HOTEL HAPPENINGS & PROGRAM PROMOTIONS – MID-MARCH 2016

PUTTING ON A NEW FACE!
When’s the last time you chartered a boat for up to 45 of your closest friends or business guests? Never? Then now’s the time if you are bringing said-friends or guests to South Florida and want to introduce them to a slice of Florida’s natural heaven. The 80′ Solstice, a private yacht for up to 45 people, has been retrofitted with modern amenities and swank décor. The Solstice now has an iPad-controlled sound-system throughout. Guestrooms have been freshened, a full service bar sits on the refurnished Flybridge. Teak loungers on the top deck, an oversized sun bed and additional seating on the bow provide great views of dolphins frequently swimming alongside.
www.waterfantaseas.com; (305) 531-1480; info@waterfantaseas.com
Portland Marriott Downtown Waterfront’s Oregon Ballroom got a new “face” and meeting and event planners earn incentives to celebrate the redo. Book a group by June 30 and receive a complimentary Purely Portland Coffee Break featuring local Portland favorites, VooDoo Doughnuts and Stumptown Coffee. As the final segment of the 506-room Oregon hotel’s renovation, the 3,000 sf ballroom foyer features two built-in registration desks and the 14,144 sf ballroom featuring Purely Portland décor. The city’s love for bikes is reflected in the carpeting’s bike tire design, in bike artwork in guestrooms, bike tires on the walls in the new M Club, bike rentals for hotel guests, and even first-of-its-kind bike storage in select guest rooms.
http://deals.marriott.com/marriott-hotels-resorts/usa/or/portland/pdxorrenovation; (503) 226-7600; www.PortlandMarriott.com
HOT DEALS
Omni Berkshire Place’s new partnership with Bizly means you can now take advantage of exclusive rates starting as low as $75 per hour for small meeting groups (under 30 people) that book and consume meeting space within 30 days or less.  Bizly is a mobile app for on-demand booking of small, private meeting rooms at leading hotels. The midtown Manhattan hotel’s meeting space available through the app includes the Madison Salon (460 sf, 24 max), Sutton Room (299 sf, 15 max), Rockefeller Room (308 sf, 12 max), and the Empire Room (108 sf, 4 max). Groups must book at least six hours in advance and for a two-hour minimum reservation.
Bizly aggregates and sells meeting rooms at hourly rates and negotiated rates at up 75 percent savings for same-week bookings. The diverse app enables users to easily book the meeting, order from pre-negotiated food and drink options, send meeting invites and book Uber. All guests receive a VIP boarding pass with critical on-site information, such as Wi-Fi password and onsite contact info, and a fast track to the check-in process. Bizly is available for free download on iOS.
Meeting and Event Planners play for free when a golf package for groups of 24 or more is booked at Brocket Hall Golf Club (London, UK) during April. Golfers get club and shoe cleaning service; a private suite room hire for day use; tea, coffee and bacon roll breakfast; use of the Golf Academy practice facilities and 18 holes of golf. They also get managed ‘Nearest the Pin’ and ‘Longest Drive’ on-course competitions and a two-course meal.
Ryan or Clare – 01707 368700; golfevents@brocket-hall.co.uk. Use GOLF04-EMAIL when inquiring.
Book your 2016 meeting for at least 16 guestrooms on a peak night by June 19 at Battery Wharf Hotel in Boston, MA and enjoy these additional benefits:  16% guest room attrition; 16% off your Exhale Spa group event; 16% off your next meeting and a free American Express Gift Card based on actualized revenues.
Rachel.Mondello@BatteryWharfHotel.com; (617) 994-9016
Book your next meeting by August 31 at Shula’s Hotel & Golf Club in Miami Lakes, FL and you may win either a Spa treatment, Golf tee times, $100 Dinner certificate for Shula’s Steak House or a Weekend Getaway for 2!
maria.pellitero@grahamhospitality.com; (305) 820-8053
Imagine beachfront resorts and you lazing under the sun beside turquoise waters. You can bring that vision to life and get up to a 25% discount when you book Meliá Caribbean and Mexico hotels. Here are just some of the options:
• Meliá Braco Village: private villas in an intimate Jamaican resort. 45 minutes from Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay. www. melia.jamaica@melia.com; (876) 618 0582

• Meliá Caribe Tropical: Family, personal or group property on Bavaro Beach in Punta Cana. 13 meeting rooms and space for up to 1,000 people. All inclusive beach and golf club. www.melia.caribe.tropical@melia.com; (809) 2211290
• Meliá Nassau Beach: White sand and the turquoise ocean of Cable Beach in Nassau, Bahamas. 5 meeting spaces for up to 1,200. www.melia.nassau.beach@melia.com; (242) 3276000
Are you an aficionado of the arts? Not sure of the best places to see when visiting a city? With Design Hotels’ new Culture by Design special, each of your client’s stays includes access to at least one museum or gallery; plus, they’ll get up to 10% off on stays of two nights, 15% off on stays of three nights or more, and complimentary breakfast. There are 114 hotels that will give you 20% off for booking well in advance. 42 hotels internationally will give you 20% off, complimentary breakfast and a welcome drink for bookings until April 10  for hotels from Europe to Asia.  There are 37 Green Hotels in six countries that invite you to enjoy their forward thinking on saving the planet. In fact, Design Hotels’ Corporate Headquarters runs entirely on renewable energies. Too many boutique hotels with stunning architectural and décor designs in exotic locations to describe them all. You’ll have to take it from here.
