Road warriors: Based largely on research I’ve done for Successful Meetings, here are some insights about what’s new and improved in business travel circles:
AUSTIN’S AT&T HOTEL & CONFERENCE CENTER
Live music venues, coffeehouses, food trucks and eclectic storefronts help “Keep Austin Weird,” a slogan adopted by the city’s Independent Business Alliance. But Austin’s population boom is mirrored in the hospitality industry. Downtown hotel rooms are proliferating and remodeling, including the 297-room AT&T Hotel & Conference Center. Hook ’em horns! Read more at: AUSTIN.
HOT MEETING SITES
Bigger isn’t always better. Smaller cities around the world have special charms and unique meeting facilities that work just as well as super-sized ones. Check out what’s being offered in Long Beach, Baltimore, Huntington Beach, Seattle, Palm Springs, Greenville, South Carolina, and Colorado Springs, Read more at: HOT MEETING SITES.
HOTEL TECH TRENDS
Chatbots. Robots. Virtual Reality (VR). Augmented reality (VR). Self check-in. Facial recognition. Smart rooms. In general, hotels are getting smarter when it comes to using new technology to interface with guests. Read more at: TECH TRENDS.
HUNTINGTON BEACH
Huntington Beach is coastal cool. The city doesn’t have a convention center, but four proximal oceanfront hotel properties have teamed up to form the HB Collection, which together boasts 1,400 guest rooms and 185,000 square feet of flexible meeting space. Read More at: HUNTINGTON BEACH.
LAS VEGAS
From Aria’s new conference space to the new Park MGM and the planned expansion of meeting space at Caesars Palace, big things are happening in Sin City–the town that invented re-inventing yourself. Read more at: LAS VEGAS.
PECHANGA RESORT CASINO: NEW MEETING SPACE
The Pechanga Casino Resort in Temecula, California, has expanded what used to be a “Big Tent” with a $285-million expansion that bumped its room and suite count up to 1,090, and increased total square footage of indoor/outdoor meeting space to 247,000. Read more at: PECHANGA MEETINGS.
PECHANGA RESORT CASINO: NEW POOL & SPA
Ah, that new spa smell. Spa Pechanga has 17 treatment rooms and is connected to a state-of-the-art fitness studio. A new, 4.5-acre swimming complex is called The Cove, and includes 27 cabanas, a swim-up bar and a pair of waterslides. Read more at: PECHANGA’S NEW POOL & SPA. J&J
