By Sandi Cain
Staff Reporter
Orange County Business Journal

January 22, 2001 - Available meeting space at Orange County�s largest hotels increased 1% in the past year to 948,066 square feet at the 50 hotels on this year�s list, but the amount of space needed to break into the largest 50 locations increased as new hotels with big meeting and banquet areas debuted. These hotels helped boost space 6% from the total on last year�s list. 

Anaheim continues to dominate the county�s meetings market, with 410,531 square feet of space and 13 hotels on the list, including three of the largest 10.  Irvine has the second-most hotels on the list at six; Newport Beach and Costa Mesa have five each; while Fullerton holds four spots.  Disneyland Hotel, with 136,000 square feet of meeting space, continues to reign as No. 1 on the list, a position the hotel has held since the list�s inception more than 10 years ago. That space alone accounts for about a quarter of Anaheim�s square footage and 19% of the list total. When combined with other meeting space at the Disneyland Resort (23,000 square feet at the Paradise Pier-formerly the Disney Pacific Hotel-and 20,000 square feet at the new Grand Californian), the Walt Disney Co. controls 44% of the city�s largest hotel meeting space.

Besides Disneyland, other Anaheim hotels among the top 10 on the list are the Hilton Anaheim at No. 2 with 94,695 square feet and the Anaheim Marriott at No. 3 with 54,959 square feet. Both the Hilton and the Marriott are adjacent to the recently expanded Anaheim Convention Center. Disney�s Paradise Pier Hotel, No. 9 last year, dropped to No. 11 with the debut of the new Crowne Plaza Resort in Garden Grove, which has 27,457 square feet of meeting and ballroom space.  Newport Beach continues to have the second-most space on the list, with 105,694 square feet, or 11% of the list total, while Irvine, with 88,730 square feet, and Costa Mesa, with 87,360 square feet, each have 9%. The opening of the Crowne Plaza Resort in Garden Grove bumped that city up to the No. 4 spot with 57,457 square feet, all at No. 7 Crowne Plaza and neighboring Hyatt Regency Alicante, No. 5 on the list. The Alicante is undergoing renovations that will add 25,000 square feet, which would move the hotel up to No. 3 in the county and bring Garden Grove closer in total space to Irvine and Costa Mesa.

With these two Garden Grove hotels just a mile from Disneyland, Anaheim and Garden Grove together account for 49% of the space on the list.  Rounding out the top 10 for hotel meeting space are Newport Beach landmarks No. 6 Four Seasons Hotel and No. 10 Newport Beach Marriott Hotel and Tennis Club; Irvine�s No. 8 Hyatt Regency and No. 9 Irvine Marriott; and the Hilton Costa Mesa (formerly Doubletree Hotel) at No. 4.  The largest 10 hotels collectively account for 52% of the total space, down a percentage point from a year ago, though space among this year�s top 10 has increased by about 18,000 square feet. The bulk of that increase is due to the Four Seasons Newport Beach takeover of the former Twin Palms restaurant, now remodeled and called the Palm Garden, which added about 10,000 square feet of availability at that hotel.
The only other change among the largest 10 hotels comes at the Hyatt Regency Alicante, which lost a small amount of space to renovation.  No. 32 Holiday Inn Costa Mesa was the one other hotel on the list that added meeting space in the past year, as part of a $7 million renovation that involved a redesign of the ballrooms as well as new lighting, partitions and the addition of high-speed wiring, according to Michael McGlone, COO of Hanford Hotels, the Holiday Inn�s owner.

But while most of the hotels aren�t building additional wings, that doesn�t mean they�re sitting still, either.

Eight of the hotels on the list increased their space flexibility by adding partitions or reconfiguring rooms to allow for more small meetings or breakout sessions, while a handful combined smaller rooms to enable them to book bigger events. Other hotels-intent on increasing their share of the expected increase in meeting and convention business throughout OC-have undertaken remodels or upgrades that don�t affect total space, but can help the sales staff book group business.

Mark Zovic, general manager of the Radisson Newport Beach, said his hotel staff converted a private dining room and a guest room to additional meeting space and is looking at creating additional temporary space on the tennis courts.

Another hotel banking on some outdoor space to bolster its total is No. 15 Hyatt Newporter. There, a 15,000-square-foot pavilion has been erected on the parking lot to accommodate large receptions or meetings for six months out of the year. The hotel is also undertaking room and meeting space renovations, including installation of high-speed wiring.  Meanwhile, the Laguna Cliffs Marriott in Dana Point will begin a remodel of its ballroom and meeting rooms this summer. And 36 of the hotels on this year�s list now have some form of high-speed access to online services.  While that type of service isn�t as visible as new paint or carpeting, it�s a feature that plays an increasingly important part in attracting group business.

Three hotels are new to the list this year. Besides the Crowne Plaza, Disney �s Grand Californian makes its debut at No. 18 with 20,000 square feet of meeting space, and the Doubletree Hotel Irvine Spectrum, which opened last year, debuts at No. 47 with 4,227 square feet.

The newcomers raised the bar for the amount of space needed to make the list, too. Just missing the cut was last year�s No. 48 Embassy Suites Hotel Irvine with 3,650 square feet. Also bumped from the list were Holiday Inn-Anaheim, No. 49 last year with 3,370 square feet, and the Doubletree Guest Suites in Dana Point, No. 50 a year ago with 3,209 square feet. As recently as 1994, the Holiday Inn Huntington Beach-which has only 2,400 square feet of space-was No. 50 on the list.

Despite the overall growth in space, however, South County cities still lag far behind the airport area and Anaheim in hotel meeting facilities.  Laguna Beach has 14,808 square feet in two hotels: No. 30 Surf and Sand and No. 40, the Aliso Creek Inn. Dana Point has 36,093 square feet at No. 21 Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort and the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel. And No. 33 Holiday Inn Laguna Hills-also slated for a makeover�has 7,650 square feet.  Together, that�s only 6% of the county�s total. And even factoring in the Doubletree Irvine Spectrum, which accounts for 4,227 square feet of Irvine�s space, bumps the total just another half a percentage point. (The Doubletree Guest Suites in Dana Point dropped off the list this year, but adds 3,209 square feet to the South County mix.)
 

Sandi Cain is copy editor and a staff reporter covering hospitality, tourism, travel and sports. Cain holds bachelor�s and master�s degrees in education from Kent State University in Ohio, where she majored in social studies. A former high school teacher, she has written for niche-market sports publications in the U.S., England and Australia and formerly worked in both the printing and high-tech industries. A Cleveland, Ohio native, Cain has been a resident of Laguna Beach since the late �70s. She enjoys travel, gardening, reading and spoiling her three cats.