Two hotels that opened last year in Orange County added 55,000 square feet of meeting space to local inventory, enough to drive the Business Journal’s annual account of hotel meeting space above 1.3 million square feet.
We’ve ranked 52 OC hotels this year with at least 6,000 square feet of indoor meeting space (see list, page 18).
The chart includes new entrants Paséa Hotel & Spa in Huntington Beach, No. 9, and Great Wolf Lodge in Garden Grove, No. 20. Paséa opened in May, Great Wolf in February.
The list is otherwise unchanged from last year, though the new properties shuffled rankings of established hotels.
Big Guys
The 10 largest hotels by meeting space, Paséa among them, span the county from Anaheim to Huntington Beach to Dana Point.
The three largest properties on the list are No. 1, Hilton Anaheim, with 140,000 square feet; Disneyland Hotel, No. 2, with 136,000 square feet; and Anaheim Marriott, which has about 81,000 square feet.
They account for 357,000 square feet of indoor events space, or about 27% of the total available at listed properties. All three are in Anaheim, and two—Hilton and Marriott—are a stone’s throw from the main entrance to Anaheim Convention Center exhibit halls.
Hilton and Marriott were stuffed with business for this month’s National Association of Music Merchants meeting, which drew 102,000 attendees over four days. NAMM is the convention center’s largest event of the year.
Anaheim hotels—11 made the list—anticipate a business boost from the meetings and conventions market when the center’s own 200,000-square-foot expansion opens this fall.
Great Wolf has about 21,000 square feet of meetings area, just above the median. The median properties—six are tied at No. 23—have 20,000 square feet apiece, and the list average tops 25,000 square feet.
Great Wolf has suggested that groups and business travelers who bring along their families could provide a significant portion of its meetings business. The property includes a guest-only water park.
Paséa, for its part, has tapped a number of meetings and convention trends to keep its corporate business flowing: rooftop bars (see related story, page 1), spa facilities (see story, page 19), and pop-up-style meetings (see story, page 21).
The hotel’s clients have included watchmaker Breitling, which sponsored an airshow in Huntington Beach last year and plans an autumn return to the city, and this year’s World Surf League Big Wave Awards (see Q&A, page 16).
The new local hotels come amid some concerns over a possible plateau in the hotel market.
Hotel consultant and broker Alan Reay, president of Atlas Hospitality Group in Irvine, said meeting space means additional revenue and a buffer against competitors.
“There’s no question a hotel with meeting space opens a new channel of business,” he said. “Multiple room nights are booked, and it helps your food and beverage business.”
2018
Meeting space growth in Orange County isn’t finished. Next year’s list will also reflect changes.
No. 19, Waterfront Beach Resort, A Hilton Hotel in Huntington Beach, which has 21,500 square feet of indoor meeting space, plans a June opening of its second tower, Twin Dolphin, to complement its structure called The Huntington. The new tower will roughly double indoor meeting space.
Marketing Director Scott O’Hanlon said the new square footage reflects a current affinity for smaller, defined space over massive ballrooms that can be reconfigured with movable walls.
“The air wall (folding and movable partitions are) definitely out, and set space is in,” he said. “The trend is toward smaller, executive-style rooms.”
A preference for larger configurations has been replaced by a “mix that is more 50-50,” he said.
“You’re seeing more rooms that hold 20 to 25 people and empty into common areas, such as a bar or lounge, with Wi-Fi” that are often outdoors.
“Outside spaces can be just as useful and easily managed these days” as indoor ones.
