Sep. 27--From an upper floor at the Hyatt Regency Pittsburgh International Airport, Jean-Marc Dizard surveys a half-empty parking lot that before Sept. 11 would have been crammed with cars. The general manager of the year-old Hyatt doesn't mince words about how the terrorist attacks have ravaged his business. At least 1,800 room bookings for the last two weeks of September were canceled, roughly translating into $250,000 in lost revenue. 

In the week that followed the attacks, the Hyatt was running at more than 90 percent occupancy thanks to stranded travelers who had no flights to board. But that temporary surge isn't going to counter the huge loss from meetings, business and leisure travel that have been scrapped while Americans try to cope with the fallout from the events. 

Dizard hopes the 336-room property can fill at least six in 10 rooms, achieving 60 percent occupancy, by the end of the month. 

"Traditionally September and October are the strongest for business meetings and business travel, but we're off about 15 percentage points from our original forecast." 

Despite the falloff in business, the Hyatt has not laid off any of its 320 full- and part-time employees, but it has cut the hours of some housekeeping and convention service workers. 

Dizard claims the outlook for October is not as bleak as the last two weeks have been. 

"It looks solid; there are no big cancellations, just some smaller ones that we feel we can rebook later on." 

Dizard is banking on some promotions to attract some regional business lost to out-of-town travelers. Among them are its video conference facilities that would allow businesses to conduct meetings with offices elsewhere without flying. For example, a group of executives or managers from a Pittsburgh company can book a meeting room at the Hyatt and hook up via video with off-site employees. 

"We're forcefully marketing that to meeting planners," Dizard said. 

Other amenities available to businesses are a concierge center that offers copying, facsimile service and Internet access; "cyber cafes," which are round, moveable tables with high-speed digital access lines; and a wood-paneled board room that also provides computer access. The Hyatt can accommodate between 1,000 and 1,200 at a time for meetings and already has hosted packed gatherings for Marshall-based retailer American Eagle Outfitters Inc. and a weeklong event for New Jersey-based drug manufacturer Pharmacia Corp. 

To entice leisure travelers who might not want to fly, the hotel is putting together "getaway" weekend packages. It already has dropped its weekend rate from $99 to $89 per night, and is planning a special promotional rate of $79 per night around Thanksgiving. 

Midweek prices have been reduced to $139 from normal rates ranging from $154 to $159. 

Weekend guests can use the hotel's health club, which includes exercise equipment, weights, sauna, steam room and a 50-foot lap pool. The 150-seat restaurant and lounge also are open seven days a week. For the near term, it's the only place where hotel guests can eat and drink because eateries in the airport's popular Airmall have been closed to everyone but ticketed airline passengers since the Sept. 11 attacks. The Airmall won't re-open to the public until it receives authorization from the Federal Aviation Administration, Dizard said. 

For hotel guests who want to shop while the Airmall is closed, the Hyatt is offering a free shuttle to nearby Robinson Town Centre. 

Dizard believes the Hyatt's novelty -- it opened in June 2000 and is strategically situated across from the landside terminal along the moving walkway connecting the terminal with airport parking lots -- should work in its favor during what's certain to be a sluggish period for business. 

"We're fortunate the hotel is very new," said Dizard, 50, an industry veteran who has worked in the hospitality industry since graduating from Ecole Hoteliere in his native Switzerland in 1974. 

He immediately joined Hilton International and worked at properties throughout Europe and the Middle East. 

A job with Le Meridien chain of upscale hotels brought him to New York City in 1979. He also worked in Vancouver, Canada, before signing on with Hyatt Hotels & Resorts in 1988. 

Dizard held food and beverage management positions for Hyatts in Dearborn, Mich., and at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport before being named general manager at the Hyatt on Printers Row in Chicago's Downtown Loop in 1994. 

In 1995, he moved to the general manager's post at the Hyatt Regency in Cincinnati and arrived in Pittsburgh in April 2000 to open the Hyatt at Pittsburgh International. His family -- a wife and two children -- will remain in Cincinnati until his younger child finishes high school. 

The biggest challenge of the job, aside from dealing with the impact of Sept. 11 on all aspects of his industry, has been marketing a hotel that sits on airport property. 

"It's totally different than a Downtown hotel," said Dizard. 

While he expects a steady stream of meetings and overnight guests once air travel picks up again, "The social business is very difficult to acquire. Getting people here is the most difficult." 

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(c) 2001, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. HYAT, AEOS, PHA, HLT,