While skyrocketing hotel rates and other costs are putting first-tier cities beyond the reach of many meeting budgets, there is no shortage of attractive alternatives just a few hours, or sometimes even minutes, away. Here’s a look at several locales around the country that offer affordability without sacrificing quality and convenience.
Oakland/Concord, Calif.
For those who want to meet in the Bay Area without incurring the high costs of San Francisco and Silicon Valley, price relief lies just across the Bay Bridge. In addition to lower hotel rates, groups meeting in Oakland will find a welcoming atmosphere, an exciting culinary scene and creative options for teambuilding and networking, according to Rahnee Palma, director of sales for Visit Oakland.
“In San Francisco, groups are fighting for space and availability, whereas hotels in Oakland can fully pay attention to your group,” she said. “Beyond that, Oakland offers a very committed and distinctive community that can enrich meeting activities. For example, we have more artists per capita than any other city in the country, so instead of the usual scavenger hunt, your group can paint a mural.”
Palma also noted that downtown Oakland—a 15-minute ride on Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) from downtown San Francisco—is experiencing a renaissance of new development and repurposing of its many historic buildings, including the renovation of the Sears Building to serve as the new headquarters for Uber and the conversion of a former auto showroom to ImpactHub, a high-tech workspace with event areas for groups. On the hotel scene, the former Jack London Inn is now the hip Z Hotel, and the Oakland Marriott, the city’s convention headquarters hotel, completed a major renovation and is one of the first Marriott properties to boast an M Club Lounge, an innovative space for work and relaxation.
For planners looking to get maximum value in Oakland, Palma suggests booking during February, March, April, August and September. She advises planners to make note of the convention calendar in San Francisco, as a huge citywide like Dreamforce can make availability tight in the region.
Just east of Oakland, Concord and the surrounding Diablo Valley is a meeting destination where groups will not only find affordability, but also sunny weather, scenic hiking trails, craft breweries, outstanding shopping, BART service and convenient access from the San Francisco, Oakland and Concord airports, according to Kerri Gay-Harris, director of sales and catering for the Concord Clarion Hotel and a representative for Visit Concord, formerly Visit Diablo Valley.
Concord offers nine hotels with 1,300 guest rooms, including the meetings-friendly Concord Crowne Plaza, Hilton Concord and Concord Clarion Hotel, and such attractions as Water World and the Concord Pavilion, a major concert venue available for events. New on the scene is Round1, an activity center featuring bowling, billiards and other games.
“We say we’re the sunnier side of the Bay—a little niche that is the best-kept secret,” Gay-Harris said. “We do well with corporate SMERF and government business—we’re convenient to Sacramento—and we do very well with the sports market, particularly youth tournaments.”
Greater Palm Springs, Calif.
Greater Palm Springs, with its communities of Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Indian Wells, Rancho Mirage, Cathedral City, Indio, Desert Hot Springs and La Quinta, can be a surprisingly affordable alternative to L.A. and other Southern California coastal cities, even during the winter and spring high season, according to Rick Blackburn, vice president of convention sales and services for the Greater Palm Springs CVB.
“A lot of planners don’t think they can come here during March and April, but the secret is to book midweek and not on weekends when we have our big music festivals and other events,” he said. “Midweek is actually a value time for us year-round. Summer is still our lower season, but we’re getting more business then than we used to, so the difference is less.”
Another surprise to planners is the array of activities available in Greater Palm Springs, including a Bike and Brew tour highlighting the region’s craft breweries and the new BMW Performance Driving School at Thermal, an event site where attendees can put the pedal to the metal on the racetrack.
The hotel scene includes upcoming additions for downtown Palm Springs, including Virgin Hotels Palm Springs and Andaz Palm Springs, both scheduled for a 2018 opening. In La Quinta, construction is expected to start this year on Silver Rock Resort, which will feature a 140-room luxury hotel, a 200-room lifestyle hotel, a 71,000-square-foot conference center and a 5,000-square-foot event lawn and patio.
