
Burlington's hotels are engaged in both competition and cooperation. Burlington's two waterfront hotels -- the newly built Courtyard Burlington Harbor hotel and the Hilton Burlington, fresh from more than $16 million in renovations -- are beginning to work with other waterfront venues, and each other, to lure more conferences to downtown Burlington.
There are now two solid clusters of hotels in the Burlington area: one set on Battery Street next to Lake Champlain, the other off Interstate 89's Exit 14 in South Burlington, near Burlington International Airport, said Dave Hakins, executive director of the Vermont Convention Bureau.
''Burlington really, really has a wonderful buzz right now with meeting conference and event planners,'' he said; 109 meetings and conferences have been set up through the bureau this fiscal year, compared to 69 the year before, he said..
Downtown Burlington's largest hotel, the 258-room Hilton Burlington, was rebranded Aug. 8 by its owner, Columbia Sussex Corp. of Kentucky, shedding the Wyndham name. Changing to a Hilton offers better brand recognition and a more effective frequent travelers program that should drive more business travelers to the hotel -- and perhaps more conferences, said Shannon Smith, the hotel's general manager.
The hotel generates 25 to 35 percent of its revenues through conferences and conventions, Smith said. They would like to see that percentage increase.
Next door is the 127-room Courtyard Burlington Harbor hotel, a Marriott property owned by Westlake Hospitality LLC of Burlington. The hotel opened in April.
Combined, the two downtown hotels offer 385 rooms.
The challenge for hosting conferences, however, is meeting space.
The Hilton's largest room can hold 500 people, in round banquet-style tables. That's half what the largest room at Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center in South Burlington can hold. The Courtyard can accommodate just 50 people.
The Hilton Burlington -- which has seven meeting rooms, totaling 16,000 square feet -- and the Courtyard, which has 3,000 square feet of meeting space spread across three rooms, can't match the 30,000 square feet of convention space at the 309-room Sheraton.
The Sheraton boasts ''the largest room in the state,'' a 12,000 square-foot exhibition room, and has a steady stream of large events booking the facility. Enhancing the Sheraton's appeal are about a half-dozen hotels in the Williston Road vicinity making up a second cluster of hotels that effectively serves Burlington, Hakins said.
Working together the waterfront facilities have begun to unite their offerings to attract more conference business.
At the end of the October, officials at the Hilton, the Main Street Landing and ECHO at the Leahy Center for Lake Champlain worked together to host a three-day, 350-person conference for the Orton Family Foundation. Most of the participants stayed at the Hilton, some meetings were held at Main Street Landing and a reception was held at ECHO.
''I knew all along that this kind of marriage between the hotels and the performing arts center would work so well,'' said Melinda Moulton, CEO and redeveloper of Main Street Landing along the Burlington waterfront. ''We all just went, 'Oh my God, bingo! We can host conferences here and really expand the venue.'''
The Main Street Landing's Performing Arts Center offers six more rooms, which can handle a crowd of up to 250 people, said Moulton, a member of Orton's board of trustees.
''We very much wanted to have our conference on the waterfront,'' said John Barstow, spokesman of the Middlebury-based foundation, which works to help smaller cities and towns grow without losing their identity; having events spread throughout three buildings along the waterfront required more logistics than having everything at one large location like the Sheraton, he noted.
''People really appreciated the setting. They were really happy not being in the basement of a convention hotel,'' he said.
In July, attendees of the American Academy of Pediatrics stayed at the Courtyard, but held their conference at Hilton, then known still as the Wyndham, said Joe Carton, the Courtyard's general manager.
Smith said it's not uncommon for Courtyard guests to drink and dine at the Hilton's restaurant and bar, which she said tends to stay open longer.
This week, the Vermont Convention Bureau referred a Courtyard client to Main Street Landing's space because the planner was looking for ''an interesting place to host a meal,'' Hakins said. ''We are making that happen right now.''
Conference and meeting space is also available on the fourth floor of the University of Vermont's Davis Center. The massive student center offers an 8,000-square-foot Grand Maple Ballroom, which holds 460 people, and second 2,000 square-foot ballroom that holds another 154 people, UVM's senior conference coordinator at UVM Denise Zang said. The waterfront hotels haven't used these spaces for conferences, but they are available, she said.
The conference business provides a solid revenue stream for the region's hotels, but it also injects a healthy supply of money into the state's economy, said Hakins, who said conference attendees tend to spend hundreds of dollars a day.
The Sheraton, Moulton said, will continue to excel at hosting larger conferences. And she doesn't want to edge in on their business. ''We don't want to take away from anybody. We want to offer enough here so more conferences come to Burlington. ... We're all in this together,'' she said.
The Sheraton, which generates 40 to 45 percent of its business through hostingconferences, welcomes the competition, said Robert Burnetti, the hotel's general manager. The hotel and conference center has been a Sheraton brand since 1966, although the property changed owners a decade ago, he said; that brand consistency he said has been good for business, he noted.
''The key is to get the business to Burlington -- and then there is good healthy competition as to where it goes,'' Burnetti said of landing lucrative conference clients. ''I think each hotel offers something unique. And you want to sell your uniqueness.''
