Dive Brief:
- Hospitality technology provider Cvent named the nearly 600-key Grand Hyatt Nashville, featuring 77,000 square feet of events space, as the top meetings hotel in North America, leading 250 ranked properties.
- Cvent also named Orlando, Florida, as the top meetings destination in North America out of 50 markets. Las Vegas, Nashville, Dallas and San Diego followed in the top five.
- Several of the leading destinations have seen an uptick in meetings and events in recent months, including Nashville and Las Vegas in April, according to hospitality and technology provider Knowland. The markets have also seen increased hotel development, including for convention hotels.
Dive Insight:
Four of the top five meetings hotels in North America are in Nashville, according to Cvent. In addition to the Grand Hyatt Nashville, the tech provider named Omni Nashville Hotel, JW Marriott Nashville and Renaissance Nashville Hotel as leaders in the category. JW Marriott Austin, located in the Texas capital city, also made the top five list.
Cvent ranked the hotels based on criteria generated from using Cvent Supplier Network between January 2023 and December 2023, including total requests for proposals, awarded requests for proposals, total room nights, awarded room nights, major metropolitan area market share, conversion rate and response rate.
Cvent used similar ranking criteria to identify the top meetings destinations, selecting from more than 12,500 cities worldwide.
Leading North American destinations Orlando and San Diego led other U.S. markets for meetings and events growth in December, Knowland found.
“Planners love meeting in Orlando as our destination has the space, venues, accommodations, dining, entertainment and services needed to create memorable and productive events,” Visit Orlando President and CEO Casandra Matej said in a statement following Cvent’s ranking.
Other top five destinations Nashville and Las Vegas similarly led meetings and events growth, up approximately 38% and 23% year over year, respectively, in April, according to a Knowland report obtained by Hotel Dive. And earlier this year, Knowland found that Las Vegas led all other U.S. markets in group business recovery in the fourth quarter of 2023.
As for Dallas, local hospitality experts told Hotel Dive in November that the market is similarly experiencing meetings and events recovery, driving hotel development. For the last several quarters, Dallas has led other domestic markets for the largest hotel construction pipeline, according to Lodging Econometrics.
Major projects happening in the metro area include convention hotels like the $550 million Loews Arlington Hotel and Convention Center.
Nashville has seen increased hotel development as well, with Hilton, Choice Hotels International and other operators expanding in the market.
