Hotel owners in Portland need to end their “scarcity” view of the world and look at it from the perspective of “abundance”. There are many conventions that bypass Portland not because of our “weather” or “expensive flights” but because there is not a hotel large enough to accommodate 500+ attendees in a single hotel.

The two predominant mindsets in the world competing for your attention: scarcity and abundance. Scarcity leaves you feeling overwhelmed, depressed, and paralyzed; abundance makes you feel excited, motivated, and ready for action.

I cringe when I have business associates from the east of the Mississippi River in town and they stay at hotels near the convention center. This area is not Portland authentic and is a collection of mediocre hotels.

The Convention Center hotel will need a partial publically funded subsidiary because it will be required to hold large blocks of rooms back to meet the demand of large conventions that require a single hotel for accommodations. This will result in the convention center hotel having a lower occupancy than the overall Portland market.

One of the biggest factors when a company selects a City for location of a LARGE convention is the availability of suitable hotel space IN A SINGLE HOTEL in close proximity to convention center. Phoenix Inns and suites does not cut it.

A survey of national meeting planners produced by Meeting & Conventions Magazine in 2006 further supported the S.A.G. findings. According to M&C’s survey, the three items that received the highest score when asked to identify “Very Important” destination selection factors were “Availability of Hotels &Facilities Suitable for the Event” (84%), “Affordability of the Destination” (79%), and “Safety & Security of the Destination” (65%). No other factor in the M&C survey received greater than 50%.

In a recent research study, Jones Lang LaSalle found a strong connection between convention center attendance and revenue per available room (RevPAR), showing the positive effects development of convention centers can have on those markets—and making it a key driver in investment decisions. In the 15 markets studied, three years after a convention center expansion was completed, real RevPAR increased an average of 2.2 percent per year, versus no expansion, in which the real RevPAR increased an average of 0.4 percent per year. And five years after an expansion was completed, real RevPAR increased on average 1.6 percent per year, versus 0.4 percent with no expansion.

Much SMALLER metro areas have nice convention center hotels. Portland should have the same. You can only go to Orlando, Las Vegas and Phoenix so many times. Why can’t Portland compete on a global basis and attract business from overseas for convention business. Are we going to continue to “play not to lose” or start “playing to win”. There is a big difference between the two.

I hope a long term perspective that benefits the region prevails and the Headquarters Hotel FINALLY gets constructed (after 23 years of analysis paralysis).

This will be good for Portland and for job creation for our region. This will create hundreds of construction jobs for a 24+ month period, millions in system development charges for the City and large ripple effect of out of town guests’ spending money in Portland. Git R Done already!

Brian M. Owendoff
NW Portland