If you haven't done so recently, be sure to ask your headquarters hotel if they have any renovations coming up--according to an article from BTN, hotel owners are backing their good feelings about the rebound with some construction plans.
- "9 percent of hotels plan major structural renovations and 27 percent expect to undertake a significant soft goods renovation in the next 12 months, according to findings released today by the American Hotel & Lodging Association in its 2004 Lodging Survey, measuring responses from 6,200 U.S. hotels across all price points."
In addition to making sure you have any potential renovations covered in your contract so you don't end up meeting in a construction zone, it might be a good idea to ask how the improvements made before the meeting might affect the cost. "owners typically use renovations as justification to raise prices, which puts added pressure on rate negotiations." Deluxe hotels, which tended to have fared worse during the downturn and so put off renovating until happier days, are more likely than mid-priced hotels to be planning major structural upgrades, according to the article.
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