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Minutes - 12/07/2022 - Hotel Convention and Visitors Committee CALL TO ORDER The December 7, 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 Village Manager, Greg Summers. ROLL CALL PRESENT: Residents Iftikharu Abbasy and Tarique Junejo, Adam Henrickson, Hyatt Lodge, Nicole Patterson, Hyatt House, Dick Turner, LeMeridien, Brook Delucca, Residence Inn, Tiffany Moland, Doubletree, Tim Geiges, Oakbrook Center ABSENT: David Carlin, Oak Brook Chamber, Carlos Moctezuma, The Drake; Sherry Peters, Marriott Oak Brook ALSO IN ATTENDANCE: Greg Summers, Village Manager; Connie Reid, Executive Assistant; Michael Manzo, Trustee; Larry Herman, Trustee; Noonie Aguilar, DCVB; Jessica Spencer, AVM; Kevin, Hyatt House; Scott Jonlich, Larry Altsoff and Jim Pehta with Hinsdale Magazine, Trustee Suresh Reddy and Marilyn Fumero, Finance Director via Zoom. PUBLIC COMMENTS No Public Comments Hotel Input – Revised Marketing RFP The order of the meeting is slightly changed while waiting for a quorum. Village Manager Summers begins by addressing the revised RFP that will be going out for advertising and marketing. The plan is to have the RFP go out after the beginning of the year to be due at the end of January. Greg Summers then asks for input on anything that the committee would like added, changed or updated on the RFP and who they would like to see it distributed to. Dick Turner states that his concern that the budget was too low has been addressed in the current version. VM Summers goes into some details regarding the increase in budget. Trustee Manzo shares that he would like to see the chosen firm market all of Oak Brook and not just the hotels, and shares that it is allowable even though the marketing comes from restricted funds. VM Summers then points out that the RFP is requesting the submitting firms provide what type of reporting, on the effectiveness of their campaign, will be and what metrics they would use. VM Summers asks the committee to submit any additional ideas they have for the RFP and if there are any firms that they would like included. APPROVAL OF MINUTES MINUTES OF THE DECEMBER 7, 2022 MEETING OF THE OAK BROOK HOTEL, CONVENTION AND VISITORS COMMITTEE OF THE VILLAGE OF OAK BROOK APPROVED AS WRITTEN ON FEBRUARY 9, 2023 A. August 25, 2022 Meeting Minutes Motion to approve the August 25, 2022 meeting minutes made by Dr. Abbasy seconded by Tim Geigis, no objections. Minutes approved. ACTIVE BUSINESS Election of New Chairperson Village Manager Summers asks for nomination or volunteers for the Chairperson position. Tim Geigis nominates Dick Turner. Mr. Turner voices his willingness to serve. All in favor, no one opposes. Dick Turner takes over and asks the committee for a motion to recommend the RFP to the Village Board. Tim Geigis makes the motion, Iftikharu Abbasy seconds. All in favor, no one opposes. Hotel Input – 2023 Oak Brook Magazine advertising VM Summers passes out the 2023 proposal by Hinsdale Magazine Group and begins by saying that in 2022 $40,000 was paid to Oak Brook Magazine from the hotel/motel fund, for the purpose of marketing the Village. He further explains that not only was there a prominent article about the Village in each issue, it would carry over to their other magazines. They also provided three advertising pages in Oak Brook, Hinsdale and Downers Grove Magazines. He directs the committee to the handout for the 2023options and continues by saying that they have budgeted $40,000. He briefly touches upon the proposals from Oak Brook Magazine starting with their three options and the price points of each. The plan that is comparable to last year’s plan, which is three titles and three pages, is $46,000 and since the budget is only $40,000 the additional $6,000 would come out of the RFP amount. Chairman Turner asks the committee for their opinion. Trustee Manzo would like the amenities to stay where they last year and pay the additional $6,000. The committee recommends that they go with the $46,000 option with the three magazines being Oak Brook, Hinsdale and the new Elmhurst, in a motion made by Tim Geiges, seconded by Dr. Abbasy. All are in favor, no one opposes. DCVB Sponsorship Overview – Beth Marchetti Noonie Aguilar starts her PowerPoint presentation beginning with an update on the DuPage ARPA hotel relief program; they have submitted all of the applications to the county, they are in review and applicants should start seeing checks shortly. There are six Oak Brook hotels that applied who will be receiving funds. Ms. Aguilar then goes through occupancy figures for the hotels comparing them to previous years and to DuPage County in whole. There is a new reporting tool that will provide more in depth data. Conversation arises regarding occupancy trends, comparisons and cutting amenities. Noonie emphasizes that the industry is still in recovery mode. Conversation shifts to staffing and supply chain issues and other causes of cuts to services at hotels and which properties are still struggling. The committee exchange ideas regarding development, and whether Oak Brook is continuing to benefit from patrons being scared to stay in Chicago and come out to the suburbs. Adam Henrickson from the Hyatt Lodge shares that his property has benefitted in the way of weddings, which have gone up immensely, and leisure travel, though business travel has not come back yet. The committee discusses what can be done to increase business and group travel, how their corporate and DCVB can drive business travel through tradeshows, RFPs