Golfers: Here’s a package for you. Quivira Golf Club, Jack Nicklaus-designed layout at Land’s End in Los Cabos, Mexico is offering a four-night, five-day experience called the ‘Ultimate Golf Package’ at a Montecristo Estates villa. Each villa has a private infinity pool, indoor and outdoor Jacuzzi, maid and butler service. The Montecristo Unlimited Golf Package includes food and beverage at on-property restaurants and convenient shuttle access and transfers to the restaurants, bars and facilities of all four Pueblo Bonito Oceanfront Resorts and Spas in Los Cabos. For golfers, the cornerstone of the program is unlimited play at Quivira Golf Club.  The 7,139-yard, par-72 course commences at sea level, scales sheer cliffs high above the foaming surf, meanders through massive dunes, rambles through desert foothills, and returns players to the thatched-roof clubhouse on the beach at the finish. There are plenty more incentives, from a personal grilling chef for one night, a personal tequila tasting, and a tasting dinner with wine pairing at La Frida at Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach, the AAA Four Diamond dining establishment dedicated to famed Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.
www.pueblobonito.com/resorts/montecristo-estates/unlimited-golf-package; (800) 990-8250
www.designhotels.com
GOOD TIMES CELEBRATIONS
Hungry? Are you a foodie or just someone who enjoys watching cooking competitions? Then you may want to head to Orange Beach, AL for the Nov. 9 – 15 World Food Championships. This year the Alabama Gulf Coast Convention & Visitors Bureau (aka Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Tourism), is the 2016 title sponsor of the World Food Championships, making Orange Beach the Official Host Site of this year’s ultimate food fight. The fifth annual event invites champions from the biggest and best food competitions around the world into a single high-stakes culinary showdown for hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and prizes. An anticipated 1,200 chefs, home cooks and competition teams are expected to compete for $350,000 prize purse and its industry-leading $100,000 grand prize. The event is expected to bring an estimated $2 million in direct local spending, elevating hotel and vacation rental bookings, restaurant spending and other community revenue metrics that come with such signature events. The bulk of these Orange Beach-based food fights will occur in Kenmore Kitchen Arena, the largest outdoor kitchen in the world, measuring a full city block at 7,800-sf. The competition space features $250,000 worth of Kenmore branded stoves, cooktops, countertops and cookware – enough for 50 chefs to cook simultaneously. An additional $100,000 worth of professional grills from Bull Outdoor Products affords open-flame grilling.
www.worldfoodchampionships.com; www.orangebeach.com; www.alwharf.com
Riding the Wine Train in Napa Valley, CA is a real treat. The vintage train has been preserved to highlight its elegant past and drinking great wine while passing by vineyards is delightful and relaxing. This April, the ante’s been raised. Every Friday evening from 5 – 7 at the Wine Train Station, local art and musical artists will display their talents. Free admittance.
TECHNOLOGY: Featuring Crave Interactive
As hotels and resorts face an increasing amount of competition, the challenge is what amenity to provide that decides a booking in one’s favor. Technology is creating an impact. UK-based Crave Interactive, a leading provider of guest-facing hotel tablet and app solutions, understands that guests enjoy selecting some of their own options at their leisure. Tablets provide info in one central place and allows hotels to instantly respond to guests’ whims and needs with personalized messages, instant chat, and current promotions. Crave stays ahead of the tablet game by implementing such things as with their room control “smart phone” feature, which allows guests to open drapes, set temperatures, turn on the Do Not Disturb Light and more. Crave reports that in a study published in the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, “installing specific in-room technologies can have a significant effect on enhancing the customer experience and increasing revenue. The study also presents the most commonly installed in-room technologies those hoteliers plan to install in the near future.” One of Crave’s clients is Aria Resort & Casino, Las Vegas, NV, which outfitted all of its 4,004 rooms with the new devices. “In other hotels where they’ve done the installation, Crave has seen 15-20% incremental sales on in-room orders when the system is used, on a per-check average,” says Shannon McCallum, executive director of hotel operations at Aria.
Crave’s in-room tablets revolutionize guest experience by providing multiple languages that allows their users to access in-room dining, digital hotel directory, spa reservations, multinational newspapers, travel guides and more. Crave has their own version of the Android operating system (Crave OS), which provides the ability to create a secured environment that is capable of providing their hotel clients with top notch guest services.
pr@crave-emenu.com; +441908 926440
Karen Kuzsel is a writer-editor based in the Orlando area who specializes in the hospitality, entertainment, meetings & events industries.  She is a Contributing Editor-Writer for Prevue Magazine and is an active member of ISES and MPI and is now serving on the 2015 – 2016 MPI Global Advisory Board for The Meeting Professional Magazine. Karen writes about food & wine, spas, destinations, venues, meetings & events. A career journalist, she has owned magazines, written for newspapers, trade publications, radio and TV. As her alter-ego, Natasha, The Psychic Lady, she is a featured entertainer for corporate and social events. karenkuzsel@earthlink.net; www.ThePsychicLady.com; @karenkuzsel; @thepsychiclady.