Contact Dan McLean at 651-4877 or dmclean@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
Burlington's waterfront facilities working together to generate business
By Dan McLean
Free Press Staff Writer
December 9, 2007
Burlington's hotels are engaged in both competition and cooperation. Burlington's two waterfront hotels -- the newly built Courtyard Burlington Harbor hotel and the Hilton Burlington, fresh from more than $16 million in renovations -- are beginning to work with other waterfront venues, and each other, to lure more conferences to downtown Burlington.
There are now two solid clusters of hotels in the Burlington area: one set on Battery Street next to Lake Champlain, the other off Interstate 89's Exit 14 in South Burlington, near Burlington International Airport, said Dave Hakins, executive director of the Vermont Convention Bureau.
''Burlington really, really has a wonderful buzz right now with meeting conference and event planners,'' he said; 109 meetings and conferences have been set up through the bureau this fiscal year, compared to 69 the year before, he said..
Downtown Burlington's largest hotel, the 258-room Hilton Burlington, was rebranded Aug. 8 by its owner, Columbia Sussex Corp. of Kentucky, shedding the Wyndham name. Changing to a Hilton offers better brand recognition and a more effective frequent travelers program that should drive more business travelers to the hotel -- and perhaps more conferences, said Shannon Smith, the hotel's general manager.
The hotel generates 25 to 35 percent of its revenues through conferences and conventions, Smith said. They would like to see that percentage increase.
Next door is the 127-room Courtyard Burlington Harbor hotel, a Marriott property owned by Westlake Hospitality LLC of Burlington. The hotel opened in April.
Combined, the two downtown hotels offer 385 rooms.
The challenge for hosting conferences, however, is meeting space.
The Hilton's largest room can hold 500 people, in round banquet-style tables. That's half what the largest room at Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center in South Burlington can hold. The Courtyard can accommodate just 50 people.
The Hilton Burlington -- which has seven meeting rooms, totaling 16,000 square feet -- and the Courtyard, which has 3,000 square feet of meeting space spread across three rooms, can't match the 30,000 square feet of convention space at the 309-room Sheraton.
The Sheraton boasts ''the largest room in the state,'' a 12,000 square-foot exhibition room, and has a steady stream of large events booking the facility. Enhancing the Sheraton's appeal are about a half-dozen hotels in the Williston Road vicinity making up a second cluster of hotels that effectively serves Burlington, Hakins said.
Working together the waterfront facilities have begun to unite their offerings to attract more conference business.
At the end of the October, officials at the Hilton, the Main Street Landing and ECHO at the Leahy Center for Lake Champlain worked together to host a three-day, 350-person conference for the Orton Family Foundation. Most of the participants stayed at the Hilton, some meetings were held at Main Street Landing and a reception was held at ECHO.
''I knew all along that this kind of marriage between the hotels and the performing arts center would work so well,'' said Melinda Moulton, CEO and redeveloper of Main Street Landing along the Burlington waterfront. ''We all just went, 'Oh my God, bingo! We can host conferences here and really expand the venue.'''
The Main Street Landing's Performing Arts Center offers six more rooms, which can handle a crowd of up to 250 people, said Moulton, a member of Orton's board of trustees.
''We very much wanted to have our conference on the waterfront,'' said John Barstow, spokesman of the Middlebury-based foundation, which works to help smaller cities and towns grow without losing their identity; having events spread throughout three buildings along the waterfront required more logistics than having everything at one large location like the Sheraton, he noted.
''People really appreciated the setting. They were really happy not being in the basement of a convention hotel,'' he said.
In July, attendees of the American Academy of Pediatrics stayed at the Courtyard, but held their conference at Hilton, then known still as the Wyndham, said Joe Carton, the Courtyard's general manager.
Smith said it's not uncommon for Courtyard guests to drink and dine at the Hilton's restaurant and bar, which she said tends to stay open longer.
This week, the Vermont Convention Bureau referred a Courtyard client to Main Street Landing's space because the planner was looking for ''an interesting place to host a meal,'' Hakins said. ''We are making that happen right now.''
Conference and meeting space is also available on the fourth floor of the University of Vermont's Davis Center. The massive student center offers an 8,000-square-foot Grand Maple Ballroom, which holds 460 people, and second 2,000 square-foot ballroom that holds another 154 people, UVM's senior conference coordinator at UVM Denise Zang said. The waterfront hotels haven't used these spaces for conferences, but they are available, she said.
The conference business provides a solid revenue stream for the region's hotels, but it also injects a healthy supply of money into the state's economy, said Hakins, who said conference attendees tend to spend hundreds of dollars a day.
The Sheraton, Moulton said, will continue to excel at hosting larger conferences. And she doesn't want to edge in on their business. ''We don't want to take away from anybody. We want to offer enough here so more conferences come to Burlington. ... We're all in this together,'' she said.
The Sheraton, which generates 40 to 45 percent of its business through hostingconferences, welcomes the competition, said Robert Burnetti, the hotel's general manager. The hotel and conference center has been a Sheraton brand since 1966, although the property changed owners a decade ago, he said; that brand consistency he said has been good for business, he noted.
''The key is to get the business to Burlington -- and then there is good healthy competition as to where it goes,'' Burnetti said of landing lucrative conference clients. ''I think each hotel offers something unique. And you want to sell your uniqueness.''
Contact Dan McLean at 651-4877 or dmclean@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
