Small event centers benefit from slow economy

Now that the economy has gone downhill, one of the first corporate casualties has been the travel budget. But while business gatherings have been reduced in number and in the numbers of those attending, business still needs its conferences and retreats.

Smaller business-hosting venues are absorbing some of the travel business that previously would have gone to fancy hotels with big conference rooms.

“Over half of our guests are in business,´ said Jenna MacGregor, director of the Lake Shore Lodge and Conference Center in Estes Park. “We do get a lot of conferences.”

Small event centers like the Lake Shore Lodge, Sylvan Dale Guest Ranch in Loveland, the Greeley Guest House and the Cottonwood Club in Fort Collins are getting some business clients that have formerly gone to a bigger venue. At the same time, small centers still get much of their clientele from weddings, local businesses and family reunions.

“We call people at businesses in advance because if we don’t, we’ll be filled up on the days they want with weddings,´ said Trina Anastasia, marketing director for Sylvan Dale Guest Ranch.

Regional firms are mainstay

Small event centers are picking up more business from companies, but they are primarily local companies that they deal with anyway. Companies like Hewlett-Packard Co., Con Agra, Agilent Technologies Inc. and other regional firms make up about 90 percent to 95 percent of Kelly Schroeder’s business at the Cottonwood Club in Fort Collins.

Diana Goebel, manager of the Greeley Guest House, said smaller event centers like hers have to stay on their toes all the time and market themselves constantly or they may be ignored or forgotten. Small event centers do not have that instant name recognition that a chain like the Holiday Inn or Ramada has. The Greeley Guest House is fairly new — only seven years old — but it’s tucked away on Greeley’s west side and not close to an interstate interchange, which is part of its appeal.

“Almost all of our business is referrals and second visits,” she said. Goebel said she’s not seen a big change between now and the ’90s — at least not yet — but talking to people in the industry, it is apparent that it is on the way.

“We appeal to local companies and people who otherwise would spend a lot of time in hotels,´ said Schroeder. “We feel more like a home. The ambience here is not like anywhere else.”

Fire comment hurt business

Schroeder is quick to acknowledge that the economy has made businesses change their conference strategies. But other factors, including Gov. Bill Owens’ declaration last year that the state was “on fire,” didn’t help the overall level of tourism and travel in the state and the subsequent effect on small business centers.

MacGregor said Owens’ remark, plus the wildfires around Pinewood Springs near Estes Park, caused a flood of cancellations at Lake Shore Lodge — so many that her transient business was cut in half during the tourist season. The overriding concern, common to businesses and people alike last year, was saving money. “I have actually seen some people shift from us to the ?Y,'” she said.

Small event centers still get their traditional business from universities, weddings, holiday parties, small conventions and the like, but some newer industries have been creeping in.

“Three or four years ago, we had tech companies coming to us — a lot of them,´ said Schroeder. “They were looking to have meetings outside their own area. Now that the economy’s changing, we have different industries calling us.” Schroeder said that includes local schools and police and fire departments.

Perfect niche

Anastasia said small event centers like Sylvan Dale are in a perfect niche to pick up business that might have gone to a large hotel. About 90 percent of meetings are groups of fewer that 75 people, she said, and almost all small event centers have a room or rooms that can handle that number of people. Many also have hotel rooms and cook their own food.

Schroeder said she’s been approached several times to turn the Cottonwood Club into a restaurant or a bed and breakfast on the basis of the quality of its food alone.

Even with the economic slowdown, small event centers still have one major advantage — being located in Colorado. And while Greeley Guest House may not be in the mountains, it has a spectacular view of them that can make visitors yearn to live — and relocate their businesses — in the state.

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