Published September
2002
Hawthorn
adds limo
and markets county sites, venues to lure guests
By
John Wolcott
SCBJ Editor
The Hawthorn Inn
& Suites’ share of Snohomish County’s hospitality market has recovered
substantially from the impact of last September’s terrorist attacks.
Hawthorn General
Manager Susan Bacon credits innovative marketing and a strengthening economy
for the increase in business.
“Although we lost
business right after September 11, we’ve recovered some of the tour bookings,
and much of our corporate business is back to normal,” she said. “Traffic
off the freeway has been greater than last year because we’re more established
and better known, and also because more people are driving than flying
this year.”
While some airport
hotels and new facilities focused on corporate travel have been suffering
in the regional market, Bacon said the Hawthorn has been more fortunate
with its northern location between Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia.
Corporate business
during the week yields to tourists and social events on the weekends,
she said.
Being competitive
has also helped, she said. The fast T-1 Internet connections the hotel
previously charged to guests’ room bills are now free, and Bacon is planning
to add an Internet connection in the hotel’s business center for conference
guests who want to use e-mail or search services during meetings, but
for a nominal fee.
Also, a recently
added limousine service has gone over “extremely well,” she said. The
limo service, begun in June, is drawing two to three bookings a week,
creating a promising new revenue flow for the hotel.
The Hawthorn owns
the stretched black luxury vehicle and retains a driver on call for assignments.
“We’ve had the limo
in four parades already in Arlington, Marysville, Lake Stevens and Snohomish,
and took it to Smokey Point Night at the Everett AquaSox game this summer,”
Bacon said. “We also use it to make sales calls on potential clients and
keep it parked in front of the hotel.”
Bacon also is considering
adding a car rental agency at the hotel soon.
“Overall, we’re growing
because our sales team markets the whole facility — the Hawthorn Inn,
O’Berg’s restaurant and convention center, La Pointe Spa and the office
tower — and the whole north Snohomish County area, including Everett,”
Bacon said.
She said people who
like the freeway location of the hotel are encouraged to use it as a base
for visiting the Everett waterfront, north county communities, Skagit
County’s spring Tulip Festival and the annual Northwest Experimental Aircraft
Association Fly-In at the Arlington Airport, a five-day event that helped
to fill every room in the Hawthorn nearly every night.
The Hawthorn sales
staff also visits Eastern Washington to market the whole Snohomish County
area for tourism, including the popular Boeing Tour Center in Everett,
to “show people what they could do here on a visit,” she said.
Part of the hotel’s
success has been because there is no direct competition from comparable
properties in the area, Bacon said. But competition is coming, when the
Tulalip Tribes open their expanded casino next June, along with an adjacent
hotel that will be joined later by a second one, plus a convention center.
Bacon, however, sees
the Hawthorn benefiting from those new facilities.
“I don’t think the
Tulalip hotels will hurt us at all. Many business travelers will probably
not want to stay there, preferring a quieter place a few miles away,”
Bacon said.
“Also, there will
be so many people going to Quil Ceda Village that we will certainly get
pushover from that. And having so many things to do there will be good
to promote to people coming to the Hawthorn.” Also, the Hawthorn sales
team is beginning to work with Seattle and Vancouver cruise terminals
to provide overnight lodging for people coming and going from ocean cruises.
“We’re seeing ourselves
more and more as concierges, helping people who stay here make connections
with ferries to the San Juan Islands, hot-air ballooning in Snohomish,
Mariners games in Seattle, Emerald Downs, Woodinville wineries and things
like the Everett Performing Arts Center,” Bacon said.
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