Convention hotel booking up 36% from 2005

The Detroit Metro Convention and Visitors Bureau has made significant strides in increasing the number of hotel rooms it books for conventions and meetings. In the first quarter of 2007, 313,249 hotel rooms were booked through 2013, as compared to 230,264 booked through just 2009 in the first quarter of 2005—a 36% improvement.

Chris Baum, DMCVB’s senior vice president of sales and marketing attributes the uptick to several factors, including the fact that the bureau’s sales team has gotten more sophisticated in targeting meetings and conventions by establishing and maintaining contacts with company decision-makers, trade associations, public relations firms and meeting planners from around the country. “We’ve broadened our base,” he says.

Although DMCVB still has some negative perceptions about Detroit to combat while attracting groups, Baum says, “Downtown’s improvements are easier to sell. Our biggest challenge is to get someone to come here for the first time. Once we get them to come, they say, ‘Whoa, Detroit is much nicer than I thought!'” He said the bureau has a very high success rate in booking meetings and conventions from planners who take a “familiarization trip” to the city.

Baum says that DMCVB’s new “D” identity brand, which focuses on five of Detroit’s strengths—cars, culture, gaming, music and sports—helps make his job easier. “These are the things that make us a good place to hold a meeting. These are things that people can relate to, and these are five things that we deliver very successfully here in the metro area.”

The under-construction three permanent casino hotels and the Westin Book Cadillac will add 1,600 luxury hotel rooms to downtown, something that has also helped the bureau book large groups in future years. “These are brand-new, high-quality, leading-edge, fully-loaded guest rooms,” says Baum—who also points out that the casinos’ restaurants, bars, nightclubs and shopping will be of a quality “Detroit has never seen—not even in its heyday. They are urban resorts.” The Westin Book Cadillac will also fill a niche, as Detroit’s “grand dame hotel.”

Another DMCVB tactic has been to address perceptions of Detroit in a humorous, self-deprecating manner. A two-page ad that will run in a meeting planner trade publication asks, on the left-hand page, “Who’s the genius who booked Detroit?” while the the right-hand page answers, “Mensa.” The organization will hold its Annual Gathering here in 2010.

Source: Chris Baum, DMCVB
Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh