Expanding portfolios to include resort properties has proven successful for the conference center industry.

In fall 2008, when Andy Dolce announced that the conference center management company he founded was changing its name from Dolce International to Dolce Hotels and Resorts, he explained the move was being done to reflect the company's expanding breadth of properties and desire to grow transient and leisure business. Some interpreted it as a harbinger of Dolce's departure from the conference center niche.

The change occurred just before the AIG scandal hit and the national economy collapsed. Now, at a time when numerous perception-fearing hoteliers have removed the word "resort" from their property signs, Dolce wants to be known as a hotel and resort company.

On the surface, the strategy may seem ill-timed, but Barry Goldstein, Dolce's chief revenue officer, in charge of global sales and marketing, says it was a necessary transition to guarantee the company's long-term viability. "We looked at our portfolio and saw we're more than just conference centers," says Goldstein. "And we saw that meetings business was already in decline [in fall 2008] and recognized the need to think differently as a company."

He says the move shielded Dolce somewhat from the meetings business falloff in 2009. Instead, the company has seen 10 percent growth in its leisure business and has achieved its goal of a 70/30 percentage mix of meetings and transient/leisure business (from 80/20).

Still, he says, "When we made the change, we committed ourselves not to compromise the conference center side of our business. We have not lost that focus. Meetings remain our core."

Since the rebranding, Dolce has signed on to manage The Thayer Hotel, located at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, NY, and The Seaview, a historic golf resort near Atlantic City, NJ. Next month, Dolce Munich-Unterschleissheim, a newly built, 255-room, full-service hotel, will debut.

All of those properties are rich in amenities and activities for leisure and social business. Yet, The Thayer is affiliated with an educational institution, akin to many conference centers; Dolce intends to install conference-center practices at The Seaview; and the Munich property will feature meeting space certified by the International Association of Conference Centers (IACC).

Expected out of Dolce's new direction are hybrid-like properties that boast the best of both conference- center and resort worlds, though they will remain distinctively marketed as one or the other. "We're not necessarily making all of our hotel's and resort's meeting spaces IACC-certified," Goldstein says, "but we're looking at meeting room design and comfort and Complete Meeting Package (CMP) pricing. We're applying our expertise to the hotel side and bringing hotel services and features to our conference centers."

Benchmark Hospitality International has been following a similar path of diversification into luxury resorts and bringing conference-center elements to them. In January, it became the operator of Hotel Granduca, a Houston boutique property. Last November, it added both The Villas of Grand Cypress, a luxury Orlando golf resort, and Miami's Marenas Resort to its portfolio.

Even though they are limited meetings properties, Benchmark has implemented CMP packages for the senior- and executive-level retreats there, says Ellen Sinclair, senior vice president. But one leisure resort that it is turning into a meetings property is the Makena Beach & Golf Resort in Maui, added last September. It will follow the transformative path at Oahu's Turtle Bay Resort, which offers CMP variations called the Complete Incentive Plan (CIP), for incentive groups, and the Benchmark Conference Plan (BCP), for meetings.

"We went into Turtle Bay in 2001. Even though it was a wonderful leisure property, we built a conference center there, and it has proven to be a getaway for productive meetings," says Sinclair. "The intent is to roll out the conference center concept at Makena."

Sinclair insists that Benchmark has not shifted from conference centers, but rather has looked for new management opportunities. "We always look for properties with some group customer base. If a property is not looking to bring meetings business into its environment, then it's not in our best interest. Our mission has remained to specialize in the conference center concept."

Goldstein says Dolce's diversification has given its conference-center customers new property options, returning some lost business. "We're seeing our customers coming back, but using our newer properties," he notes. "[They] appreciate our learning environments but also the spa, pool, and golf in our resorts."

Originally published March 1, 2010

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