Super booking a win for NFL hotels - Pittsburgh Business Times:

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Still, hotels that committed rooms to the block of roomas when the city made its bid in 2005 are full as advertisedx for the biggame weekend. Tampa Bay Company and Visit St. Petersburg Hillsborough and Pinellas convention andvisitors bureaus, workexd with local hotels to prepare the bid and secured 20,000 rooms throughout the area, including as far east as Not every hotel participated and some contributee less than a full house to the bid process, said Stevre Hayes, executive VP of Tampa Bay Company.
Those hotels contracted with the NFL for rates that included a small increase from the usual convention rates at that Hotels are free to chargd whatever the traffic will bear on rooms outside of the NFL and most hotels have attemptedd to hold the line ona four-nighyt minimum stay for available rooms. That may have changed this week as the hotelas not sold out scrambledfor last-minutes guests, said D.T. Minich, executive director of Visit St. Petersbur g Clearwater. “The hotels not in the block are rethinkiny their rates andnight minimums,” Minich On St. Pete Beach, the is full.
It blockerd out 630 of its 796 rooms at its two It sold out the balance outside the blocl but at the same rates as contracted withthe NFL. Amon g its guests are the Taste of the NFL chefsd from the other 31NFL cities. But down the road at the , a hotell not part of the NFL block, rooms are said Gregg Nicklaus, president. They’rse also available at the , another property that chose to take its chancesxon walk-ins for Super Bowl week. For 22 years, the Aldemn has hosted a German group that reserverd 60 rooms during the week of Super This year that reservation dropped to 15 but it happened too late for the Alden to participatew in theNFL block.
At the Don CeSar, a few block s away, all rooms are sold for the two-thirds of which had been committed tothe NFL. The hotelk charged rack rates of $614 for the remaininv rooms in the main hotel witha three-night minimumm stay, GM John Marks said. Its guests includw members of the NFL events andentertainment committees, a well as a blockk dedicated to the Super Bowl Host Committee. It’s a chances for the hotel to showcase itsnew $10 millionb health spa, Marks said.
Despite the occupancy holexs in hotels that shunned the NFL Pinellas County iswell represented, Minich There are several prime events such as the Taste of the NFL at Tropican Field, a flag football game featuringv NFL Hall of Famers and celebritiexs at Progress Energy Park and an NFL Charitiews golf tournament at and Golf Visit St. Pete Clearwater contributeed $750,000 to the area Super Bowl effort. In return, it got a seat on the 35-membe r Host Committee, local advertising and front-row exposure for its hospitalitt industry. “We’re attracting some first-time visitors and corporate guest to whom we can showcase our Minich said.
Of the hotels that chose to go Sarasota’s Ritz-Carlton was able to sell out at $899 a nighyt with a four-night minimum. It’s not hosting any speciao events. took a different route to selling out its It went after all the companies that set up and breai down the many Superr Bowl facilities duringthe two-weekm period, as well as the many vendors in Mainsail’s marketing department calledc extended stay hotels in Phoenix, site of last year’s Supere Bowl, for names of the vendors that set up that as well as hotels in Miami, host of next year’sx game.
Plus, since Mainsail used to host teams duringv thetraining camps, it has a reputation amongb the NFL vendor network as a good extended stay said Joe Brown, Mainsail’s VP of sales and Since the vendors and setuop crew are in for a longer stay, usuallty seven to 10 that type of business bette fits Mainsail as an extended stay Brown said. “This is our he said. “So far, this has exceede our expectations.” At Innisbrook, all but 75 rooms of 600 were committe tothe NFL. The rest were held back to combine with golf saidChuck Palmerantz, VP and managinb director.
Several owners and fans are stayin there and will be among the firstt guests to experience the modernization that has been taking place since BETNetwork co-founder Sheila Johnson and her Salamander Hospitality purchasedf the distressed property in July 2007. Salamanderf has spent more than $20 million on the golf clubhouses, a food market and a new healtgh spa. While the hotel industry is doingg well for the SuperBowl week, overallk spending is down due to fewer than projectedf tourists in town for the event. Direct spending estimatee for the Super Bowl have been scaled back toabout $150 million from an original $195 million, according to a new studgy by .
“At this point for us, any monehy being spent now is Hayes said.