Byron Roth still recalls when Paul Makarechian, head of Makar Properties LLC, developer of the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort & Spa in Dana Point, coaxed him to move his yearly stock conference from the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel across the street.
“We were very happy at the Ritz,” said Roth, chief executive of Newport Beach-based Roth Capital Partners LLC. “Then Paul Makarechian approached me right when they were setting up the hotel. He told me how much they would like to have my conference. We had some negotiations. But we weren’t 100% convinced.”
Roth ended up striking a three-year pact with the St. Regis to hold his 2,000-attendee conference there.
He said he shifted the meeting of Wall Street analysts and companies “for a lot of reasons,mostly to do with the number of people at our conferences.”
Since opening in 2001, the St. Regis has become a draw for stock conferences and other business events, sometimes at the expense of the Ritz-Carlton.
The Roth conference is the largest event for the St. Regis. The hotel also landed other conferences, including Morgan Stanley’s Semiconductor & Systems Conference in the fall.
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St. Regis: Roth conference is hotel’s biggest |
In contrast, the Ritz has drawn smaller gatherings, like the Opal Financial Group’s Alternative Investing Summit and the WWD Executive Technology CIO Summit.
The St. Regis “certainly does create competition,” said Bruce Baltin, manager of the Los Angeles office of Atlanta-based hotel consultancy PKF Consulting Inc.
“The opening of that hotel added a lot to the supply of hotel rooms in the market,” Baltin said.
The 2003 opening of the Montage Resort & Spa Laguna Beach only has added to the competition.
The Ritz and St. Regis have different marketing paths.
The St. Regis joined a marketing group to sell coastal Orange County to wealthy travelers under the name “The Oceanfront.”
The unusual partnership includes half a dozen major hotels as well as several independent ones.
Within the next few weeks, the group plans to send out mail to 70,000 homes across the country.
The goal: convince folks that OC is a premier coastal spot and the best place to vacation, according to Cormac O’Modhrain, general manager of the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort & Spa, a member of the group.
Others in the group include Balboa Bay Club & Resort, Four Seasons Hotel Newport Beach, Hyatt Regency Newport Beach, Hilton Waterfront Beach Resort in Huntington Beach, Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort & Spa, the Montage Resort, Newport Beach Marriott and Surf & Sand Resort in Laguna.
The Ritz-Carlton passed on Oceanfront. The hotel has a longstanding corporate policy against most partnerships in order to protect its brand, said director of sales and marketing George Munz.
St. Regis spokeswoman Melissa Centeno said the two hotels “complement one another.”
“We not only enhance each other’s business, but enhance the area as a luxury destination along the Orange County coast,” she said. “Our sales departments work together openly bringing clients on site visits to one another’s properties and even share groups.”
When one hotel fills up with an event, the other takes the overflow, Centeno said.
Sandi Cain contributed to this story.