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Milwaukee
Even as Milwaukee ramps up its appeal with new hotels and attractions, the city remains one of the best value destinations in the country, according to Jeff Baryenbruch, executive director of sales for Visit Milwaukee. Groups priced out of Chicago will find greater affordability without sacrificing many of the attributes the “Windy City” is known for, he said.
“Like Chicago, Milwaukee has Lake Michigan frontage, great Midwestern values, a thriving arts, music and culture scene, and professional sports, the Bucks and Brewers to name a couple,” he said. “However, downtown Milwaukee’s hotel rates run as much as 35 percent less than downtown Chicago’s.”
Optimal periods for good rates and space in Milwaukee include the first half of August, the months of November and December, and select weeks during the first quarter into April, he added. Convention groups will find greater flexibility with the Wisconsin Center, along with potential cash incentives from Visit Milwaukee in May and August 2017; May, August and September 2018; and April 2019.
New downtown developments include the Westin Milwaukee, a 200-room hotel scheduled to open this summer with views of Lake Michigan, a fine dining restaurant and 9,000 square feet of meeting space. Set to open in 2018 just a few blocks from Wisconsin Center is a $500 million downtown sports and entertainment complex that will be the new home for the Milwaukee Bucks NBA team.
Austin, Texas
Even with high hotel occupancies stemming from its popularity as a business and leisure destination, Austin is an affordable choice for meetings, particularly when all costs are factored in, said Steve Genovesi, senior vice president of sales for the Austin CVB.
“The bigger thing is to look at the entire bill, not just the room rate,” he said. “Once you get downtown, you don’t need a taxi because you can walk everywhere. Our convention center has very low catering prices. Most hotels have free Internet, and we have extremely high bandwidth because of demands from South by Southwest and other tech meetings. Our flight service is also a really good deal—our airport is rated by Cheapflights.com as one of the most affordable to fly into.”
Hotel rates are especially attractive for groups willing to start their meetings with a Sunday night stay, he added. Late summer, a time when Austin is hot but not humid, as well as December and January, are the city’s value periods.
Austin’s hotel inventory is booming, including two new headquarters properties for the Austin Convention Center: the 1,021-room JW Marriott, which opened in 2015, and the 1,068-room Fairmont Austin, set to open this summer. Sleek new boutique properties are also part of the mix, including the 322-room Hotel Van Zandt in the Rainey Street Historic District and the 71-room South Congress Hotel downtown.
For both domestic and international attendees, getting to Austin has never been easier, Genovesi said, noting that Austin-Bergstrom International Airport now offers well over 300 flights daily, including nonstop service to Frankfurt and London.
Atlantic City, N.J.
Despite its proximity to New York and other expensive first-tier cities along the Northeast Corridor, Atlantic City offers excellent midweek values year-round, even during the summer high season, according to Jim Wood, president and CEO of Meet AC.
“During the winter months, there is a bit more value, but summer will not break anyone’s bank account,” he said. “Our casino properties are doing everything they can to grow the meetings market, including offering incentives to planners. Plus, during summer you get the added bonus of being in a hot tourism destination where you can bring your family along to enjoy the beaches and boardwalk. A lot of attendees are doing this.”
At any time of year, Atlantic City offers not only casino gaming, but also a wide array of entertainment and renowned restaurants operated by celebrity chefs such as Gordon Ramsay, Guy Fieri, Bobby Flay and Wolfgang Puck, Wood noted.
Atlantic City is also continuing to up the ante on its meetings infrastructure, including Harrah’s Waterfront Conference Center, which opened in 2015 and hosted MPI’s World Education Conference last summer. Other new additions include a 12,000-square-foot conference center at Resorts Atlantic City and 15,000 square feet of meeting space at the Claridge Hotel. An expansion is currently under way at MGM’s Borgata Hotel & Casino, with completion expected for later this year. It will include 25,000 square feet of meeting space and a restaurant operated by Michael Symon.
