There was a big scandal in the US last year when the government-supported insurance giant, AIG, planned a huge meeting for sales staff at The St Regis Beach Resort in California. The idea that the government was subsidising a holiday at a “beach resort” for staff at the disgraced company was too much for the public to accept. In the end, AIG cancelled the event and the hotel ended up going bankrupt having lost a major chunk of business. Other companies did not dare make bookings there for fear of the bad publicity sticking.
Since then, other hotels have decided to be rather more careful in their choice of names:
The Ballantyne Hotel and Resort in Charlotte is now The Ballantyne Hotel and Lodge.
The Westin Stonebrier Hotel and Resort is now the Westin Stonebrier Hotel
The Renaissance Orlando Seaworld Resort in Orlando is now the Renaissance Orlando at Seaworld.
Loews Lake Las Vegas estimate that dropping the “Resort” from their name has gained them 10% in revenue – “All it takes is a couple of pharmaceutical companies to feel happier arranging meetings here without the “resort tag” to give us an upswing.”
So, if you arrange conferences, avoid any hotel that has “resort”, “golf”, “spa” or “beach” in its name and you should be safe. Either that, or hold the conference in Oldham…
Tags: Beach resort hotels
or Luton or Slough!!