San Diego is ramping up its meetings offerings with a number of new hotels and renovations, as well as a new program targeting the city’s salespeople.
Recently the San Diego Tourism Authority introduced its San Diego Meeting Certified Program, a training course in which salespeople from various suppliers are primed on selling the destination, according to Margie Sitton, senior vice president of sales and services for the San Diego Tourism Authority.
For new hotels, one of the most anticipated openings will be the Pendry San Diego, a 317-room, $100 million-plus upscale property in the downtown Gaslamp Quarter. The 12-story hotel, near the San Diego Convention Center, is expected to open in the summer of 2016 and will include 36 suites and several restaurants and bars. It will also house an 8,600-square-foot ballroom and various meeting rooms.
Pendry is a new division of the high-end Montage Hotels & Resorts, marking downtown San Diego’s first Mobil Five-Star hotel.
“This will fill a gap in the hotel segment downtown,” Sitton says.
Lane Field North is currently under construction on a dual-branded hotel scheduled for completion in January 2016. The $130 million project will include a 253-room Springhill Suites and a 147-room Residence Inn, both by Marriott. The development will include a new 1.6-acre public park on San Diego’s waterfront.
In summer 2015, the Hampton Inn San Diego Mission Valley will complete renovations and convert to a Four Points by Sheraton.
Last December, the Marriott Marquis San Diego & Marina broke ground on a new $107 million ballroom expansion project that will add two new 36,000-square-foot rooms overlooking the San Diego skyline and a 25,000-square-foot outdoor terrace overlooking the bay. The renovation is slated for completion by June 2016.
In August, the Hilton San Diego/Del Mar completed a $15 million renovation to the lobby, business center, fitness center, restaurant, meeting spaces and guest rooms.
The Coronado Island Marriott Resort & Spa can now host events on the resort’s pier, which juts out onto San Diego Bay. Capacity for sit-down dinners is 100, and groups can host receptions on the pier before a chartered boat excursion.
In June 2014, Hyatt Regency La Jolla at Aventine completed a $12 million guestroom renovation throughout the 417-room property. The project was the final phase of recent renovations that converted some second-floor guest rooms to breakout space and adjusted the layout of the terrace space, resulting in an additional 10,000 square feet of meeting space for a total of 42,000 square feet.
