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Hotels reconfigure space for conf. biz.

Article Excerpt
Several hotels suddenly have embraced a new method of attracting lucrative corporate meeting and training business: transforming parts of their properties into full-fledged conference centers that often fulfill the rigid and extensive membership standards of the International Association of Conference Centers. The movement underscores the lengths to which hotels are prepared to go to entice corporations to bring group business--which continues to command some of the highest rates in a hotel--to their properties.

The movement is not yet widespread enough to classify as a trend, considering the weakened state of the hotel industry as a whole and the current reluctance of hotel chains and owners to sink millions of dollars into renovations. Yet, it is significant that several owners are making the expensive and not-risk-free decision in order to attract corporate meetings.

Called "ancillary conference centers" by the industry, these centers typically occupy a portion of a hotel that is underutilized by the property, be it an underperforming restaurant, a set of meeting rooms or just empty space. Frequently, the ancillary conference center has a separate sales force and convention services staff than does the hotel.

"There is a major influx of ancillary conference centers," said Tom Bolman, executive vice president of LACC. "Some are making bona fide IACC centers out of a wing or a floor of a hotel."...