and grants, and if there is anything the Village can do. They touch upon the hotel tax and sales tax savings and how that can be a huge selling point. Dick Turner further explains that having quality businesses in Oak Brook who bring in consultants and employees definitely helps the hotel industry. Noonie Aguilar goes through the balance of her presentation, highlighting that even though a group stays in a non-Oak Brook hotel they are still spending money in Oak Brook. Continuing she speaks about tradeshow and explains how the CVB attends on behalf of the hotels and provides RFPs to them. She also touches upon the DCVB grant program and how that provides incentives to groups on behalf of the hotels. Going on, she talks about the enticement of DuPage hotels being nonunion, which saves groups a lot of money. Trustee Herman adds that the low tax rate in Oak Brook should be used as a selling tool, it is substantially less than Chicago and surrounding areas and could save groups a significant amount of money. She invites the hotel representatives to join the DCVB at any of the tradeshows. Noonie shares that the Andy Warhol exhibit is coming, June through September at College of DuPage and is expected to bring room nights to the area, they are expecting that this show will be more successful than the Frida show last year. She describes other groups that have stayed in the area and the economic impact they had, expounding upon the role that the DCVB has in bringing them to DuPage, she accentuates the 2026 President’s Cup, which will be held at Madinah Country Club, and the role that they are playing in bringing it to the area. She adds that the women’s bowling tournament, which was a 71 day tournament with over 18,000 room nights, and one of the largest in the world, that the DCVB brought to DuPage County, made a substantial amount of money, they want to come back next year but want a $500,000 bid fee. It would be worth it because it helped the hotels in the area tremendously. Outcome of AVM Spencer’s Meeting with DCVB & Proposed FY23 Budget AVM Spencer starts with a summary of a meeting she had with Beth Marchetti, Noonie Aguilar and Nathan Karsten at the DCVB office. The focus of the meeting was getting data to show how the leads from the DCVB convert into room nights. Which would show the value of being a member of the DCVB. Jessica Spencer continues saying that there are ways for the Village of help the hotels closed the deal on these leads, one of which, is the grant program. Grants can be applied for via the CRM/Simpleview site and can help with money to assist in turning the leads into booked nights. The funds can be used for transportation, food for a large group or other incentives to get a group to book at the hotels. The grant is paid by a 50/50 spilt between the Village and the DCVB. The Village wanted to better understand where that money comes from, how it differs from the dues that the Village pays how it can be budgeted for going forward. AVM Spencer passes out a draft budget for the Hotel Fund. She explains that the revenues include the 3% hotel tax and optimistically will be 1.1 million dollars and a small amount of interest earned from that money. Shifting to the expenditures, she affirms that the Village is dictated under state statute to spend 75% of that 3% on advertising and drawing overnight stays. The remaining 25% can be spent on capital items. Some of the expenses being budget for are the web hosting fees for the Hotels of Oak Brook site and Civic Plus, the promotional material amount is something new that the Village would like explore by purchasing branded materials promoting the hotels. There is a budgeted amount for the DCVB grant program, one of the parameters for grant approval will be that the Village will pay up to 50% of the tax generated by the group. She continues to the next item on the budget which is event participation, explaining that this money would be spent for Village and hotel representatives to attend DCVB sales events so that Oak Brook would have a presence. Conversation ensues regarding the budget numbers and the ability for the committee to recommend budget transfers if needed. The Taste of Oak Brook budget line item is discussed. Noonie asks if “event participation” would include tradeshows; if a hotel representative was interested in attending a tradeshow with the DCVB. Discussion continues regarding the uses for the “event participation” dollars, if the hotels would take advantage of the opportunity to use it and if the amount in the budget should be increased. It is agreed that the Village would increase the “event participation” line item to $5,000 taking the money out of the reserve line. It would be used for 50% of the trade show registration fee. A motion is made to recommend the revised budget to the Board is made by Dr. Abbasy and seconded by Tim Geigis, all in favor, not one opposes. Dick Turner asks about a $3.4 million transfer out of the Hotel Fund in 2021 and what it was for. VM Summers replies that it was transferred out into the infrastructure fund to pay for capital improvements, it was back billing from IDOT for a project on Jorie Blvd and at the corner of Jorie and 31st. Mr. Turner asks for financial information be shared at each of the Hotel Committee meetings. ADJOURNMENT Motion to adjourn made by Iftikharu Abbasy seconded by Tim Geigis no objections. Meeting adjourned at 11:30am. ATTEST: __________________________________ ________________________________ Connie Reid Date: Executive Assistant Village of Oak Brook