John Q. Hammons has opened its third new hotel this year, the Marriott Bloomington – Normal Hotel & Conference Center in Normal, Ill., it announced last week.
The nine-story hotel, which has 230 guest rooms, adjoins to a new conference center with 40,000 gross square feet—and 23,000 net square feet—of meeting space for groups of up to 2,000 attendees. Along with the area's largest hotel ballroom, the hotel offers professional catering and audio/visual services on site that already are helping it attract a number of groups.
"We're already experiencing a tremendous response from organizations looking to book events over the next year," Heather VanVoorhis, the hotel's director of sales and marketing, said in a statement released this summer, in advance of the hotel's October opening.
According to the hotel, upon opening on Oct. 30, it already had booked more than $3 million in group and business pre-opening sales, including reservations from associations, corporations, universities and community influencers. Among the groups meeting at the new hotel and conference center: the American Institute of Architects – Illinois Council; the Bloomington – Normal Economic Development Council; the Girl Scouts of Central Illinois; the Illinois Chapter of the National Electrical Contractors Association; Illinois State University; and Illinois Wesleyan University.
Sporting a whimsical, jewel-toned décor, the hotel features personalized pod-style check-in, a 21-foot water feature, more than 40 tons of granite in design finishes and a 500-space parking deck that connects to the hotel via a climate-controlled skywalk. Finally, it's home to the city's only dedicated concierge floor, on which it offers a private lounge and personalized guest services.
Source: Hospitality Design Magazine