Michael Hart

No Room at the D.C. Inn

People in Washington, D.C., have been telling me an anchor hotel next to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center was on its way practically since I first came to Tradeshow Week more than seven years ago.

The all-too-clichéd “ducks in a row” seemed to be lined up, however, with the land secured, investors in place, a brand (Marriott) decided on and a date for groundbreaking established. Then, a couple of weeks ago, the owners of another Marriott down the street, the Wardman Park Marriott, filed a lawsuit designed to stop the process. In return, the convention center authority countersued and … here we go.

The details of the lawsuits – exactly who is suing who for what contrived reason – are the subject of a brief story in next week’s TSW. However, it’s not the real point of the legal rigmarole, of course.

Plain and simple, the owner of the Wardman Park, JBG Companies, which has 11 hotels in the D.C. area, doesn’t want the competition from another hotel a mere two miles away.

There’s nothing unusual about this. Here in Los Angeles, the owner of the Bonaventure Hotel on the north side of the downtown area (a Westin, these days) managed to keep at bay any hope of an anchor hotel near the L.A. Convention Center for years, only relenting when the city and investors came up with a set of guarantees that he would be compensated if and when the new hotels near the convention center – now just days away from opening – took any business away from him.

The anchor hotel isn’t the only reason LA Inc. and the convention center have begun booking more shows and meetings, but it is an important one. It’s also pretty clear that once the economy picks up, all that extra business is going to be a boon for the Bonaventure too.

Now, about D.C. and the equally short-sighted hotel community there: Do they not know how many shows and meetings bypass the city simply because organizers and planners can’t find a hotel package their potential attendees can afford?

Do they not know that shows that have been using the Washington CC in recent years are now moving to the Gaylord Natl. in Natl. Harbor, Md., in large part because of the number of more affordable hotel rooms at both the Gaylord and the smaller hotels surrounding it?

Is anybody really served if a dearth of hotel rooms in the Nation’s Capitol – the headquarters for many national associations and what should be an obvious destination for many meetings that don’t take place there now – keeps it out of the price range of many shows, particularly in an era when attendance promotion is becoming one of the most significant concerns in the tradeshow industry?

Posted by Michael Hart on January 29, 2010 | Comments (0)