SMERF Meetings and Marketing Moves Pay Off for Palm Beach

Last year was a difficult time for the high-end destination of Palm Beach, FL, when companies stayed away from resort meetings after the AIG blow-up, but its marketing chief is unapologetic and, at the same time, says it has become a more balanced meetings locale. 

“The [lavishness rhetoric] made a huge impact on South Florida destinations like ours, but this is what we are,” says Jorge Pesquera, CEO of the Palm Beach County Convention & Visitors Bureau, who watches over a hospitality inventory of 16,000 guest rooms around town. “But we have association and SMERF business. More than half of our room inventory is on [Interstate 95], and the upscale resorts are on the coastline and that provides us with a pretty decent balance in the business we have.” 

In fact, SMERF meetings have been a big contributor in picking up the slack while corporate meetings retrenched in Palm Beach, Pesquera says. In recent months, the destination has notched some 20,000 room nights from social groups, family reunions, etc. Hotel occupancy and revenue per available room have risen, according to Smith Travel Research data. “We’re encouraged by eight straight months of higher occupancy,” Pesquera notes. 

Palm Beach’s recovery has been aided by the CVB’s recent aggressive marketing push, especially online. Last year, the destination celebrated its centennial with a tiered group rebate program, which it marketed through traditional channels as well as on its redesigned website. The rebate ranged from $1,909 to $4,909 depending on the group’s number of room nights. 

Pesquera says that program nabbed over 50,000 room nights from about, coincidentally, 100 groups. “Some were 150 room nights, some were a couple thousand,” he notes. “We made a point to address our presence on the Internet and revamped our website dramatically. We also made a point to bring innovative approaches to marketing that paid off.”

He says corporate meetings—still Palm Beach’s major business—have been coming back, noticing groups are orchestrating programs with a greater sense of business purpose, such as incentives that blend in education and meetings. But he is wary of a double-dip recession impacting that momentum.  

“The biggest challenge is the economy,” he says. “We have to be mindful.” 

Also lingering on Pesquera’s mind is a long-discussed convention hotel for the Palm Beach County Convention Center. The project has been on and off for several years. 

“We’re a small meetings destination, but we do book a number of conventions and large events that are distributed among downtown hotels and West Palm Beach,” he says. “An HQ hotel would be a major step in the right direction.”  

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