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Minutes - 05/19/2022 - Hotel Convention and Visitors Committee CALL TO ORDER The May 19, 2022 meeting of the Hotel, Convention and Visitors Committee was called to order in the Upper Level Conference Room of the Butler Government Center at 10:05am by Committee Chairperson Lee Hoener. ROLL CALL PRESENT: Robert Brand, Hyatt Lodge; Lee Hoener, The Drake; Dick Turner, LeMeridien; Nathan Karsten, Marriott and Doubletree; Nicole Patterson, Hyatt House; Brook Deluca, Residence Inn and Residents Tarique Junejo and Ifttikharu Abbasy ABSENT: Tim Geiges, Oakbrook Center; Brian Gilmore, Doubletree; David Carlin, Oak Brook Chamber; Cynthia Ivey, Residence Inn ALSO IN ATTENDANCE: Greg Summers, Village Manager; Connie Reid, Executive Assistant; Marilyn Fumero, Finance Director; Michael Manzo, Trustee(Zoom); Beth Marchetti, Director DCVB; Scott Johnlich and Larry Altoff from Oak Brook Magazine. PUBLIC COMMENTS There were no public comments ACTIVE BUSINESS DCVB Update Lee Hoener begins by asking Beth Marchetti if she would like to do her presentation. To which Beth answers that she would rather not because of her competition being in the room. She then gives a little update stating that USBC in Addison which is booking hotels all over the County, and thus far, have booked 6,500 trackable hotel rooms. There are 13,000 people coming through July 2 nd, she then shares that the DCVB paid over $200,000 in hosting fees, continuing she says that national and international organizations look to a Convention and Visitors Bureau when shopping locations for larger events. The Bureau assists with volunteers and marketing. Switching gears Ms. Marchetti speaks of the slower recovery of area tourism, and that she testified before the Congress and Senate in Springfield on behalf of the hotel and hospitality industry to get American Rescue Plan money. Beth shares that Igor has over 77,000 possible hotel room nights in process for sporting events that he has brought to the area, which is needed because corporate is not bouncing back as quickly. She touches upon the importance of Chicago recovering to benefit the entire state. Dick Turner asks a question to Beth Marchetti regarding Oak Brook specific data, she answers again by saying that she is uncomfortable speaking about the marketing plan in front of her competitors. The Committee was unaware that Oak Brook Magazine would be represented at the meeting. Scot Jonlich states that they are just at the meeting to listen, and Village Manager Summers confirms that Hotel meetings are open meetings and the public is welcome but can only speak during public comments. Beth passes out her a document which she presented at a Village Board meeting. She speaks of the inability of MINUTES OF THE MAY 19, 2022 MEETING OF THE OAK BROOK HOTEL, CONVENTION AND VISITORS COMMITTEE OF THE VILLAGE OF OAK BROOK UNOFFICIAL UNTIL APPROVED AS WRITTEN OR AMENDED ON AUGUST 25, 2022 the Bureau to work on grant opportunities for the Oak Brook hotels because the first and second quarter dues have not been paid. She touches upon the grant matching program from the state, the three Olympic Lacrosse programs coming in 2023, which will directly impact Oak Brook hotels, she goes over the benefits the DCVB offers to its members, including following leads, going to trade shows, paying hosting fees, site visits, familiarization trips, they have membership in approximately 25 different professional associations, she provides the weekly STR reports to the hotels and the DuPage forecast. She continues by saying that they have the ability to bid on larger scale events, stating that the USA Swimming event that the Bureau stole from Des Moines brought 403 hotel rooms to Oak Brook, because it was a last minute booking they weren’t charged a hosting fee, but next year when they want to come back there will be a $25,000 fee that the Bureau pays on behalf of its members. They are concentrating on getting more of these high level national and international sporting events which will all have hosting fees. Beth also speaks of the gift card program that the DCVB provided to the Oak Brook hotels that they were able to provide using CARES dollars. The DCVB also writes letters of support for organizations requesting grants from the state, a grant application will not be accepted for tourism dollars without a letter of support from their certified convention bureau. She touches upon the grant support letters she has written for the Park District, the booking tracking tools the DCVB utilizes and the marketing and promoting tools they have. She then begins a screen presentation starting with the municipalities that have recently joined the DCVB, including Lisle and Downers Grove. Continuing she shows the extra money that counties are receiving in ARPA money that goes through the CVBs. She shows the impact of grant money on the individual Oak Brook hotels. She goes through the bookings for Oak Brook hotels that the DCVB has directly brought. Dick Turner comments that the purpose of a CVB is to