Downtown Providence
After a slightly slower fall than usual, the hotel industry in downtown Providence is picking up a little.
Occupancy levels in Providence hotels run parallel to convention business in the northeast, and statistics say there is another peak around the corner.
Occupancy rates have traditionally hit a high in June, then dropped off a little and stayed consistent for the summer and picked up again in September and October.
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"Maybe it’s that they tend to be the months that are the nicest from a weather standpoint," said John Flaherty, vice president of convention sales for the Providence Warwick Convention and Visitors Bureau. "Nobody wants to be in Florida in August and few people want to be in the northeast in the winter months. September and October just seem to be the months that many associations meet around here."
Flaherty knows this so well because conventions are responsible for a good percentage of downtown hotels’ occupancy.
Many of the downtown sales directors estimated that at any given time more than half of the bookings in their hotels are from group meetings or conventions.
Shawn Masterson, director of sales and marketing at the Providence Biltmore, said that although the next few months should be good, the Biltmore definitely reaches its peak in October.
"I guess it’s just a combination of conventions, foliage, more people getting married and us holding events," he said.
Brian Smith, general manager of Courtyard by Marriott, said conventions are down about 40 percent from 2001, but the business is better than he had expected.
"We were anticipating the occupancy being lower in 2002; however, we have been pleasantly surprised," he said.
Smith said for the first three months of 2002, Courtyard finished with an occupancy rate of almost 80 percent, which is very good for this time of year. He said the hotel doesn’t have much to compare it with since the Courtyard only opened in 2000.
Judith Coppola, director of sales and marketing at the Holiday Inn downtown, said the Courtyard has made competition for visitors more difficult, but her hotel has been enjoying good business in recent months.
"We’re all drawing from the same pool and it’s not like there’s a whole lot more guests," she said, but things are better than they seem.
"It seems like a lot of people are crying with loaves of bread under their arms. People are complaining about how the economy is bad and it has been difficult on the industry, but we’re actually ahead of pace from last year," said Coppola.
The Westin Hotel in Providence, which recently gained attention for being downgraded to a four-diamond rating by AAA, has not lowered its annual forecast for occupancy because of any slip in convention business or in ratings.
"Nothing has changed in our predictions," said Colleen Keating, director of sales and marketing for the Westin-Providence. "Regardless of the diamond we are a premier luxury hotel in the city. We have already started renovations and we have made a strong commitment to regain that diamond."
Keating said the Westin also exceeded budgeted occupancy for the first three months of this year.
Even the hotels on the outskirts of the city run somewhat parallel to the convention market.
"Since we’re not right downtown we get the overflow," said Dan Peterson, general manager of the Providence Marriott, which is located near the State House.
He said being a chain hotel helps keep the numbers up because several traveling conventioneers are Marriott Rewards program members who can earn points for staying there.
Flaherty said the Providence Warwick Convention and Visitor Bureau has been making efforts to expand the peak occupancy time.
"When we’re out prospecting for conventions we typically don’t target groups that are prospecting for June, September or October," he said. "It’s the other months of January through April that the hotels need to fill rooms."
