Part of the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio, the upscale Renaissance Hotels collection—comprised of more than 150 properties across 34 countries—is centered around the idea that no two properties are alike. Some are historic icons housed in decades-old buildings while others offer ultra-modern amenities in hotels built from the ground up.
Merging Texan and Asian influences through design-forward elements, Renaissance Dallas at Plano Legacy West Hotel in the Dallas Metroplex has welcomed guests to its unique “West of Zen” culture since opening its doors in July 2017. Situated in the epicenter of Plano’s Legacy West business and cultural district, the 15-story hotel offers more than 300 guest rooms in the heart of Plano and is within walking distance of the city’s top dining and shopping options.
“[The hotel] was really at the onset of the Legacy West development, as we had the Shops of Legacy on the other side and Legacy West was really just forming at that point, so the hotel was kind of on the anchor corner,” said Eugene Blabey, director of event planning and operations at Renaissance Dallas at Plano Legacy West Hotel.
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‘West of Zen’ Culture at Renaissance Dallas at Plano Legacy West Hotel
While the hotel anchors guests in the center of Plano, it also transports them to a world within the hotel created specifically for the individual Renaissance location. Renaissance Dallas at Plano Legacy West Hotel’s “West of Zen” experience touches on the brand’s dedication to being intriguing, indigenous and independent, pulling from COO and Founder of Sam Moon Group David Moon’s South Korean roots.
Moon first came to Texas in 1969, Blabey said, and his two sons attended college in Texas and joined the hospitality industry in the early 2000s. After purchasing the Coyote Ridge Golf Course in Carrollton in 2005, the Moons decided to venture into the hotel side of hospitality and created what stands today as Renaissance Dallas at Plano Legacy West Hotel.
“They took it a whole other direction when it comes to the detailing and the artwork and the story behind it with East meets West and ‘West of Zen,’” Blabey said. “The Moons obviously wanted this to be a luxury property. Renaissance tells stories, so what we did is we combined the East, of course, being from Korea, with the West in Texas.
“Every facet of this [hotel] has a duality, a story that blends both the East and the West, the Asian and the Texan, into artwork, into menus, into fixtures and things we do up in the meeting space,” Blabey continued. “Everything pulls together, and so that is where we can work with ‘West of Zen.’”
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R.E.N. Meetings
Renaissance Dallas at Plano Legacy West Hotel offers a total of 34,869 square feet of meeting space across 17 event rooms, including a traditional ballroom as well as multiple “unexpected” meeting spaces. But what makes hosting events at Renaissance Dallas at Plano Legacy West Hotel so unique is the brand’s “R.E.N. Meetings” opportunities.
“Really, it’s how we promote R.E.N. Meetings and talk about it when customers come out to site our hotel and to look at our hotels,” Blabey said. “It’s not just on our website. It’s actually part of our site visit experience that people get to see.”
At Renaissance Hotels, groups can experience “R.E.N. Meetings” through each letter of the acronym:
- RLIFE: RLIFE is Renaissance Hotels’ event platform that helps plan private events and experiences through partnerships with local musicians, mixologists, artists and more, bringing the destination into each event.
- Experiential Sensory Meetings: The E in “R.E.N. Meetings” is Renaissance Hotels’ effort to reflect “the locale across all senses,” from local beverage and food—at Renaissance, the beverages always come first!—to sights, scents and sounds that set the mood and stimulate sensory memory. “For example, in the Whiskey Moon bar, we have a beverage ritual Monday through Thursday where they bring in a punchbowl and they do something at a certain time, and it is handed out complimentary,” Blabey said. “But it is an incredibly engaging experience with the hitting of a gong and letting a guest hit the gong and make the announcement: ‘The beverage ritual is here. It's time.’ It's really kind of a happy hour bringing in that culture and indigenous rituals to Texas.”
- Neighborhood Narratives: Instead of having concierges, each Renaissance Hotel has a Navigator, someone who “brings the soul of the neighborhood to you” through local touches to meetings and events. Navigators know all the best local restaurants, shops, entertainment venues and more to recommend to planners and their guests. “A navigator has to be versed in those cool local places that you're not going to find anywhere else,” Blabey said. “This person is a jack of all trades.”
[Related: Plano Is Putting on a Show for Groups in the Metroplex]
Meeting Space at Renaissance Dallas at Plano Legacy West Hotel
Renaissance Dallas at Plano Legacy West Hotel’s Legacy Ballroom has been ranked as one of North Dallas’ largest luxury venues, offering nearly 15,000 square feet of event space and an adjacent 600-square-foot outdoor terrace overlooking the Legacy West neighborhood.
The hotel’s Windrose Ballroom is inspired by the yellow rose of Texas and illuminated by Swarovski crystal chandeliers. The space is divisible into four separate rooms, or smaller groups can gather in the high-tech Shanghai Boardroom or the hotel’s Tokyo room, featuring floor-to-ceiling windows and a corkboard wall.
*This article was created in partnership with Visit Plano.
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