bring business into the area, and captures demand coming into the market, if they bring business to Lombard, Elmhurst or Oakbrook Terrace it’s lifting the tide in the whole market and is pushing business to Oak Brook, because the original market gets to capacity and Oak Brook being a small market benefits from that. Trustee Manzo retorts by saying that Oak Brook isn’t a small market, and asks Beth about business that is touched by many hands and who gets credit for that. He wants to know what rooms that are booked have been solely touched by DCVB. Beth Marchetti responds saying, that they recently went to a trade show and came back with 5 RFPs. She continues by saying that in the DCVB database she documents where they met that client, showing that they initiated the lead, and the hotel sales staff takes over, she is in charge of bringing the hotels opportunities. Dick Turner concurs saying that it is DCVB’s job to bring the lead, the hotels responsibility to close the deal and then DCVB to provide grants or other services to help the hotel get that business. Brook Deluca concurs saying that the CVB brings larger events that utilize multiple hotels, she would not get the business on her own because she would not have the capacity to house the entire event. Beth further explains that for sporting events like Cyclecross, LeMeridien and The Drake may not want that business but when the other hotels are full from the sporting event it causes the other business to find new accommodations. Trustee Manzo makes it very clear that the Board will make the decision whether to stay with DCVB, the hotel committee can make a recommendation but it will be up to the Board. Dick Turner asks Trustee Manzo for clarification, asking whether the Village is going to be the hotels’ booking engine, attend trade shows on their behalf, and be their lead agent and with what funds would they do that? Trustee Manzo answers that the Board will make that decision and they will not be intimidated or bullied into making any decision. He then speaks of the problems with Point B and what a waste of money they were. Conversation ensues regarding Point B and the level of service given to the hotels by them while using a very restricted budget. Nathan Karsten makes a point of saying that the DCVB and Point B are two very separate and independent entities. Beth Marchetti goes back to her presentation showing that despite the severely restricted budget the DCVB was able to make a substantial impact on booked room nights. She continues by sharing the events that they are currently working on and shares the data regarding the leads and event geo-fencing. Lee Hoener asks if all of this work is done using the funds that are released by Village, which Beth confirms. Beth then quickly goes through their social media posts and ends the slide show. Lee Hoener says that he is impressed with the presentation and continues by saying that he would like to go out to RFP for the marketing and would like to receive multiple offers. He continues by saying that business is quickly coming back and that the RFP should be using a budget bigger than the original $164,000, which might attract more companies. Conversation ensues regarding the RFP, the qualifications that need to be met, and the need to reach out to different companies other than the ones that were included on the original RFP. And that the new firm should be marketing to all of Oak Brook. VM Summers clarifies that any marketing funds spent from the Hotel Tax fund needs to directly advertise hotel stays. Village Manger Summers goes through some invoices that are due to Point B, asking for permission to pay them. They are bills that came in for January before they were notified of the Village’s desire to stop using them. Since the contract had expired, it was just understood that they would continue. There is a consensus from the committee to pay the January invoices and not the February. Conversation continues regarding website hosting that Point B continues to do on behalf of the Village. There is a consensus to keep the website operational. Consideration of Marketing RFP Chairman Hoener opens up questioning to the Oak Brook Magazine people. It is agreed that the committee would like to see additional RFPs and there were no questions to OB Magazine. Conversation ensues regarding what they would like to see in the RFP, updating the budget on it, and some suggestions on who they should send it to. Dick Turner makes a motion to reissue the RFP and add additional qualified vendors to the distribution list, that it be based on historical budget amounts and that the marketing is for all of Oak Brook and not just the hotels. The committee unanimously agrees. It is stated that at the last meeting they voted to stay in the DCVB so they did not need to vote again. ADJOURNMENT Motion to adjourn made by Lee Hoener seconded by Dick Turner, no objections. Meeting adjourned at 11:10pm. ATTEST: __________________________________ ________________________________ Connie Reid Date: Executive Assistant Village of Oak Brook