A competitive hotel market is taking shape in Warwick where a couple of national hotel chains are upgrading one property and developing two more near T.F. Green Airport.
The plans will result not only in more rooms, but more options, according to Barbara Caniglia, the city’s director of economic development.
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”For the most part, our hotels are at 97 percent capacity,” Caniglia said. “Now what we’re trying to look at is who are our clients.”
Business travelers, airline employees, vacationing families and parents of area college students all take advantage of the city’s hotels, Caniglia said. Another boost has been the heavily promoted “stay, park and fly” package available at most of the area’s hotels. The deal – which runs through the winter months – includes an overnight stay, parking in a hotel lot, and rides to and from the airport.
Attempts to meet the growing demand for accommodations are starting about three miles from the airport near the intersection of Interstates 95 and 195. That’s where the 226-room Holiday Inn at the Crossings has assumed the more prestigious moniker Crowne Plaza Hote. The parent company of both hotels, Bass Hotels and Resorts of Atlanta, agreed to keep the identifying “at the Crossings” in the name, said Colleen Dennis Keating, director of sales and marketing for the Crowne Plaza. But in other ways, it is seeking to distinguish the new property from the old.
Since its name change late in October, the hotel already has spent about $750,000 on renovations, according to J. Rudi Heater, the facility’s general manager and a Providence-Warwick Convention and Visitors Bureau board member. They include improvements to the fitness center; a decor change for its in-house restaurant, Remington’s; the installation of computer ports and voice mail in every guest room and many other touches.
The changes are meant to justify an approximately 11 percent increase in room rates and meet the demands of “a higher profile of traveler and meeting planner,” Keating said.
The hotel plans to break ground this spring on a conference and banquet facility with 21,800 square feet of usable space, bringing the total function space to 33,000 square feet, Heater said. Construction of a new office building and a golf course on hotel grounds are in the early planning stages, he said.
The decision to rename the hotel was a relatively easy one, according to Heater. “For the level of services and the quality of the facility, we always felt that we were under-branded,” he said.
Besides, Bass was planning an alternative for customers who “may be resistant” to changes at the Crowne Plaza, Keating said. The Holiday Inn Express and Suites is a 107-room facility to be built on the west side of Jefferson Boulevard near exit 13 off Interstate 95. At least 25 percent of the rooms will be suites, including a separate sitting area. The facility will fall under the category of a “limited service hotel.” That is to say it will serve a continental breakfast but have no food and beverage or retail outlets. The hotel is slated to open in June 2000, Keating said.
The Great Lakes Hospitality Corp. of Madison, Wis., is also planning to build and operate a “limited services hotel” on land occupied by the defunct Sholes Hillsgrove Roller Rink on Post Road near the airport. The 173-room Hampton Inn & Suites will include a mix of traditional and “extended-stay” rooms, according to Tom Sather, director of development for Great Lakes. The latter will include a full kitchen and living area in addition to a bedroom and bathroom.
The newcomers will be vying for customers along with nine existing hotels. But the belief is there’s enough business for everyone pervades.
”While Providence’s corporate community hasn’t exploded, these are good national times,” Keating said. “There’s just more business taking place everywhere.”
Indeed, the numbers look promising. In Warwick, the average revenue per hotel room rose 10.4 percent last year and 17 percent in 1997, according to a study conducted by Smith Travel Research of Hendersonville, Tenn. The average daily room rate increased 8.7 percent last year and 7.7 percent in 1997, the study said.
In Providence, the average revenue per hotel room rose 6.6 percent last year and 18.8 percent in 1997, according to the study. The average daily room rate increased 6.2 percent last year and 12.7 percent in 1997, the study said.
Warwick officials and hoteliers expect business to increase in both communities, and insist that even more lodgings planned for the capital city are not a threat.
”We really don’t get a lot of overflow from Providence, even though we’re part of the Providence-Warwick Convention and Visitors Bureau,” Caniglia said.
Suburban hotels attract a different audience than urban ones, Keating said. They offer a tranquil setting, easy access to the airport (and eventually an Amtrak station), and lots of free parking, she said. What’s more, there is not the “intimidation factor” that comes with navigating urban areas, she said.
Of course, those locations come with attractions and activities the suburbs don’t have. But “most business travelers don’t sight see anyway,” Keating said.
As for the meetings business, “we’re not going for groups that would use the Rhode Island Convention Center,” Keating said of the Crowne Plaza. “We’re looking for groups that need something in between.”
”We’re going to fit that bill perfectly,” she said.
Caniglia said she’s been approached by other hotel developers interested in putting “limited-service” properties near the airport. She is hoping they will change their minds not about the area, but about what to build.
”I, personally, would like to see another full-service hotel in the city,” she said.
