• Disneyland Hotel: No. 1 with 136,000 square feet of meeting space
• Meeting space in Orange County is in a holding pattern.

That brings the total of indoor meeting space at the county�s largest hotels to 1.15 million square feet, according to this week�s Business Journal list. The list ranks hotels based on the square footage of their permanent, indoor meeting space.

The small increase reflects the reluctance of hotel developers to move ahead with building plans amid a crowded field and modest economic recovery. No new hotels have opened in OC in the past year with large enough facilities to qualify for the list.

Only one such hotel�the Doubletree Guest Suites in Anaheim�is under construction and expected to open in 2005.

The small gain in space also reflects an industry trend toward smaller meetings and more educational sessions that demand classroom space, but not always large ballrooms.

Still, the amount of space needed to make the list this year rose to 5,412 square feet from 5,061 a year earlier. That�s double the amount of space that earned a spot on the list in the mid-1990s.

Renovations accounted for the only changes in the amount of meeting space at the largest 10 meetings hotels.

Disneyland Hotel, which completed a renovation of its exhibit hall and ballroom last fall, retained its long-standing grip on the No. 1 spot on the list with 136,000 square feet. (Last year, during the renovation, the hotel reported 133,359 square feet�still enough for the top spot.)

Group business for Disneyland Hotel remains strong for 2005, according to Robert Donahue, director of sales for Walt Disney Co.�s three Anaheim hotels.

�Group trends are positive for all three hotels compared to last year, which also was a good year,� Donahue said. �The corporate market is strong and we�re pleased with that.�

Donahue said the resort is continuing to seek meetings business, despite an expected influx of tourists for Disneyland�s 50th anniversary, a yearlong event that officially launches in May.

The Hilton Anaheim�the largest hotel in the county by rooms�retained its No. 2 ranking with 94,695 square feet of meeting space.

There only were two changes in position among the 10 largest hotels on the list.

The Hyatt Regency Irvine, which boosted its space to 36,000 square feet from 32,000 a year ago, moved up to the No. 7 spot, dropping the Four Seasons Newport Beach to No. 8.

Big Jump for Paradise Pier

Disney�s Paradise Pier Hotel, which completed a makeover last summer, jumped eight spots to No. 10 by adding roughly 10,000 square feet of meeting space and boosting its number of meeting rooms to 15.

In all, the largest 10 meetings hotels now account for 576,759 square feet�roughly half�of the space among the 50 hotels on the list.

Nine hotels increased their space in the past year.

The biggest gain was at Paradise Pier, which increased its space by 48%. The second biggest jump was at the Westin South Coast Plaza, which moved up a notch to No. 14 by increasing its space 15% to 24,000 square feet, also due to a renovation.

Other hotels adding space were the No. 13 Hilton Irvine/Orange County Airport and No. 17 Doubletree Hotel Anaheim/Orange County, up 3% each; No. 29 Holiday Inn Buena Park, up 12%; No. 47 Aliso Creek Inn at Laguna Beach (owned by Montage Resort & Spa), up 4% and No. 50 Holiday Inn Santa Ana, up 7%.

One hotel, No. 37 Anaheim Marriott Suites, saw a slight drop in space.

For the most part, the changes were minimal and reflected a trend of converting suites to meeting space or vice versa as market conditions change. As the economy has showed signs of strengthening, so have group bookings, according to hoteliers contacted for this story.

�The first half of 2005 is very strong, but the second half looks weak right now,� said Edd Karlan, director of sales at the Hilton Anaheim.

The same was true for other area hoteliers, including No. 3 Hyatt Regency Orange County, No. 4 Anaheim Marriott and No. 21 Coast Anaheim Hotel.

Anaheim Market Share Leader

Market share within OC remained the same as in 2003. Anaheim leads the county in space, with 407,812 square feet, or 35% of the total space on the list.

Newport Beach ranks second with 12% of the total, at 134,822 square feet. Garden Grove is third with 10% followed by Irvine with 9%, Costa Mesa with 8%, Huntington Beach with 6% and Dana Point with 5%.

Some softness in convention attendance in the first half of 2004 put a dent in the spillover of so-called citywide conventions that in past years had filled rooms in Orange, Garden Grove and Costa Mesa when large conventions came to Anaheim.

But convention attendance was trending upward in the latter part of the year and 2005 bookings are promising, hoteliers said.

Tim Price, director of marketing at the Anaheim Marriott, said one of the biggest differences between 2003 and 2004 was that convention attendance was stronger and on target with projections.

�In 2003, attendance was 6% below our projections; last year it was 0.6% down,� he said.

Price said the upward trend appears to be continuing this year, except for the fourth quarter.

At No. 11 Crowne Plaza Anaheim Resort, director of sales Dan Fitzgerald said the demand for group business is strong.

�Group business is higher than before Sept. 11,� he said.

PKF Consulting projects overall OC hotel occupancy will increase by 2.9% in 2005, reaching 71.9%. Room rates are expected to grow 3.8% to $104.80.

Sandi Cain is a freelance writer and contributor to the Orange County Business Journal and meetings industry publications. She specializes in hospitality, tourism and travel. 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 hasbeen a resident of Laguna Beach since the late �70s. She enjoys travel, gardening, reading and spoiling her three cats.